Maps courtesy of www.theodora.com/maps (with permission).

Flight to Amsterdam, Wednesday, November 3 to Friday, November 5

Lyn dropped me off at the airport and they wouldn't accept my wheeled luggage as a carry-on. It's been accepted by most airlines, but, of course, they all have their own rules. Then, I had to take off my shoes. On the Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt, I met Martin and Christian, two really nice guys from Poland who had worked and traveled around America for a few months. Both of them said that one of their greatest experiences was the Castro Street Halloween celebration in San Francisco. Quite a coincidence since that is one of my favorite photo events. After the flight Martin e-mailed me that he was going to Australia.

An Amsterdam cafe. I hear you can get and smoke marijuana in these cafes.

On arrival in Frankfurt on Thursday morning, I walked over to the gate to wait a couple hours for the connecting flight to Amsterdam. While waiting I met Jason, who it turned out was on the same two flights as me. After talking for quite awhile, Jason mentioned that it was getting late. I stood up and turned around and looked over at the counter and was horrified to see the destination sign that had been put up wasn't for Amsterdam. I walked over to the counter and found out that the gate had been changed. Thanks a lot Lufthansa! Jason and I jogged across the airport over to the correct gate and just as I got up to the counter, the clerk asked me if I was Craig Simpson. I said yes and she told me, "Oh, I just canceled your reservation...but it's no problem!" We boarded the flight just in time and were on our way to Amsterdam.

On arrival, I used my VISA card to pay for a train ticket into Amsterdam. My MasterCard would not work and did not work at other times. I did see a MasterCard EuroCard that was accepted at many places, but I don't know the coverage areas for each card. We tried the hotel information center at the station, but eventually gave up and started walking the streets. I started to tire and as it began to rain, I took a room for 40 euros. It was 4 flights up very steep stairs and the bathroom was down the hall. I went to the ATM (or geld automat as it's generally called in Europe) and took out 300 euros ($383.66); some of which I used to pay for the room since they charged extra if you used a credit card. To my knowledge this violates their contract with VISA, but I wanted to have fun rather than argue.

Buildings lean to the right and to the left. On the left notice that the two buildings are adjacent at the base, but are separated at the top.

I started walking and walking and walking. It was so wonderful to be back in Europe and just look at the architecture, the people, the canals, the narrow streets, the bicyclists. Many of the buildings had settled and were no longer true. Adjacent buildings would sometimes end up a foot apart at the top. The gap was almost always filled with additional bricks. A couple of buildings had wooden piers added to the front for bracing. I assume these are temporary until the building can be repaired. I walked for hours and didn't stop for dinner till 10:30 p.m.. Afterwards, though my legs were sore and the night grew colder, I still walked on and observed the red light district. There were many spectators like me along with the occasional customers. It was the opposite of my dating life - so many pretty girls, each and every one trying to entice me to spend a little time with them, but I turned them all down!

It's interesting to note that with a society so open and permissive, they have a much lower rate of violent crime, sex crimes, drug use, and incarceration of its citizens. The United States leads the modern world in all those categories. I'm not saying we should be like Amsterdam, but I feel we should think about why we are at the top of the list in all these ignominious categories.

Sign above a fast food place. This is a likeness of a famous statue in Brussels. The Manneken Pis website is kind of funny.

Friday morning I had a wonderful English breakfast: eggs, chips (potatos), baked beans, baked tomatoes, and toast. On the bill I saw a charge for mineral water which I was able to get removed, but for the rest of the trip I made sure, if I asked for water, it was tap water. I did some more people watching while I ate and then started walking some more. The weather had turned colder and one side of my mouth was very sore. It wasn't until after the trip that I realized it was from grinding my teeth at night. I have found it to be about the worst kind of pain. At the time I thought I might have a cavity or a bridge that had separated from an anchor tooth. But I guess the tension from all the pre-trip arrangements and the trip itself had finally gotten to me. The only antedote is a mouth guard (to keep the upper and lower teeth separated) and a couple of good nights of sleep.

Though my body was aching, I walked around for a couple more hours, seeing all these wonderful old buildings in the full light of day. Eventually, I checked out of my hotel room (remembering to retrieve the key deposit) and dragged my luggage down the stairs. In my younger days, a trip like this wouldn't tax my body at all, but now my back is always giving me problems and I had compounded the problem by dragging my luggage and skates through airports, train stations, and up and down three flights of very steep stairs to/from my hotel room.

This toilet has no door. You just step around the wall and let loose against a concrete pier which has a hole next to the base; no flushing required.

I went to the train station to try and get a ticket for Paris. I didn't think there would be much of a wait during a weekday in the fall, but I was wrong. First, even finding the ticket room in a station that was undergoing renovation was difficult. Though I had been there on previous trips, things had changed and they didn't yet have the signs to point you in the right direction. Eventually, I found the room and then I had to take a number. You needed to press one of two buttons to retrieve a number. I could not read the flemish wording for one, but I thought the second one read that it was to be used for trains leaving within an hour. Since I wasn't sure when the nest Paris train would be leaving, I chose to press the former button and sat down and waited and waited. Twenty minutes went by and I started figuring out the system. The "within the hour" numbers were being called frequently, but my "numbers" were rarely being called. I thought about it for a few more minutes, then walked over and pressed the other button. In a few more minutes I was up at the counter.

I didn't bother asking for an explanation. I just purchased my ticket (95 euros), which as it turned out would leave within an hour, and left. I stopped at a store in the train station and purchased my lunch of a sandwich and a fruit drink and waited for the train on the cold platform. Again, language was a little bit of a problem. I didn't know if there were assigned seats. I asked someone and he didn't know and I looked at my ticket, but couldn't decipher it. So I just grabbed a seat. Close by there was a guy from New Jersey, a guy from Mexico City, and three girls from New York on a week long trip to Amsterdam and Paris (their lunch was from McDonalds).

As the train left the station, I watched a beautiful autumn day roll out before me with the leaves on the trees going through the anual color change. The Netherlands is very flat with most of the land having been reclained from the sea through dikes. Still the folliage was beautiful and the dutch architecture colorful and interesting. There were also lots of canals, bike paths, and brick homes with tile roofs and rolling shutters. From a previous trip I remembered that most of the people ride bikes and you will frequently see whole families riding their bikes to some event. Eventually, I was booted out of my seat and had to drag my luggage along and find the correct one.

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