Living large in Amsterdam

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Bikes bikes everywhere. Perhaps this is the reason why the Dutch are so slim, and we in North America…are so not. Bicycles seem to outnumber the cars on the roads. Why not? Holland is a flat country rendering it ideal for biking, and the Dutch sure take full advantage of this fact in their infrastructure planning. There are designated “bike-only” along every street, and many streets in the city center are only accessible by bike or foot. Boys, girls, jeans, mini-skirts, pregnant mothers, grandfathers, and families - they all rode their bikes!

That morning I visited the Van Gogh Museum; the other, larger and more comprehensive, museum was called the Rijksmuseum and housed famous works by Vermeer and Rembrandt. I could only see one however so I choose the former. At first, Van Gogh’s brush strokes seem rather coarse and childlike - perhaps this is what allowed him to produce such a voluminous collection in his 10 year painting career - but its effect was sometimes highly effective. It is like your imagination automatically smoothens out any irregularities, causing shades and colors - which I gathered to be Van Gogh’s forte - to become pre-eminent, as in real life.

Afterwards I met up with Beau and his friend Peter (who was Dutch) who had arrived in Amsterdam today. We went together to the Heineken brewery for a beer tour. Peter used to work there so he managed to have the entry fee waived. As well, instead of the usual allotted 3 beer, we had full access to the taps and so consumed many times that amount! There is something invigorating about drinking beer in the middle of a beautiful sunny day, and so when we left the tour we were all in the best of moods. Later that afternoon we picked up BBQ supplies and had a brilliant evening barbequing, drinking, and simply enjoying life on top of Peter’s brother’s rooftop apartment. That evening wore on into night, and we went to a great local “Café Bruin”; this is the name of the quintessential Dutch pub, which supposedly is named because of the smoky interior and blackened walls, but I thought it may have something to do with the darkly stained wood used as interior finishing.

This was another late night, and was probably due to the fact that we were all going our separate ways the next day. After the usual drunken adventures, I finally got to sleep around 8 in the morning.

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Photos

Darts
Around 5 in the morning in a Cafe Bruin, we amused ourselves with a game of darts. Left to right: Me, Beau, Peter, and Frank.