After touring a part of the world that was, for the most part, completely alien to us, we finally return to a bit of the familiar. Our first stop was the Northern European city of Amsterdam. It was my second time in the city, the first being about 15 years ago, but it was Melissa’s introductory visit. For the second time on our trip we would have travel companions. This time, my parents would be along for the ride, it also being their first time in Northern Europe (my mom was in Italy a loooong time ago).
The two of us arrived the night before my parents (who were getting in on a red-eye from Philly) so that the Airbnb would be settled and they could relax in the morning. Unfortunately, these plans didn't work out so well. For the first time on our trip, we had a pretty terrible Airbnb experience. So bad that we cancelled the remaining nights and moved to another place.
We arrived to find the apartment in a fairly, uh, let's say, unclean condition. Among other things, the windows were filthy, there was thick dust on many of the surfaces, cigarette butts on the balcony, and for some reason, there were smashed bugs on a bunch of the walls. That, in and of itself, wasn't so bad. Not “cancel this place!” bad. The fact that there was about an inch-thick coating of black mold in the shower was the main issue. We could smell it the moment we walked in. This was not the ideal situation in which to introduce my parents to both Europe and Airbnb. Melissa and I went to work scrubbing the place down. We spent a good two or three hours cleaning and thought maybe we could live with the mold. We were wrong. We both woke up early the next day with sore throats and stuffy noses.
Melissa was immediately on top of finding a new place and we logged a complaint with Airbnb. We were in the middle of this process when my parents arrived. We explained the situation to them and settled down to await a reply from Airbnb.
Those are my parents! It was easy to find my mom in that red coat and blue scarf.
While waiting, a funny thing happened. Several officials pulled up to the front of the building. They saw me watching them from the window and asked me to let them in. I obliged and led them up to our apartment. Turns out, they were from the city housing authority and were doing a “random” check on the unit. This was odd but they seemed legit. And they were not happy about the condition of the rental. They took some pictures of the place and made some notes. We said we were probably leaving and they said, “we hope you get a refund.” Throughout this entire exchange, my mom lay on her bed, half dozing. It felt like I was in a scene from a Cohen Bros movie.
Though my parents didn't exactly get a restful arrival as planned, in the end it all worked out OK. We got a refund that day and moved into a much better space in a vastly superior location. To their credit, the people who rented to us were pretty chill about us leaving. Probably because they knew about the mold situation the whole time and just never told us. We also got to see how the trash removal works in Amsterdam before we left that place, which was pretty cool.
Time to explore the city! As per our usual method, we pick a place to go and meander around the city until we get there. I'm not sure this method of wandering sits too well with my dad, but he eventually fell into pace with it. He was really interested in the architecture of the city and wandering is a good way to see things. Many of the buildings there, by design, lean forward over the streets and some are crooked. And I mean, “is that building blindingly drunk?” crooked. It's pretty neat but a bit disconcerting because all the lines of the streets are at slightly different angles and it feels as if they might topple forward at any moment. As is usual in my family, we argued over why that was the case for at least a full day before we looked up the actual reasons. For the most part, our guesses were correct.
It looks like someone just grabbed the top of this building and twisted it. It's all from settling on poor foundations though.
Hooks attached to the tops of buildings allow the owners to haul furniture up to the top floors. Some lean forward so the furniture doesn't smash into the front of the house.
Not a straight line in those buildings. I'm not sure how they all haven't fallen over yet.
The pace and unstructured nature of the traffic caught us all a bit by surprise. You really have to have your head on a swivel to keep from being run over by speeding cyclists on their granny tank bikes. Before we arrived, my mom was excited to rent bikes and ride around. After the first few hours walking around, we decided nobody wanted to die in Amsterdam. No renting for us.
There are a lot of bikes in Amsterdam. I'm not sure how you ever find your bike in this mess.
Seriously, like several metric crap tons of them. That structure in the center background is a multi-storey bike parking area packed to the top with bikes.
We only hit a few of the big attractions in Amsterdam. Of course, the Van Gogh Museum was one. We had timed tickets for the morning but had to get out to meet my mom’s cousin for a late lunch, so we only had a few hours. This may sound like a lot of time but, for us, it isn't. Melissa and I really take our time through museums. So, we immediately split off from my parents and did our own thing. As MJ and I took time to view each piece and read info at length, in the words of my mom about their visit, “we saw a couple things.” I think they were through the main exhibit and the secondary exhibit and waiting for us for ten minutes before we were done with just the main exhibit. To each their own I guess.
The museum was a bit different from when I was there but it was still super crowded even on a weekday afternoon with timed tickets. It's always great to see Van Gogh’s work in person though.
The museum was one of the few things that was noticeably different from the last time I was here. The other side used to be an open air fountain and now it is a closed-in lobby entrance.
We had a nice meal with Beth and Brian, Beth being my mom’s cousin whom she had not seen in over a decade. They were very interesting and nice people, and world travelers as well, so it would have been nice to spend more time with them but, alas, it was not to be. At least we all had a good laugh about our servers utter lack of ability to do her job.
Beth and Brian suggested we take the free, 5 minute ferry across to Noord. The area is undergoing somewhat of a renaissance. Melissa suggested we find a place called Cafe de Ceuvel, which was a good walk from the ferry. My mom started to freak out a bit because she thought we were wandering through the hood and was sure we were going to get knifed but all was fine and the place turned out to be really interesting. It's a collection of artists/entrepreneurs workspaces on reclaimed land. There was also a dog that kept dropping its ball in the water, forcing the owner to fetch it for him. On the way back, I rode on a virtual reality bicycle.
Renewed acquaintances. Thanks for hanging out with us and taking us to a place with good beer, Beth and Brian!
De Ceuvel explained! It was a very interesting place. And there was a rope swing!
The next afternoon we visited the National Maritime Museum or, in the impossible Dutch language, Het Scheepvaartmuseum. It had been heavily renovated just a few years ago so it had some really novel interactions and exhibits. One large display case was filled with model boats and you could move a touchscreen along an xy axis to view more information about each one. It was neat-o! We all particularly enjoyed the incredibly detailed, 400-year old Dutch maritime paintings and the full size replica ship complete with a barrel filled with cheese stink and faux firing cannons. We also explored an art-deco hotel on the way to the museum and stole a few pics there.
We explored the whole ship, reaffirming my opinion that I would never have wanted to sail on one back in the day.
It is a very beautiful ship though. But, yeah, still no.
Melissa and I set a hard pace sometimes so when it came to sitting in a canal boat tour for an hour later that day, both my parents took turns napping. They were awake for the majority of it though and my mom was a really big fan of all the bridges and canals. I'm sure we argued about something during the boat ride but I'm not exactly sure what. Probably the price of the houses directly on the canals.
The food we had during our time there was mostly forgettable but one morning we did have some really great Dutch pancakes. We also enjoyed a few local brews as well. The Brewboy’s Hophead Heaven Double IPA was particularly tasty.
Amsterdam felt mostly unchanged even though it had been 15 years since my last visit. There were a lot more people but that was the biggest difference to me. It was a short time there, and my parents were fighting their jet lag a bit, but they were troopers and we saw a good amount of the city. The unfortunate Airbnb experience was well forgotten by the time we were ready to pack up and head to our next destination - the beautiful city of Paris.
My mom kept talking about a hair style I should get, not so subtly hinting that she did not like my current cut. It was the hack job related in the Tokyo post.
Lookin' good here. I think they really enjoyed Amsterdam. They said they did anyway.