8 June 2005 Wednesday
Breakfast in the morning, which means that you go to the dining room which is miraculously transformed into sun-filled room with new views all around. A wonderful chef would make omelets by request every other day. Breakfast buffet always includes fresh fruit and half a dozen cereals. Pastries, coffee tea milk juice breads toast and on and on and on. Every meal that is provided is enough to feed one for the entire day. Really !
On this first touring day, we had been assigned colors, which corresponded with one of the guides. Katya/Blue Angels, Nela/Yellow Sunshine, and Gerald/Red Devils (I think). Our Canal Tour of Amsterdam began with a late canal boat, which put off our departures. Each group was to leave 10 minutes apart. We walked off the River Harmony onto the pier and waited several minutes for the small canal boat, which appeared in time. The Canal Boat Tour took us on a 45 minute tour around the older part of Amsterdam. Facades of the more ornate buildings of wealthy commercialists, small houseboats tied along the walls. Flower boxes. Thousands of bicyclists, Blond Blond Blond people. Tall. We slowly motored along, feeling at least as though we were really ready to begin our trip. Each portion of the canal was named, and since the canals were free to all, quite busy. One can just imagine how expensive even the tiniest houseboat is. One among many anecdotes, thousands of stolen bicycles are fished out of the canal every year. Railings were put up to keep cars from accidentally falling in.
When our boat made its three point turn to head down one of the portions of the canal, the boat accidentally hit the side quite hard. One of the women who was seated at the very back outside deck, fell off the long bench and hurt her hip. Consternation and concerns. One of the doctors in the group, Katya our leader and tour guide/captain of the little ship went rushing back. Sore and shaken but nothing broken – luckily!
Boat tour took us to the dock of Gassan Diamond Factory. Demonstration and discussion of diamond polishing was very very brief so that the main mission of this tour could be achieved. SELLING DIAMONDS. The Jews of Holland were naturally known for their extraordinary Brilliant Cut diamonds, which refers to the way in which each facet is cut. Admittedly gorgeous. The flawless one carat diamond that the saleswoman displayed in the crease between her forefinger and middle finger was worth a cool $66,000. "Did you buy anything?" we asked each other. "In my mind I bought everything." I said. Free refreshments from the Gassan but in that separate building was a demonstration and display of Delftware. Clearly all opportunities to sell were exploited!
From the Diamond factory, we boarded buses to the Van Gogh Museum. On the way, we drove and looked around. Neat Amsterdam. Relatively clean and bristling with bikers riding the sturdy unbeautiful black touring bikes. We were warned over and over again about the Killer Bikes. Look left and right! We were warned because if you were very lucky, the rider MIGHT right their bell just before they hit you. So... ding ding PAS OP! Look out!
Got off the bus at a lower level parking garage, walked a few blocks to the Van Gogh Museum, and then were herded in to make our own way through the four levels. Wonderful collection as you can just imagine. Eccentric wildly unappreciated and talented Vincent. Ever poor, relied heavily upon his brother Theo for financial and emotional support, died very shortly after his brother died. V. was influenced by Gauguin, Millet. etc. Thick impressionistic brushstrokes. Color. Wonderful portraits, self portraits. Paintings of fields and vineyards.
After viewing as much as possible in the limited time, I bought several posters which were boxed up for travel. I was so inspired, that I could think of nothing but really beginning with my travel journal. Colored pencils, Sharpie pens. Making a line come alive and then grinding in the colors. I can just imagine where the posters will go in the classroom. I’m also designing at least one bulletin board in my mind.
We walked back to the bus and discovered that someone had shoved the money into the parking ticket validation slot of the machine and time was lost having to find the proper person in charge to dig out the offending money and re-set the machine. Rush rush back to the boat to lunch. Katya called ahead to the kitchen to tell them that we were about twelve minutes off our schedule. And later we would find out that the kitchen staff liked to stick to a very strict schedule, and thus we were highly discouraged from ever being late. Hurray because I also prefer to be desperately PUNCTUAL. After lunch there was time to settle just a bit, and I took the time to try to run back to town to buy hose, personal feminine products (just in case), a razor and a corkscrew. From the clock, I had exactly one hour to find what I had to find before we set sail for the first time. 3:45pm we were told that we had to be on board OR ELSE we could find a taxi to our next stop at Koln Germany. Not a small trip. In case you wanted to know, when we arrived at the boat, we gave all our passports to be placed in the ship's safe. The routine is that we surrender our keycards when we leave the boat, and we are given a card with our room number and the GCT telephone numbers. That way it is easy to know who is on the ship and who is missing. One would have thought that considering the number of ships that dock with hundreds of tourists who come on and off, there would be a whole series of small convenience shops with all manner of small necessities. Not so. The directions I got from the young girl at the souvenir store for the Albert Markt were so vague that I got more and more lost. The minutes ticked as followed the curved little side streets. What I did discover is a treasure of Asian restaurants and markets just beyond the pier. . No time to stop. Tick tick tick. At last I bumbled into a small corner store, where I bought a bottle of white wine (which sits still unopened). The seller pointed to a distant unseen corner for a pharmacy (another American, probably New Yorker, had come in asking for the same kind of pharmacy) and I gave up. 20 minutes and I still had to cross several busy streets and race down the pier. Turned back to see if I could buy a corkscrew. No but I can open the bottle for you. No, I don't want to open it now, I said, but in returning I noticed that there was a small package of feminine products, and a razor! Yay! So then, in the end all I really needed was the hose (which I never found) and a corkscrew.
Ran back, somewhat warm and we pulled away. Quick change. Sailing away drinks. We pulled away from the pier at Amsterdam, engines rumbling slightly, waters churning, and off we went.
At 6:45pm every evening, one of the guides presents a Port Talk in the sitting room, which gives us the information of the following day. This corresponds with the typed agenda we find on our turned down beds after dinner. During the Sail Away gathering, we were given a glass of champagne each and toasted to our new adventure. Our first evening entertainment was a large disappointment. The entertainer's quavering voice sent most of the travelers rushing out of the lounge. Earnest but not at all what we wanted. My mother and I never crossed the threshold. We went back down to our room and quietly got ready for bed.
We pulled away from Koln in the evening and headed towards Koblenz. Dinner more conversations and then off to bed.
posted by Articulate Pen @ 11:33 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home