Movin' on up.

The Symposium has drawn to a close. Fred has spent the last four days in one city block teaching workshops, and I have spent the last four days all over Amsterdam, walking nearly 20,000 steps a day.  I write today from De Pijp, a great neighborhood just a five minute's drive from our hotel, where we'll stay at an AirBNB for the next four nights. It's a lovely apartment, but I had a few things wrong about it... my brain is a bit fried. It's on the first floor, not the top (yay!). There's no AC nor is there a washing machine. For some reason I thought there were both, and we were really really excited to do a wash. They did have detergent, however, and a drying rack and a nice big deck, so we did some necessities.  Fred's sketching now and I'm in a cafe.

A short recap of the last five days:

We stayed at an Ibis hotel — a big chain offering just the basics at very low prices. I'm not here to gripe, but just a few things to get off my chest. I remember from my last visit at an Ibis, it's as if they didn't test out what it's like to spend the night in one of these rooms before going ahead with it.

The light to the bathroom is outside the bathroom, so if you don't want to light up the entire room in the middle of the night, you should pee in the dark.

Speaking of the bathroom, it looks like the Orgasmatron from Sleeper, the Woody Allen movie. It's all white molded plastic, encapsulated like a ship. The seats are a tad too high, which throws me every time. And the toilet paper is just in the oddest place to reach to. And... no fan.... so black mold is right at home.

No cleansers but ONE. An all-purpose body, face, and HAIR soap. It took 30 minutes to comb out my hair.

The bedding has one cover — a very thick luxurious duvet. So I was either sweating my ass off, or freezing, as the AC went no lower than probably 72...  And the beds (two singles pushed together) had individual toppers on them that slid off so that five inches of the edge had no support, so if I sat on the edge of the bed, I went right to the floor. There was no way to keep it centered on the mattress.

So, I'm all in favor of offering a no-frills hotel, but some aspects just sucked...

I'm done with that review, and on to the fun stuff.


When you're walking in Amsterdam, you have to WATCH where you're going — which is always the case, of course, in any city. Any place there are cars, really. But the canal is often un — un-something. Unguarded? You can just step right off it and be in the drink. (Reminds me of the demise of my second cousin Scotchie McLaughlin, but I digress.)

There are more bikes than cars — which might really be true. But it feels it, for sure. But there's this hybrid (not in the new eco sense of the word) — a car that is both bike and car, in that it is tiny and doesn't take up space, holds no more than two people, and can park on sidewalks and be locked to any pole, just like a bike. A cab driver explained this to us. That's the draw of owning one of these —the parking on the sidewalk bit. The city does its very best to keep cars to a minimum in the city by charging high parking, high taxes, high anything they can to dissuade folks from taking cars.

One thing you don't want to do in the heart of tourist Amsterdam is take an early morning walk :(  Think college, the morning after frat parties. The streets are trashed and being hosed down. Any urge or slight temptation I had to eat a pot brownie or smoke a joint here vanished soon after I arrived because the smell is everywhere (IN CERTAIN SECTIONS) and there are so many young men clearly here for a day or two just for some of this action. Maybe the other action too. Not sure. Fred's Symposium was in the city centre, pretty close to all of this, giving him a skewed impression of Amsterdam. Just blocks away from all of this stuff is a charming, clean, healthy, lovely city.

To even have to post this..... sad.

If you look closely you can see one boy who stood over the spray, making it spurt out from his crotch. He stayed there for quite some time, crowing about it to his friends. Just the side of puberty to have no clue how amusing this was to others. 

Some of the Sketchers stayed in a houseboat AirBNB. So cool. I'd love to see the inside of one — and, in fact, did see one advertising that it was a "museum," but I think it was just some guy trying to make a buck.

These folks had a sweet sort of patio/garden leading to theirs. Really sweet and charming.

Brick!!! Who does that???

