Happy in Amsterdam

• Amsterdam
• Journal
• More Photos
• Back to Dutch Holiday

May 15, 2003

Who knows what today's adventures will bring? We got into Amsterdam about 2 yesterday afternoon. We came immediately to the hotel. To put it bluntly, it's a dump, well at least as bad as a college dorm room. I'm taking pictures.

But part of the travel experience is to meet the difference. I think we've found it here. If I could just escape from Ron, well, this could be a pretty wild town. Let's just say that it all hangs out here.

It's evident that drugs are freely available here. We've been offered them twice. At my age, I'm not interested, particularly when there is a beautiful city to explore. Lots of sex shops and the like were in one of the disricts that we walked through. And I do plan to get to a bar or a bath house before we leave here.

We did a lot of walking around several different neighborhoods. The city is beautiful. Our hotel is in a residential neighborhood along the Keizersgracht. We ate dinner at an Indian restaurant not too far away. The meal was quite good. Afterwards, we took a long walk to let everything settle.

Today, our "host" Bobby is going to pick us up arond 11 and take us on a tour of the city. I hope to get my bearings enough to plan the other two days that we will be here. I know that I want to see the Amsterdam history museum and the Rijksmuseum. The other museum that I'm somewhat interested inn is the Van Gogh museum.

Impressions so far: this ain't Brussels. If Brussels has Brussels Sprouts, what does Amsterdam have? I was surprised at the sex for sale in Brussels, but it's nothing compared to here. Nuff said about that, although I'll probably report on more later.

I get a little unnerved about having all kinds of people around me speaking in a language hat I don't understand. I almost feel lonely sometimes, really in myself. Even though most people here speak English, the fact is (and I shouldn't be surprised, should I?) they are all speaking Dutch. Someday, I'd like to go to a foreign country and at least understand what I am hearing, even if I can't speak it.

I have this fear of the unknown, and I let it prevent me from doing things that I think I might want to do. So I just think about doing them, but never have the experience. One of the good things about this trip, is that I finally made it to Europe. It is a different place. I am left to my own devices at times. Things happen that I don't particularly understand or like, but it fills in the little mysteries.

Well, Ron and I are back in our room after a busy day of touring with Bobby. I don't think there was a part of Amsterdam that we didn't see. We did not sample the pleasures of the red light district, but we saw some, and I'm really happy that I'm a homo. He took us to all of the gay neighborhoods, and everything in between, including a canal boat ride and a walk through the Museumplein. Five and a half hours after we started, we got back home.

This evening, Ron and I went to eat at a vegetarian restaurant. I was not too thrilled at the prospect, but after eating their food, I have to say that it was very good, although the pie the waitress gave us for carryout was the wrong kind (chocolate) which Ron can't eat, and he was a little put out by it.

He then said, if I could just catalogue all the mistakes that have been made since we left.... Well, let me try:

1. We could have gone to Brussels directly from Schipol, instead of coming into Amsterdam.
2. The hotel that we were booked in Brussels had to rebook us at a different hotel.
3. The heat in the Brussels hotel was way too (uncomfortably) hot.
4. The cabdriver forgot to unload one of our bags at the Brussels train station.
5. The hotel here in Amsterdam is really not a great place. It's clean and dry, but not much more.
6. The window in the hotel room doesn't close all the way.
7. The hotel has to move us to another room tomorrow after telling us yesterday that we needed to move day after tomorrow.
8. We were supposed to get breakfast as part of our package, but did not (it was not worth the €6.)
9. The tour of the Hague and Delft is not offered this year by the travel company. (We're going to see the flower fields.)
10. And well, there was that pesky matter of dessert.

May 16, 2003

Well, today was quite an adventure. We had an early bus tour of Keukenhof, which is a flower park in the middle of Holland's flower fields, beyond Haarlem. Haarlem is also one of these storybook beautiful Dutch towns. Maybe someday we'll come back this way, and get off the bus.

Ron and I were about the youngest people at Keukenhof. The park was beautiful and a nice change of pace from Amsterdam. The flower fields and the tulips are past their prime, but we still saw some spectacular flowers. I suppose the best word to describe it is picturesque, which fits right in with my Dutch stereotypes. Just a note for completeness: Ellen was our tour guide, and Martin was the bus driver.

