Last year i’d decided that i had to be honest with myself and admit that i was simply too old and tired to make another trip to the Netherlands. And then yesterday noon Rina called me up with the news that i could stay with her, which somehow put an entirely different spin on things since my Segway can be left just inside the street door, thus solving the major problem.
So i went online to see about ticket availability and got my friend Jeff to make sure i was doing everything right, and although it was much too late to use frequent flier miles, we managed to find an opening on KLM’s non-stop flight to Amsterdam that was less than i’d paid in 2008.
So i’m going back to Amsterdam 25 July – 25 August. And this time the focus will be on learning Dutch, so i won’t be carrying an extra suitcase full of locally unavailable food. Don’t worry, i’ll take the necessary chile powders and such for chile con carne and mole poblano.
The impact on my life is immediate – instead of spending the summer making jams and jellies and chutneys, now i’ll be frantically studying Dutch before i leave. To begin, i’ll start reading all the Facebook posts of all my Dutch friends, looking up every single damn word i don’t know.
The rest of the good news is that Jeff is between apartments and will stay here while i’m gone, solving problems for both of us.
It’s astonishing to me how, after i’d completely given up on another trip to Amsterdam, one fell into place easily in a matter of hours. Sometimes things work. Click on “2011 – Amsterdam Revisited” under the Amsterdam Tales menu in the left gutter.
Here’s a neighborhood artichoke, working hard on Hartford Street: