On the road again

      We are in the swing of making plans for a few weeks of American family visits, which of course include the Amsterdam walking tour and surely the canal boat trip. One can easily do these in one day.      At this time of the year we will definitely visit the Keukenhof (the national botanical gardens) and view the surrounding miles of tulip fields that color the ground. As that requires Greenwheels we will use the rest of the day and visit typical Dutch villages and towns.      But there are many more days to fill. One of those should be a kroegentocht (phonetically: kroeg-a-tog-th). Such a pub crawl is a part of Amsterdam one would be remiss not to offer even to a teetotaler.      How did cafes come to be, one might ask? Well here we go: It all emerged from a mid-nineteenth century Flemish trend (let no one ever say the Dutch do not like those Belgians they so often abuse in their jokes), ...

Across the canal from us two little Peugeot cars have been ogling at us since we moved in. For those who don't know about Greenwheels: those cars reflect the last bastion of approved sin in this "we all use public transportation" country. We do have like most countries our quorum of sinners as 7 households out of 10 do have a car. As a contrast, the US considers soft drug use sinful and our 2.28 cars per household a necessity. One must reflect here however, that Holland has 1045 people living together on one square mile instead of the 88 in the US. And please also consider that 9000 people per square mile live and park cars in Amsterdam, making parking each day in the city 5 times more expensive than having a joint once a day per household. Which of course does not imply that every household smokes joints. Sandee and I have never tried one. See our Apartment across the Canal? Almost every Dutch resident has an "OV card" loaded with euros, which allows an easy ...

So here I am sitting in front of our window looking occasionally up from my typing over our Singel canal to watch what's going on out there: bicycles, lots of them weaving their way around pedestrians, cars and other bicycles as well as trucks parked on the bridge. We are privileged to live in a bend of the canal, so that looking straight forward through the window affords us the unrestricted view of the canal flowing under three bridges toward the Y harbor which lies behind the three towers of the Noorderkerk (northern church) which offers our horizon along a tree lined canal view about a mile away. The sun illuminates the fresh green on the trees and casts shadows on the passing boats under them. The sounds of passing people talking multiple languages as well as the warning rings of oncoming bicycles often sporting wheelbarrow sized boxes in front of them with babies or infants strapped inside of these boxes who are swerving around unsuspecting pedestrians while avoiding oncoming...