19 May 2007:

We begin our approach to Rotterdam early, as the sun is beginning to rise. It turns out that Rotterdam is still some distance from the North Sea; we embark the Rotterdam Harbor pilot and thread our way through the river channel for a good two hours before actually arriving at our docking station in the port. The location is very good if you are planning to tour Rotterdam....we are docked at the cruise terminal near the “Swan” Bridge which is close to downtown and the cruise terminal has several levels of restaurants / cafes so even passengers with limited mobility can exit the ship and experience a little Dutch culture.

However, I am not staying in Rotterdam, I am headed for the capitol city of Amsterdam.....when I say capitol city, I am parroting what our guide told us. The Hague is the seat of government and the residence of the Queen, but they call Amsterdam their capitol. I never did quite get the subtle difference, but there is one. Since it is a Saturday morning, and all good Dutchmen are sleeping late after a full week of hard work, the roads are clear and the drive from Rotterdam to Amsterdam takes just under an hour. Let me mention our driver; we have a very tall, blond, slender, female driver.......who may be the most attractive, and certainly is the most competent bus driver I’ve had. The bus is a very large vehicle; our guide tells us it is the largest passenger vehicle that is allowed in the country, and our driver maneuvers it with ease (and only inches to spare) through narrow streets and around the hoards of bicycle riders that appear once we are in the city.

Rotterdam is the largest port in Europe (so says our guide, with no small amount of pride). It is a brawny, hard working, blue collar town that takes pride in its rough, no non-sense attitude. Where as Amsterdam is more gentile, elite, effete and liberal. The Rotterdamers say that “In Rotterdam we make the money that they spend in Amsterdam”. Perhaps you can tell by now that our guide is from Rotterdam.

The drive into Amsterdam takes us through green, flat countryside filled with farmland, canals, the occasional old-style Dutch windmill that is used to continuously drain the land of water, and many newer wind turbines that are used to generate electricity. It seems that most of The Netherlands was once under either a lake or the sea, before the industrious Dutch decided to take back the land from the water, and many of the place-names reflect that fact. So, a place that was once a lake will still be called by the lake’s name even though it is now farmland or a village. 

Amsterdam is a city of beauty, old buildings, canals, crime, whorehouses and drugs. It is an interesting mix of attractions that draws an even more interesting mix of people. Businessmen in suits mingle with tourists in shorts and with aging hippies in their tie-dyed shirts; backpackers, struggling under a full load with the grim determination of all backpackers (“I WILL walk through all of Europe this summer, even if it kills me”) pause to rest in the sun, drink a beer and watch the parade of fellow traveler that circulates through the city. A crazy man first shouts angrily, then talks quietly and seductively to a lamppost in Dam Square. Street mimes, jugglers, magicians, beggars and pickpockets all work the crowd trying to get enough money to make it through another day in this jewel of a city. Think San Francisco on steroids and you come close....but don’t quite describe Amsterdam. There are beautiful canals, statues, museums, fine architecture, pleasant cafes and there are bordellos where the ladies sit in the windows under red lights beckoning customers and shops selling heroin (in small, personal use, quantities) and marijuana cafes. We are told that crime has become a problem here because of the increased use of drugs and the type of merchant and type of customer that they attract. Our guide speaks of the violence that the drug trade has brought to their quiet, peaceful land.....”20 people have been killed here in the last 5 years”.  I don’t tell her that in Dallas, 20 people killed, would be considered a bad weekend, but it surely wouldn’t be considered a bad half-decade. 

The Red-Light district is located along side the first church in Amsterdam. They both date from the very early days of the city and they have managed to co-exist in close proximity for hundreds of years. The attitude seems to be that “if you didn’t have sin, you wouldn’t need a place to confess that sin”. So, church and whorehouse, priest and prostitute mingle in the old city.

Our tour goes pretty well....but not without a few hiccups. After a driving tour of the city we exit the bus to take a canal boat ride through the major waterways, only to find that our guide has brought us to the wrong canal. But it is an easy walk to the correct canal. Here I should make a comment about walking in Amsterdam: Look, very carefully, in both directions, before stepping off the sidewalk. The drivers are courteous, the other pedestrians (at least the ones who aren’t tourists) are patient, but the bicyclists stop for nothing......not red-lights (the traffic kind of red-light, not the other kind) and certainly not for dazed American tourists who are gawking at the scenery....as a couple of people on our tour discovered. And while on the boat ride the single, very small toilet facility on the boat became stopped up and non-functional. This caused quite the commotion in our group of weak bladdered travelers and did, somewhat diminish the romance of the trip through the canals. Another little problem occurred at the restaurant for lunch...a quaint little rabbit warren of a building on several levels with many little rooms built in no apparent order and a narrow, winding staircase to an upper level. Our merry little band of tourists were first marched up the stairs and seated in a nice open dining room which was located convenient to their large, modern restrooms. This was greatly appreciated by all after the earlier mentioned malfunction on the boat.  After a few minutes we were told “No, this is not your area” and we trundled down the stairs to another crowded, cramped little room. Once we settled in there, we were again told “No, this is not your area” and we were herded off once more to an even more crowded, tightly-packed room, where we were now broken up into little groups of 2 or 3 people and seated at tables filled with strangers who had already started eating. Much grumbling about “inconvenience” followed; but the food was fine and the beer was even finer, so it was a good mid-day respite.  

Note to self (or others cruising to Amsterdam): If I were to do it again, I would book a private tour by car or van that would make more photo stops around the city and give you more time to wander around on your own. The bus tour only gave us a few areas to get out and explore, so many sights could only be viewed briefly and through a bus window.

One of the more interesting, if perhaps not the most cultural aspects of the city, was the bicycle-beer bar that I saw on the street. It is a vehicle about the size of a small trolley car that has a U-shaped bar and 12-14 barstools. At the bottom of each barstool is a set of bicycle peddles. The bartender serves everyone beer from a keg mounted on the front of the trolley, and then when everyone has a glass in hand, he turns to a steering wheel located at the end of the bar and tells everyone to start peddling. And with that, they are off on a tour of the city on a beer-drinker powered bicycle trolley bar....only to pull over again at a convenient corner when the peddlers require more refreshment. This seems to me like an idea whose time has come. I will try to post a photo on the website shortly.

Note to Carol Shoop: I’m going to suggest that Bally’s should get a bicycle-beer bar for our spinning class.