Amsterdam-Brussels? One thing for sure is that the food got increasingly better as we travelled from Germany (baked chicken legs and questionably congealed meats) to Holland (herring-really?-thank Indonesia) to Flanders (moules and Flemish stew) to Belgium (the one true frites and waffles and chocolate, beer, chocolate, beer...repeat) Of course Paris has all of the above and more. Virtually everyone said they loved Amsterdam and we would too. A few said Brussels was a bigger, more industrial city and the Belgian countryside was nicer. In retrospect, the countryside was nice. Bruges was virtually the best small place we visited. It’s half the size it was in the 1400’s but tourists try to make up the difference. Kind of like if Disney got authentic right. Antwerp was once the capital of capital for the world and had it’s Reubens for Amsterdam’s Rembrandt. Ghent was too rainy. Amsterdam had great museums - our kind of art - stuff that you more or less know what they’re supposed to be painting. Both Rembrandt and Reubens were a rarity - rich and famous in their lifetimes. Van Gogh (pronounced Van Goke - like Koch/Koke brothers) was fairly reknown but Jan Vermeer died a pauper - go figure. The Anne Frank house was even more poignant than I remembered. She really was a fine writer and observer. Would have been an excellent journalist. And the tragedy of dying but a month before her camp was liberated... But one of the best things was that our hotel had a boat for touring the canals that was built in 1909 and was used by Queen Wilhemina to show Sir Winston Churchill liberated Amsterdam (Photos). There is one spot on the canal where you can see under seven consecutive bridges. Our shot shows five in one direction and there are two in the other. Brussels also had the Grand Place, simply beautiful - blown up in spite by Louis XIV, it was rebuilt within 18 months by the Guilds, a reminder that this was the only region in Europe governed from the bottom up. The guide book list of most famous Belgians was sad, including Mercatur (of map fame), mediocre tennis player Kim Clijsters and old singer Jaques Brel. Yet the funniest moment may have been when a Hercule Poirot impersonator causally sauntered past us in cafe. I have never before seen my wife laugh so hard she spit out her drink. Maybe Amsterdam needs a few more squares and few less canals to anchor derelict house boats that should be condemned. Also 3000 bikes a year are thrown into canals to the point where they have a special bike dredge. At first I thought this was terrible but quickly came to realize that bicyclists are the rudest and most dangerous hazard in the city. Traffic laws and signs are mere suggestions to them. Came to realize that I would be throwing bikes into the canals too. By the way, nobody swims in the canals. The sewage hookups are inspected with the same vigor that most laws are enforced. I wanted to believe in the long held tolerance of Amsterdam but came away thinking that it often translates into dirty and uncaring.
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 00:14:07 +0000
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