The Longest Day, I'm OK

Today has been so long. In my time, I was in transit from 7:30am to 10:30pm. When I arrived it became 7:30am again and I had to stay awake till 3:00pm because that was when we had to check into the hotel. I took a nap and now it is 10:42 pm and I can sleep.

I have taken extensive notes thus far of what I have done. Here are some highlights.

I got the new David Sedaris book at SeaTac. Another collection of brilliant essays. I had some fish and chips at the airport before I left. The shuttle had to take the scenic route due to a jack knifed semi on I5. I still got there early. Got my ticket in a few minutes, checked my bag, went through the port, got to the gate, got my seat, relaxed. The flight wasn't full and no one was seated next to me so I could spread out a little. I had the pasta option for dinner. Watched Phone Booth, The Avengers, and Bullitt. Took a nap. Read some of Sedaris. Before I knew it we were landing! The sun followed us the whole way. This is the first night I have had in like twenty hours. But I think my body will adjust nicely now with little jet lag.

Accidentally went to the wrong baggage claim. Here they have a sanitizing spray you put on a tissue and wipe the toilet seat with, instead of a toilet seat protector. When I got to the right baggage claim my bag was just coming out. Picked it up, went through claims, and there was dad! I got through the passport guy really quick to. He let me crouch under the barrier and go into the other line. He had a faux hawk and was really nice. The airport smells like...something that I smelled in Japan. Not bad. Familiar.

We changed my money (most of which is gone because the hotel is cash only).

The airport has a rad meeting place. It is a huge red and white checkered seating structure and it has a screen of "meet me" texts. We picked up our train tickets and there was one waiting when we got downstairs. Nice, double decker, and quiet. We transferred to the smaller train with little difficulty. Everything is nicely numbered. It creaks and struggles along. It isn't as smooth as the Portland streetcar.

We dropped the stuff off at the Abba Hotel. Our room wasn't ready yet. We grabbed breakfast (which was my fifth consumed meal thus far). The stairs in the hotel are some of the steepest i have ever seen. They barely fit my foot and are almost as tall as they are wide. They are steep and spiral upwards. Not for a non nimble person. Not at all.

Amsterdam has as many people on bikes as people in cars. They have a nice separated lane. Every street has 10 bikes parked on it at a minimum. Most have about twenty to thirty. The bike lots seem completely full. People just lock up the tires it seems and don't lock it to anything. Lovely big clunky bikes. None of the slim fixies that are present in Portland. Also I only saw one person in bike gear, the rest are just in street clothes. Some guys ride in suits, girls in nice dresses. I saw one man with a huge bushel of plants on a shoulder. It must have been three, four feet long. He had bags draped over his other hand and was in a nice suit with good shoes. He just rode off from the store as casual and balanced as could be.

We took a canal boat tour to see the sites and to relax. The bridges are so low. Inches of clearance with the tour boats. The houses are amazing. They are kept really nice on the outside. Probably really modern and maintained inside. The tour said that they used to use the canal water to brew beer. Then the water got overly polluted. We past by Anne Frank's house. One of the house boats we passed had a cat flap. Water cat? The sculpture on the Maritime Museum looks like Sean Connery.

Dad and I went to the Hard Rock cafe to get some sweets. They had an original cell from Pink Floyd the Wall and a mask from the movie as well. We had milk shakes. Our waiter was from Oregon and sang along with the music playing in the cafe. Dad got himsel a pin and a tee shirt. The cafe had the super effective hand driers, like they ones they have in Japan. It blows the air down and off instead of warming it.

In wandering around the Museumplein, we came across a book store that looked like it had beautiful art books within. And it DID! So many and a great selection. I did a little loop of the place and found a book about digital illustration. It was a "speciale prijs" and in English, plus the info looked worthwhile, so I bought it. Have to remember the store; Boekhandel Robert Premselz.

We walked around the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum. At about 2:00pm we headed back to the hotel. We stopped and got some ice cream and watched people go past. We got into our room which is three flights up. We went to the store below Abba Hotel and got some snacks. Cheese, meat, bread, Kinder surprises, candy, chocolate, yogurty milk, Dubbel Frisss, etc. Dad ate some food and I went to sleep. Woke up at around 8:40 and we went out to see the city as the sun went down. I had a sandwich and we listened to a band play one song before the coppers shut them down. Walked about in a loop circle, got a little side tracked but we found our way back to the hotel all right.

There was a man playing with fire in a nearby plaza. He juggled it, made jokes, ate an apple while juggling the apple with fire and a machete. He had half his head shaved and had a sort of outfit. His voice was strained as he exclaimed his jokes. We gave him some change and went on our way.

Now I sleep. Tomorrow we hit up some museums.