Ethnic food in Amsterdam is a big deal since it's very diverse — Indonesia being one of their major influences. Thanks to one of our friends who is teaching here with Fred, we had a great "rice buffet" at an Indonesian restaurant. I wish I'd taken a picture mid-meal, as this looks way too tame. It was quite a spread!

I walked one day for an hour to get to a market — flea and farmers' combined. Worth the walk.
This was the bakery. (My mother's friend's daughter lives here in Amsterdam and gave us a ton of great recommendations. I must thank her. It was invaluable.)

The bakeries and cafes all have such charm. This was called Pluk. Photo doesn't do it justice.

Some odds and ends. Fred and Gabi, who is the Urban Sketchers founder. A lovely guy. Can't speak more highly of him. AND he's running the Boston Marathon in 2020, so we get to see him sooner rather than later!  (He lives in Seattle.)

Fred and Karen —his former student, now colleague!

So thrilled to get this shot.

Fantastic dog. Seemingly on his own. But he stopped at this door and was greeted with a bark from within.

Bye for now!

AmsterDAM, it's hot.

Apparently it's a big heat crisis in Europe. I believe it, it's just that I have no proof since I don't watch the news here. All the shops (if they are even OPEN) have a pitcher of water with glasses for customers. Day Cares have closed — they can't be liable for keeping the kids safe and hydrated. That said, there's lots to see, and the canals cool things down. Walking without getting lost is pretty easy, as it's grid-like and I have my phone. So I walk, stop, have coffee and/or water, and pick up again when I'm ready

Fred's super occupied with the Symposium, so I've had a lot of time to myself. But every day I come back from wherever I am to photograph his workshop. Today there was one. Tomorrow, two. Saturday, one more. Then, Saturday night will be the final reception where they announce where next year's Symposium will be. Kind of exciting — not that there's any guarantee we'll be going, but still, a very exciting moment. They announce it with GREAT fanfare.

As I write this from the hotel lobby while Fred's at a dinner, it's Thursday night. We arrived Tuesday afternoon. The hotel room is air conditioned, which is great. I'm not sure how we would fare if it weren't. It's almost a health hazard for a hotel not to have it because of guests who might not be 100% healthy. We crashed early Tuesday night after drinks and deep-fried cheese balls —which have a much better name than that —at a pub.

Yesterday, Fred had an all-day tour on a bus to the middle of the country where there's an art pencil (?) factory. They gave a really nice tour and lots of cool samples. Then we had the opening reception in a huge hall called the Ziederkirk.. which I'm SURE I have misspelled and always mispronounce. The language is another story. Very hard to pick out anything familiar... some things are similar to Danish which I once had some familiarity with. But they all speak English and are really warm and open. Nice folks, these Dutch!

Bitterballen — deep-fried meat croquettes you dip in mustard.

There is a museum of bags and purses.

Funny words here! I thought it was a restaurant with a really unappetizing name, but it's a business.

My first Dutch cappuccino. 

They have these markers in a lot of European countries.  Each brass plate (tucked among cobblestones on the sidewalk) commemorates victims of the Holocaust.

The Dutch can be very stylish. I can never get my camera out fast enough. So many of the women have dresses that flutter in the breeze. It's like a movie.

This view is at every turn.

Tasty salad. So simple... Goat cheese, pickles (!), hard boiled egg, chives, tomatoes, lettuce.

Houseboats galore.

I wondered what this was... a nursing home. From Wikipedia: The dr. Sarphatihuis is a nursing home named after Samuel Sarphati on the Roetersstraat in Amsterdam-Center. The building has been a national monument since 23 September 1970 and is registered under number 4983. Sarphati House is located next to the former Wittenberg nursing home. Samuel Sarphati ( Amsterdam , 31 January 1813 - there, 23 June 1866 ) was a Jewish doctor , chemist , benefactor and bread manufacturer who played an important role in the development of Amsterdam's education, public health, urban design and industry in the center of the 19th century. Sarphati was at home in all markets and often got stuck in the Amsterdam bureaucracy with his initiatives.

Another Candle

This post was originally titled "If it's Tuesday, this must be Holland" because we arrived in Amsterdam today... But I heard the news that an old friend died, and my light-hearted post was not coming from a light heart anymore. Steve was one of my favorites in the advertising business. We were never partners, since he was also an art director, but we connected... with humor... a shared sensibility for our craft....an appreciation for the underdog... and, again, humor. He had the best twinkle in his eye, and loved laughing at his own funny comments. A trait I loved. Rest in peace, dear Steve. I lit a candle for you in Bologna.

For Steve.

I started writing this post at the airport—leaving Rome for Amsterdam, where Fred has an Urban Sketchers teaching gig. We'll spend five nights with the group at a hotel, and four more nights on our own.

So I'll wrap up some thoughts about Italy before the next post, which will be ALL Amsterdam.

Early this week, we had to take down a show Fred had hanging for a whole year in the neighboring town of Vittorchiano.  That took about 1/100th of the time it took putting it up! It hung with magnets —one magnet on the head of a nail, the other on top of the artwork — like a sandwich.  It was down in five minutes. We gave one each to the two public administrators who helped bring the show to fruition.

After this, we moved on to one of our favorite little towns — Narni. Turns out C.S. Lewis did name Narnia after this town. We've been several times, but found some new stuff to explore. Every church we went into had a piano on the altar because there was a big music event happening.

The pianist was at this piano.  She was rehearsing in this otherwise empty church. 

This shot was taken from the inner courtyard of someone's building. Fred sat in there for hours drawing.

Speaking of inner courtyards — any open door is an invitation for Fred to explore. He once found himself on the second floor of some guy's private home. Apparently, the guy was having some construction done, so there were workers coming and going. Fred thought it was a MUSEUM! HAHAH!!!!  The guy didn't seem to wonder who Fred was or why he was there...

I posted this already to social media, but here's the coffee shop I hung out in after my walk, while Fred was lurking in that courtyard. It was a pretty lively place, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I had a cappuccino, then an ice cream from a freezer (alas, not a cone...), and then, when Fred joined, the owner showered us with attention and food!

This dress was part of an exhibit in the same church where the woman practiced the piano.
It's made from straw. The entire dress is like a straw hat.

A close-up.

I think this was the day we had 9 pm reservations at "The Duck," our favorite Viterbo restaurant. The owner is a very excitable skinny guy with a mop of curly salt and pepper hair, a ton of bracelets up his arm (mostly colorful strings with a few beads), and skinny white jeans. He always makes us feel like a million bucks when we arrive. My meal was bucatini—my favorite pasta. They're like straws. We should use bucatini instead of plastic straws!  Anyway, bucatini with clams and pistachios.

Silly ashtray! 

My date.

First gray cat of the year.

Here's another meal we had this week at La Spaghetteria. This place was in the Guiness Book of World Records for having over 300 different sauces. First, our appetizer was honey and pecorino. The only weird part was the honey was infused with chestnut, which threw off the taste, we thought.

Spaghetti with zucchini. Really good!

And another road trip this week was to Spoleto, a lovely and cultural/artsy town. Lots of festivals — music, art, fashion... Here are some visual highlights.

I have no idea the meaning of these pigs because it was a cheese shop... 

Ha! ONLY in Italy would one find sheet music for Carmen lying around in a church.

This dress! It was on a mannequin in a store window promoting a sale. SALDI means SALE. The dress and suit were made from paper.

This font...I am guilty of using it, but seriously, there are OTHER fonts to use! IT IS EPIDEMIC!

 I LOVE THIS. It looks like a pizza peel but it is a DOOR to a little shop.

And here's how it looks when it's open!

Like a postcard.

Adorable dog water station. A "Bau Bar."

A bigger Bau Bar!

And finally — Over the years, I've kept a "cast count" for the month in Italy because of the striking number of very large heavy casts we see here.  The count is six this year — and this is what I'm talking about.

Ciao.