Contents

  1. Preface
  2. San Francisco
  3. Amsterdam
  4. Amsterdam, Helmond
  5. Amsterdam, Zandvoort, Haarlem
  6. Amsterdam, Bruges
  7. Bruges, Brussels, Cologne, Berlin
  8. Berlin
  9. Berlin, Potsdam
  10. Berlin, Wansee
  11. Berlin, Prague
  12. Prague
  13. Prague, Karlstejn, Vienna
  14. Vienna
  15. Vienna, Salzburg, Füssen
  16. Füssen, Neuschwanstein, Munich
  17. Munich, Innsbruck
  18. Innsbruck
  19. Innsbruck, Zürich, Lauterbrunnen
  20. Lauterbrunnen, Jungfraujoch
  21. Lauterbrunnen, Schilthorn
  22. Lauterbrunnen, Spiez, Zermatt
  23. Zermatt
  24. Zermatt, Martigny, Chamonix
  25. Chamonix, Mont Blanc
  26. Chamonix, Mont Blanc, Courmayeur, Aosta, Turin
  27. Barcelona
  28. Barcelona, Sitges
  29. Barcelona
  30. Milan, Venice
  31. Venice
  32. Venice
  33. Venice, Milan, Cinque Terre
  34. Cinque Terre, La Spezia
  35. Cinque Terre, Pisa, Lucca, Florence
  36. Florence
  37. Florence
  38. Florence, Siena
  39. Siena, San Gimignano, Rome
  40. Rome
  41. Rome
  42. Rome, Sorrento
  43. Sorrento, Vesuvius, Pompeii
  44. Sorrento, Positano, Amalfi, Ravello
  45. Sorrento, Capri, Naples
  46. Naples, Bari
  47. Patras, Athens, Mykonos
  48. Mykonos
  49. Mykonos
  50. Mykonos, Paros, Santorini
  51. Santorini
  52. Santorini, Athens
  53. Athens
  54. Athens, Amsterdam, San Francisco


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4. Amsterdam, Zandvoort, Haarlem

Photo Gallery

I had some desire to spend another day exploring the city itself (I had worried that even this would be giving it short shrift, but two is actually plenty for Amsterdam). But the weather was so nice and hot, I decided to hit the beach. So I made only a quick hour-long stop at the Anne Frank house (where I again ran into the Bay Area gang of four). Difficult to imagine being stuck inside this house for years as a youngster during the war. Then an easy but crowded half-hour train ride north to Zandvoort, along the North Sea. Doing this by bike would also be a lot of fun, I'm sure, if you could find the right sort of map. It would also help at the end, because the interesting bit of beach is a long 45-minute walk southwest from the town and train station. The town has a nice big tower overlooking the sea. There is an impressively large wall of sand dunes (at least 30m high) keeping the North Sea at bay, with a network of lovely trails inland. I did actually swim in the North Sea — it's not that cold! In fact, it's very much warmer than the Pacific in San Francisco. Which is a bit sad, considering I was now at over 52° latitude, well north of Vancouver, BC!

On the way back I stopped in Haarlem, which is very pretty and well worth a look. I wandered south through the market and then east, where I was happy to find some lovely windmills (having been in Holland for three days, I was really getting worried that I would leave without seeing a single decent old windmill). Most every thing was closed as it was Monday and after 17:00, but it was a good stroll.

In Amsterdam I sampled some excellent (if pricy) Indonesian cuisine. Apart from pancakes, Dutch food is hardly memorable. Lots and lots of French fries is my main recollection. But the Indonesian food is great and quite different, with something called rijsttafel, a series of a very large number of delicious small plates. Order it only when hungry. I shared it with the fellow who was staying in the room next to mine, a Chinese guy from Costa Rica who lives in North Carolina(!). As we walked back after dinner, a crowded free concert was taking place on a stage set up right across a canal right between lovely houses.

At the Dam later in the evening, a beautiful opera was being performed outdoors. It wasn't free — there were walls built all around to keep the riff-raff like me out. But one still had a pretty good view and excellent sound from the steps of the War Memorial across the street. I eventually met up with a friend from San Francisco who had only just moved here a few days earlier, but only after I waited for a while — I think perhaps his brain had already been addled by all the weed or something. Which I did not try, thank you very much. I did however try a fascinating drink called absinthe, which is not entirely legal in the US and was apparently only recently legalized even here. The alcohol is poured over a sugar cube, which is set on fire and then doused in water. The taste is very much like licorice. A sign in the bar warned that it may cause hallucinations! I didn't have any, nor did I even feel particularly drunk, but I did seem to feel remarkably happy for a while.

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