Life Trove: Our trip to Amsterdam (Ally)

We just arrived back from a trip to Amsterdam. I was there on a two day conference on Information Architecture, presented by the pioneer in the field. Ally came along to keep me company. Great having your other half along on business trips!

Life can be good!

Ally´s account

I have just done a tour of Schipol Airport in Amsterdam as I have 3 hours to kill. If I was an airport junkie then this would be heaven. The Dutch like to do things, including airports, in style.
They have a communications centre (you can email with a glass of wine), a massage centre, a meditation centre and a museum with famous Dutch painters (I kid you not!). So I have decided to prioritise my pleasures. Did the museum first - my third of the day and my feet are killing me! Now I am writing up my time here in Amsterdam and if there is time later, I'll hit the self massage chairs!

My tale starts on Friday - my last day of work. I don't really know what I felt. It all felt rather surreal. The person I have handed over to is great. I have made some super friends but not for one moment did I feel sad. With Forward Slash and Aqua I felt sad that I couldn't stay longer or sorry that the company couldn't remain open. But I was so ready to leave WCE.

The Financial Director said some really nice things in his leaving speech. Like how HR has gained so much in reputation and I was leaving a good career development system - so that all made me feel appreciated. God knows I’ve done enough exit interviews where people don't feel appreciated. I was chuffed with my own speech as I only started it that morning (getting better at this public speaking thing).

But when I got home on Friday I collapsed like a sack of potatoes. I didn't realise how much the handover took out of me. On Saturday I also slept for most of the day then we went to Sanjay (G hiking friend from Nepal) house warming. He and his girlfriend have just bought a 4 bedroom house in Hackney - very shrewd move as I think it will be worth a small fortune in 10 years time as they are cleaning up the area like mad. But the house did nothing for G and me - it has 4 stories - imagine lugging the vacuum cleaner up and down those stairs - no thank you!

While G is travelling round Europe and I am kicking my heels the G man has said very kindly that I should travel with him. So....

On Sunday morning we got up at the ridiculous hour of 4:30am as we had a 7am flight to Holland. We only got to bed at 3am!! But we got to Amsterdam safe and sound. They did not have a room ready for us at the hotel so we had to go in search of breakfast. Now anyone who knows us knows that breakfasts have to be good - none of this soggy toast and baked beans British effort. So we went down the main road and found a promising looking place - pancakes - a food matter close to our hearts. But we were just plain tired and they weren't really up to scratch so we went back to the hotel and slept the afternoon away - bliss.

G then took me on a tour of some good spots. We did go to the “sex through the ages museum” and the ONLY thing that has changed about sex through time is the mecium on which it is depicted. I had to admire the intricate skill required of the Japanese ivory carvers. To comment more than that would be require censorship.

On Monday I booked myself on 2 tours. The first one was a city tour with a free canal tour. So I took myself off towards the way of the canal and was hugely distracted by the clothes shops (pity I no longer work) But they were very good!

Next to the train station I got onto the boat - Amsterdam central station sits on a man made island. I was having a lovely time sitting by myself enjoying the fact that it was Monday morning and the most troublesome thing on my mind was what to have for lunch - when there was a tap on my shoulder and a family asked if the could sit next to me. As first I was delighted until I started to noticed a strange smell. There was swift self inspection!! But I soon realised it came from the family sitting next to me - the smell of unwashed bodies. It some what took the edge off the pleasure of the trip. It was very cute though when we saw some balloons in the canal and the young daughter said that the fish must be having a birthday party!

Well it was afternoon and I decided not to go on the city tour and Ii got a full refund so that made me feel a bit better about the boat trip. I hold my hand up and freely admit that I spent the afternoon finishing my book and G found me fast asleep when he returned from his conference.

G took one look at my photo's and called me photo- less!! So we went out and G took loads of night time shots - both from the red light district and other typical shots. When we were hungry we had steak (both nights in fact). Let me tell you Argentina have good beef!!

Tuesday morning I took the bus tour to the Windmills and Edam. I enjoyed going in the windmill as they made peanut oil which you can buy - I managed to hold myself back as I cannot think of one recipe which needs peanut oil!

I did buy some goats cheese. G was asking me what vices I have - in the space of a morning it came home to me - I like tourist kick-knacks. I cannot resist cool hair gadgets. Local delicacies or kitchen gadgets! So we now have clogs for the Christmas tree, a Degas hair clip, 500g of goats cheese and a cool oil and balsamic thingy:)

All I can really say is that the windmills were great but Edam was not - it is named after the cheese that was ONCE made there. End of the attraction.

Well.., I was not about to be called a photo-less girl again so I planned my next adventure - a trip to the floating flower market. The last floating marketing in Amsterdam. I was enchanted by all the flowers - they even had proteas from Kenya (do they have then there?). I remembered my aunt wants to plant a blue garden this year so got her some blue bulbs.

Then it was off to Rembrandts House. G mentioned this was something to go to and I remembered Rembrandt from art classes so was thrilled about the prospect and I was not disappointed. They have reconstructed his house and it is fascinating. He was a talented, curious, passionate (and probably not very astute) man (he died bankrupt and in poverty after having a very prosperous career) - I couldn’t wait to see where he lived and worked. The walls are covered in paintings; mostly those of his teachers. His bed was display – only four foot long so he obviously lived in a time when the Dutch weren’t so tall. We learnt about him as the painter of The Nightwatchmen which Kerry and I saw last time but he is also really famous for his etchings. He is the forerunner of the graphic artists. I could hardly get enough of his work.

It is rare that you are able to see the “other parts” of the artist - the other passions/quirks that they have like Monet had his garden, Van Gogh his madness but here you had a man who was an insatiable knick knack collector. He collected everything all kinds of knick knacks from around the world like fossils, coral, Indian head dresses, native necklaces, turtle shells rocks etc. Fabulous stuff – we would have got on so well!

Well that concludes our trip to Amsterdam – we have a great time and I love travelling with the G man, even if he is on business.

Some things they don't tell you in the Amsterdam guide books:

The airport security men are delicious - being searched by them has the potential to be fun:)
Pedestrians or bicycles are a menace depending on which you are, cars are superfluous, trams are cool!
A visit to the grocery store is well worth it - British food has definitely improved due to continental influence but has a way to go.
Dutch art rocks - maybe it is the light with everything being below sea level - go figure
There is not one American coffee depot (not even a Starbucks) - but good coffee can be bought from the supermarket. Plus their famous “druggie coffee shops”

Graeme in between business sessions