Amsterdam Mini Meet, May 2005
Created | Updated May 26, 2005
Thursday morning, the 12th of May and, for once, I had published The Post at around 3am. TowelMaster had some kind of corporate do at the Amsterdam Olympic Stadium and would drop me off at Schiphol Airport bright and early. And it was bright - and comparitively early - too. I had soon purchased my ticket to Amsterdam and found myself on a fairly packed but still comfortable 2-tier train speeding into the 'hoofdstad1'.
I disembarked around 8.30 and decided that it was best to take a leisurely stroll towards Dam Square to check out exactly where we were scheduled to meet up. Amsterdam is definitely a night city. At this time of the morning the thoroughfares were almost empty, the only sign of any bustle emanating from the doorways of the grand hotels where harassed porters were trying to organise taxis for departing guests.
I passed a couple of snackbars offering a full English breakfast - complete with chips! As is always the case in tourist cities, I was soon accosted by an eager waiter keen for me to partake of his fine fare. I laughed with him as I pointed out that chips are fairly rare as an accompaniment and they should try making fried potatoes or hash browns instead. Somehow I don't think he quite got the difference between these and chips or 'frites'.
I spent a happy half hour admiring the fine architecture of the Royal Palace, the Nieuwe Kerk2 and the War Memorial. The square was quite deserted - unlike the previous week when it was the scene of rememberance on Doden herdenking and celebration on Bevrijdingsdag3. With several hours still to kill I decided to seek out a place to sit, drink coffee and indulge in the luxury of having a copy of The Times to read. The 'Dam, being the heart of the city, tends to be the most expensive place so I headed off away from there and found a quiet little bar which served excellent coffee and didn't mind the odd visitor sitting with a newspaper.
Time passed and things started to liven up. Market stalls were stocked and I spent a happy hour rummaging through mountains of old books. I eventually purchased three paperbacks by Nicholas Monserrat all of which, according to their publication and edition dates, were older than I. I meandered back to Dam Square and, after making the grave mistake of purchasing a small cider at an exhorbitant sum at the European Bar (which sold no English beer at all!), settled down to yet more coffee, the crossword and keeping an eye out for familiar faces.
Somewhere around 12 o' clock I spotted Marjin walking alongside the War Memorial. He joined me and we speculated on the time our overseas visitors would arrive. I had already sent a text to Granny Weatherwax so knew that they were on course for the designated 1pm meet-up. Sure enough another message arrived saying that she and Nogbad the Viking were just entering the square. A quick scan of the now crowded area, including the obligatory living statues, soon revealed two beaming faces and we soon swopped coffee for beer.
Granny had kindly brought me sustinance from England - cheese, cheese, more cheese and pickling spices for my world-renowned pickled onions. These were safely stowed in my rucksack then the entertainment for the afternoon was decided upon - a one hour boat trip around the canals of Amsterdam. We dutifully posed for a photograph before boarding the boat and enjoying the wonderful tour punctuated by the taped guide rattling off information in half a dozen languages. I'm ashamed to say that Granny and I, sitting together a couple of seats in front of the boys, didn't actually hear an awful lot of this recitation as we were chattering ten to the dozen on just about any subject you care to mention.
All too soon the trip was over and we sauntered to a bar handily situated right next to where Granny and Nogbad had to catch their bus back to the boat. Their trip had been a brief one but hopfully they gleaned a little of the flavour of Amsterdam - and Dutch/Belgium beer. Marjin and I lingered a little longer after they had departed and then we, too, made our way back to Centraal Station and our respective trains home.
