I Want To Ride My Bicycle

November 11th--As morning dawned bright and cheerful in Amsterdam, a coat fell on my face.

After I returned it to its passed out owner above me, I went to explore Amsterdam. I decided the best way to go was to rent a bike and join every other person in town.

It's really incredible how many bikes there are in Amsterdam. There are bike rentals for tourists, yes, but that can't possibly account for the 15-20 bikes on almost every street corner. Since the town is essentially completely flat, it makes a lot of sense, and so 10 Euros later I was on my way for the day.

I biked out for 15 minutes or so and found a nice bagel place to have breakfast, then actually took out the map to figure out where I wanted to go.

First stop was the Anne Frank House, but as soon as I saw the horrendous line around the corner to get in I decided to pass. Next I went to a big park I saw on the map and just biked around, passing a colorful church tower on the way.

In the park, however, I saw a crazy looking bird that I had to take a picture of. I'm including in in the large version so that you can see the full craziness. It's a little difficult to see the scale, but it's almost as big as a goose. Is this a real bird? It looks like a genetic experiment gone wrong.

Next was the Van Gogh museum in the south of the city. Just beside it was a beautiful park.

The museum was fantastic, with a lot of great Van Gogh pieces and a good look at the historical and artistic context of his life and work. I spent a good hour and a half becoming absorbed in the works and even more in the particulars of the tragic story.

On the way to the museum I saw an ad for a South African film festival ending that day, so I rode to the theater to see if I could catch a film. I was just in time to see a short followed by the film Conversations on a Sunday Afternoon. It's a pretty cool piece about immigrants in South Africa displaced by war that has become pretty famous in South Africa and elsewhere, and afterwards the writer and director stood up for questions.

At night, again, there's not much to tell except for a nice dinner at a pizzeria place and some more wandering around the city lit up at night. I know, I know, not taking advantage of how crazy Amsterdam is, but somehow my mood wasn't quite right. If I go again, I'll be sure to bring some friends, I think.

I wanted to get to sleep, anyway, because I had a five and a half hour train ride awaiting me.