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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 27, 2018 19:29:00 GMT
Bixa, will your dogs welcome you or shun you to punish you for going away? Mick, they are always ecstatic to see me and to be back in their own home. The vet's husband brings them home and they stick their little furry faces through the circles in the driveway gate and make yips and yodels of joy. I do the same, except for the face in the circles part. Bixa, surely you've observed the very high quality of English spoken in Amsterdam. Oh, absolutely, and practically accentless as well. Often it takes a few words before I recognize that the speaker is not an American. I have a Dutch friend who went to Namibia a few years ago and had no difficulty communicating in Dutch in Windhoek Interesting. I believe Tod said something about using Afrikaans in the Netherlands, probably in her Amsterdam thread. I'll have to look it up. It's pretty 'normal' in Belgium Flanders to speak more than just Flemish/Dutch. We have French at school from age 10 (with upto 8 hrs a week in secondary school), English from age 12. Most people my age (who took a language degree) also had German and Spanish classes. It has amazed me in Belgium and in the Netherlands how people can handle almost any language thrown at them. It must be very high quality foreign language education, too, as everyone speaks so well. I'm embarrassed over my poor store of languages. I've taken to greeting people with a few words so they'll recognize me as an English speaker. No one yet has assumed I'm American. Yesterday the train lady spoke to me in French. Well, it's past time to add some more to this thread. I'm skipping over some away days and some museum parts and will be taking you to the deep dark forest.. But first -- a kitty cat! We've all wondered what it is that cats like to read. Now we know ~
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 27, 2018 19:48:32 GMT
This past Sunday I went to the Amsterdam Bos because I wanted to attend the Pure floating Sunday Market. I found it to be a superior market of its kind and recommend it to anyone who likes this sort of thing.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 27, 2018 21:15:13 GMT
I wish I'd gotten a better shot of this nice man who explained to me all about lupine beans. Yes, that's right -- from the flower whose seeds are poisonous. He told me of the rigid controls and how the growers have to have their crops tested to make sure they're safe for consumption. He said the seeds in the bag are sold as food, not as planting seeds, although of course they'd sprout and grow. The danger would be in not knowing if your crop had dangerous levels of the poisonous alkaloid. At any rate, I tried the boiled beans and found them delicious -- similar in taste to garbanzos, but more flavorful. granadanativegarden.org/2013/04/29/lupine-friend-or-foe/
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Post by lagatta on Jul 27, 2018 22:43:51 GMT
The prices are also most reasonable for that kind of place. Did you have an empanada? Those little plants are lovely. I often felt the same, in Amsterdam. Impossible to take them home.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 29, 2018 23:16:22 GMT
LaGatta, I did have a beef empanada. The filling was quite nice, but the pastry dough had been overworked. Moving along here, I'm going to put in something out of sequence, just to keep things mixed up a little bit. Yesterday, the 28th, was the opening of Pride Week in Amsterdam. I didn't feel like braving crowds to stand along any of the parade route, but later did stroll over to the section of Vondel Park set aside as Pride Park. It was a gorgeous day without the heat of the past week and people were out and about and simply radiating happiness. The park is an easy walk from my apartment. Let's start with some arty shots of the vegetation bordering the little rill as you enter the park from the Vondelbrug (bridge shown earlier in this report) ~
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 29, 2018 23:29:43 GMT
And here we are with a performance in progress. Bunches of happy people and boy, do I love crowd shots!
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 29, 2018 23:41:14 GMT
The next performer came with dancers ~
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Post by lagatta on Jul 30, 2018 0:06:34 GMT
Lovely! The first Pride event I attended was in a park in downtown Montréal, with a very good friend who was one of the founders of "Le Front de libération homo". He was really in the first generation of gay liberation activist here; he was from a small town and his dad quite literally kicked him out of the house when he was 16 for being a "feluette", which I suppose would translate as swishy or effeminate. He had never had sex with either a boy or a girl at the time. He wound up on the streets of Montréal; fortunately he was bright and managed not to get sucked up into the drug or sex trades, but it was a hard, lonely existence for a kid.
After papa died, my friend grew close to his mother who had also moved to Montréal. She loved her son and I'm sure she didn't approve of her husband's cruelty to him, but those were other days and the man was still the unchallenged head of the family.
