Seen Today on the Dam

Is it? Could it be? Is that Arjan van Dijk zipping up his jacket while sitting under Amsterdam's National Monument, understandingly often mistaken for a phallic symbol? Yes, it is...that's him with the red hair and skin tone.

You see, most Netherlanders are very partial to their own city and some, like him, have a "Been there, seen that, done that" attitude. Arjan pleasantly surprised me this morning by telling me that he wanted to join me on my venture to Amsterdam. I had scheduled a couple visits for today in order to go to the Van Gogh Museum to see their special exhibit "Van Gogh and the colours of the night" featuring Van Gogh's The starry night here on loan from the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The exhibit is an extra price which includes a free audio tour which made it all the more interesting and Arjan really enjoyed. He know quite a bit about art having taken some art classes and reading some art books. I thought it may be things he already knew so was glad that he learned some new things, as well as really liked the way the speaker told the stories of the paintings. It was really excellent and I just can't believe the interest and appreciation in art I've gained through Arjan and hearing things like I did today. I really never thought it would happen, may just be in the air in this country. This was my first time, but not last, at the Van Gogh Museum. I invested in a Museum Card where for 35 Euros a year, with an additional 4.95 initial admin cost, you can gain entry into over 400 museums in Netherlands. So, now when I go to cities, I will focus on visiting the museums in that city, and the bigger museums I don't have to see all at one time.

Amsterdam is always an interesting place just to watch people. While I do like going there once in a while, I'm not a big Amsterdam fan, and enjoy going to other cities much more. Amsterdam is a big tourist trap and full of tourists. As Arjan said, by walking around today you'd never know there's an economic crisis, even though they are talking about the big drop in tourism, mainly from th US and Japan, the countries bringing the most tourists here. The city was packed, restaurants and bars were packed, people were walking around eating patat's/frietjes (Dutch French fries) and kroketten (ground meat and potatoes deep fried) and carrying shopping bags and there were plenty of Ajax (pronounced "I ox", not "Ajax"), Amsterdam's voetbal club (soccer team), fans making their way to the big wedstrijd (game) going on right now.

De Dam is the Dam Square, the cental area of Amsterdam that is surrounded by the Royal Palace, the New Church, and the National Monument. The National Monument is a memorial to World War 2 victims. As some visitors that I've gone to Amsterdam with know, the Dam is a great place to watch people and happenings. Here are some of the things seen on the Dam today:

The National Monument and blue sky--see Arjan's head sticking up?

De Niewe Kerk in use from the 15th century, building began around 1385

Spiderman and the NOS news in front of the Royal Palace where Arjan dropped and broke my camera the last time he was here on my visit in June of 2002.

Diana and Arjan uit Rotterdam

A very interesting fiets (bicycle). The seat in front is for a child that can help pedal, the second seat is for a young child to sit, the third seat is for the mother or father, and there's a child seat on the back for a toddler or small child. This is the first bike I've seen like this.

Ze houden rekening met rellen. There'll keeping the peace with/from unruly fans. Police were all over on every corner where we walked. They were patting down and checking the tickets of everyone getting on the tram to go to the game. There were SWAT type armed vehicles around also. The fire trucks are used to spray water on a group that gets out of hand.

A teenager terrifying his girlfriend, who had been sitting next to him, by throwing chips in front of them to attract all the pigeons. You should have seen them swoop in and there were so many, my camera battery ran out when I tried to get a better pic of the sheer number of pigeons and they were gone by time I had the battery changed. It brought back such memories of a similar experience I had with my high school sweetheart. We were on Grand Island at the beach with Brenda, noone else was around and good ole GG threw food so the sea gulls would swoop done and scare us.

The ape (de aap) from Planet of the Apes dressed up.

The Joker