Luglio: 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.)