Yes, I find a lot of the merch at contemporary pride parades utter tacky Kitsch - which is the worst kind of Kitsch!!! but I am so happy to see such consensual acceptance of difference, at least in some countries.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 30, 2018 7:01:45 GMT
That's a sad story, LaGatta, and very sad to know that it's only one of similar and worse that have gone on all around the world. I neglected to include a picture of the official municipal Pride banners which are up everywhere all over the city. Here's a shot from yesterday evening, taken on the Vondelpark bridge ~
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2018 22:17:42 GMT
I wanted to let you know that I have not abandoned this report but, I (we) have had so much "stuff" to deal with here in NOLA (far too much to get into detail), and, I have to go to NY tomorrow, 8/1, and deal with "stuff" up there (also, too much to go into detail). I have scrolled through, made mental notes on so much of this report, marveled at so many pics and your comments/descriptions etc. Upon my return toward the end of the month I will be able to sit back and really enjoy it and badger you with questions and comments galore. (I will be "off the grid" wifi wise, TV,all tech, save some trips to the local library). Bicycle rides to my friend's shack in the dunes will be my salvation... Thanking you in advance for your understanding dear.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 1, 2018 22:20:23 GMT
Thank you, Casimira! I realize that this report goes on and on, so I appreciate those little cries and murmurs from the audience that let me know it's okay to put another slide in the projector. I'm looking forward to your questions and of course hoping for a report from your particular paradise. I believe I've mentioned that I stayed in Oud West. There were quite a few sidewalk cafés where I was, on Bilderdijkstraat near Kinkerstraat. One of my goals on my evening walks was to see the real neighborhood still existing there among the poké bowls and gourmet burgers. Here are some snaps from one of those walks. Some of you may remember that I was charmed by the late 19th century tiles ornamenting the fronts of relatively modest houses in the neighborhood where I stayed in Balham last year. Much of Oud West is from the same era, with housing which was built for the same economic group.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 1, 2018 22:32:10 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 1, 2018 22:43:06 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 1, 2018 22:55:59 GMT
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Post by bjd on Aug 2, 2018 5:10:46 GMT
Nice mix of photos Bixa. I especially like the various gardens and the Mondrian door and mailboxes.
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Post by whatagain on Aug 2, 2018 5:55:24 GMT
About languages I met some US tourists in the Train - actually the whole coach was invaded - and one woman spoke some words of french and had her children aged about 10 learn french too. Not all hope is lost ! It is a generational process. My grandfather was taught no foreign language. My father spoke some Dutch and some English (my Taylor is rich !). I started to learn Flemish at 13 my children at 4.
Bixa we saw you had quite a fab trip. I am sure you'll be delighted to be home. For a few days at least ;-)
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 2, 2018 10:35:37 GMT
Thank you, Bjd. There were a couple of people watering in that second garden. They were quite friendly and invited me into the garden and told me about the compost used. It's trucked in from a farm a couple of hours outside the city and augmented by what they can make there in the garden. Whatagain, that woman is admirable, especially since English is becoming the lingua franca around the world, certainly in Amsterdam. It seems crucial to learn the language of wherever you live, something I really felt when I had to ask other shoppers to read labels for me in the supermarket. I love "my tailor is rich" Someone once told me about a phrase book she had for a visit to either the Netherlands or Germany. One of the phrases was "Behold -- a thrice-mown field!" Yes, a wonderful, wonderful trip, but glad right now to be resting up for the next one. I'll probably wear myself out posting the monster backlog of pictures I have. This thread is nearing the end, but god forgive me, I still have more to show here.
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Post by lagatta on Aug 2, 2018 11:50:43 GMT
Livia thanks you for the lovely photos of her Dutch incarnation. Very similar - Livia's eyes are greener and shh, her tail is shorter. She has a somewhat stubby tail, but holds it high like a little flagpole.
And I know you have hugged and patted your three doggie darlings.
It is good to see that there is some community life remaining despite the bulldozer of poke-bowl and silly-coffee fuelled gentrification. I was dismayed to see the pace of that process farther east in Dapperbuurt and Indischebuurt, the last time I stayed there. Here a longstanding Italian caffè, Caffè Internazionale, has morphed into a tiki bar of all things. This bears no relation to the community; there are practically no Hawaii natives or Polynesians in general here - perhaps some students from former French colonies such as Tahiti or New Caledonia.
Nah, it is just some hipsters; I guess "cultural appropriation" doesn't apply to the cultures of Pacific Islanders.
One thing that your thread reminded me is the importance of indicating good, clean and accessible toilets.
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 2, 2018 14:33:42 GMT
perhaps some students from former French colonies such as Tahiti or New Caledonia. Errr... former? Both are still French. Tahiti is part of the COM (collectivité d'outre-mer) of Polynesia and New Caledonia is a slightly more autonomous COM in Melanesia. However, there will indeed be a referendum regarding the independence of New Caledonia on November 4th of this year. A vote for independence is considered unlikely because even though ethnic statistics are illegal, there is quite a large population of French origin as well as many immigrants from places like Vietnam or Indonesia in the loyalist camp. Nevertheless, anything is possible these days.
Okay, that ends my pedantic off-topic moment.
Anyway, I have been delighted to see all of these photos and can't wait to see more. I used to go to Amsterdam, just for the day, two or three times a year but that has tapered off, mostly because airline employees (including retirees of course) now have to pay all of the taxes on tickets, from which we used to be exempt. So instead of paying the equivalent of about 30 euros for a round trip flight in the old days, it is now more than 100, so the Thalys is quite competitive. For the 10th anniversary of the Thalys, I even benefited from the special deal they had of tickets for 10 euros -- so I made a day trip by train for just 20 euros. It rained all day and I had water up to my shins crossing certain streets in the centre -- try to imagine that! It should not happen in a place with drainage canals!
Suffice to say that I have been to Amsterdam probably at least 50 times -- always briefly except for the first trip in 1971 -- but I know and love most of the streets and have been delighted to rediscover them through the eyes of another person. My principal fault has been to not see more of the Netherlands over the years, even though I even drove to Amsterdam once and used a car there (insane!). Other than that, I have seen Zandvoort and Maastricht. Not much!
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Post by lagatta on Aug 2, 2018 15:53:09 GMT
You can certainly drive to Amsterdam, but it is pointless to use a car there. Everyone I know who drove there had to park quite far away from their destination and take a tram, but they knew that in advance.
Sorry for being fuzzy about the current political status of those places - I knew there was still a tie to France, but that the status had changed from classical colonialism. Do COM have any representation in France, as DOM do?
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 2, 2018 16:28:54 GMT
The COM are the former TOM (territoires d'outre-mer). They have députés and sénateurs in the French legislature.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 2, 2018 19:48:44 GMT
LaGatta, yes about oodles of canine cariño at my house! I had rather thought Dutch cat was the spirit of Renzo sent to guide me, but you'd know better. ... I know and love most of the streets and have been delighted to rediscover them through the eyes of another person. Thank you, Kerouac! As for the rest of the Netherlands, it still awaits me, too, although I did make a few side trips I'll be showing later. About discovering Amsterdam through the eyes of others: there has been some great coverage of the city on Anyport. Tod and Fumobici have shown it in different seasons and for different reasons, for instance. And since I am about to cover statue territory you already showed and since I didn't even know of Patrick's report on the Tuschinski until you told me about it, this seems like a good place to point everyone towards the rich vein of Amsterdam there is to mine on Anyport. But now it is time for me to wrap up my Amsterdam thread, although as threatened previously, there are side trips and museum threads waiting to be born. More architecture, taken on the day of Pride Park as I exited Vondel Park off a path just north of the Tea House into a leafy residential enclosure ~
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 2, 2018 20:06:44 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 2, 2018 20:19:39 GMT
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Post by fumobici on Aug 2, 2018 20:38:22 GMT
I have tried and tried to find out the story behind this building, to no avail. You can see why ~ I searched the business name "Cheese Inn", got an address, Damrak 37 (nice location!), searched that, and found this: www.monumenten.nl/monument/53693Google translation from Dutch of the text: preface
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 2, 2018 21:47:39 GMT
Hey ~ thank you! Somehow I had a different address, 17 Damrak I think. Anyway, fascinating information and exactly what I wanted to know. That sort of design verve is everywhere evident in Amsterdam, from whatever period. It's one of the reasons I feel I barely scratched the surface of the place, even though I was there a month. And even though I visited quite a few museums, I missed a couple of biggies I particularly wanted to see. It's easy to gripe about the number of tourists in the city, but there is so much to draw them there.
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Post by mossie on Aug 3, 2018 15:09:48 GMT
Many years since I visited Amsterdam, so thanks for reminding me.
Trust you didn't consume too many psychedelic seeds.
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Post by lagatta on Aug 3, 2018 17:25:22 GMT
Could well have been the spirit of Renzo, who did have a very long tail.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 4, 2018 11:28:51 GMT
Thank you, Mossie! Nah, no psychedelic seeds for me, although I was in dire danger of becoming a hopeless cheese addict.
Well, I did feel nicely protected, LaGatta, so thank you & your spirit-familiar.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 18, 2023 16:04:51 GMT
Quoting myself to show just one of the bike lots in Amsterdam, this one at the ferry landing. The article below the photo tells how help is at hand with an amazing feat of engineering at Centraal StationLooking around as I wait for the ferry, I marvel again at the sheer number of bikes in Amsterdam ~ Underwater bike garage solves Amsterdam station’s storage headacheAmsterdam central station’s bike garage will be free for the first 24 hours and is intended to help integrate cycling with the railway network.
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