When we got back to Amsterdam in the early afternoon, we had been moved to a different room in the Hotel Keizergracht. This room is much nicer, and has a bigger bed for Ron. Our room overlooks an interior courtyard, and it also doesn't feel like we're sleeping in a large phone booth (without a phone). I like the bathrooms in this hotel. They are all tile, and the shower is simply a shower fixture and a curtain across one end of the W.C.

Speaking of W.C.s, Ron ran into an interesting one yesterday on his adventure. (This one cost him 50 cents.) He walked into the WC, and one wall was a water wall. You simply peed on the wall. If you wanted more privacy, you could go into a stall that had a clear glass front. As soon as you latch the door, the glass turned opaque. When you opened the door, it turned clear again. Ah, the wonders of modern technology.

After we got settled again, Ron and I both walked down near the Leidseplein. I wanted to have sex with some naked Dutch men, and Ron wanted to do some more exploring around the Rijksmuseum and Vondelpark.

I went to a sauna called Thermos Day. It was a very nice club with a sauna, steam room, pool, whirlpool, restaurant, bar, shop, and dark room.

Some observations: Dutch men appear to have smaller dicks than American men. I'm not sure, but it looks that way. Interestigly, I found Dutch condoms to be quite comfortable, which would seem to fly in the face of the previous observation.

The crowd appeared to be more varied and friendly. I had a good time, and made three men very, very happy. The men in the steam room really liked my dick, but then, I like it, too. One of the guys was from Washington, DC--which only shows that the world is a lot smaller than we give it credit for. In addition to the quality condoms, the sauna also provided good silicone lube.

I met Ron around 8 p.m. and we went to an authentic Dutch restaurant for dinner, Moeders (Mothers). I think Dutch cuisine is right up there with English cuisine for its inventiveness, light touch, and skillful use of spices. I had a "classic" dish that was basically mashed potatoes, carrots, and onions, served with sausage, meatball, and bacon. I didn't complain at all. Ron had an East Asian concoction called Wokie Wokie. He wasn't as pleased as me.

Afterward, we walked up to the Dam, then through the red light district. It was weird, we walked in this alley that was packed with men, looking at what the women had to offer. We dropped by the Cuckoo's Nest, a gay bar, then came back to the hotel.

May 17, 2003

Last night here at the hotel was very noisy (and I think that tonight will be even noisier--a lot of mates from GB). Consequently we didn't get out of here until noon, because we lazed around so much.

We had breakfast at a Dutch cafe, which was a mistake. Ron couldn't find anythng that he could really eat. He settled for a pineapple tostie which came with ham, ummm bad choice.... I had what was basically an omelet sandwich with lots of cheese. Cheese, cured meats, and eggs seem to be major components of the Dutch diet, at least the Amsterdam tourist diet.

The breakfast put Ron in silent victim mode. We headed to the Rijksmuseum only to find that the exhibits that we wanted to see were closed because asbestos has been discovered in the museum. I then suggested the Amsterdam History Museum, so we took the trolley up to Spiustraat.

Today is National Parade Day here. What a concept. The trolley was slow as a result, but we saw a drum corps, a marching band, and lots of ragtag marchers carrying signs opposed to just about everything. My theory is that it was an all-purpose protest march, a great idea!

Ron was about to collapse from malnutrition at this point, so we stopped for a bite at La Place which is a great cafeteria inside one of the department stores on Kalverstraat. After lunch we got lost, and finally ended up at the museum. We decided not to go in, but to do more streetwalking. At the museum is a gallery of civil guard group portraits. I found them fascinating.

From there we headed to the Dam (I did dome shopping along the way),then past our favorite herring stand. Since I had not yet had a herring sandwich during our stay, I indulged (but quickly brushed my teeth when we got back to the hotel).

On the way back to the hotel, we went a couple of blocks out of our way on Brouwersgracht and then Prinzengracht. We passed one corner and these two teenage guys started to follow us. At the next main intersection, Ron stopped, turned around, and the two kids hightailed it in the opposite direction. We must be easy marks.

Tonight we went to Top Thai, a neighborhood restaurant for dinner. The food was different from the Thai food at home, but it was very good. We enjoyed the dinner very much. One observation about eating establishments: everywhere people are smoking, and the non-smoking section doesn't really mean that. In one restaurant, I believe our table was the non-smoking section.

Finally, I still find the notion of "Coffee Shop" a little weird. You walk past some doorways and smell the dope. It reminds me of college. You do see some really wacked out people on the street, and there are signs all over the place warning you about Zakkenrollers.