BIMHAUS!!!

Haha crazy dutch.... their language is just similar enough to english that reading signs and words is hilarious. just to be ignorant foreigner, but really..... bimhaus? pannekoken? oot? maybe you have to be there. ... bimhaus is this picture, we had seen it in the morning. miscommunication with tony left us both feeling set up for the evening.... a brisk run alone across amsterdam (half an hour for what should have been a much longer transit by foot, was rather impressed with myself, and very exhilerated by the running, through the red-light district, across some very long bridges) delivered me to the bimhaus to see a concert by erica stucky, a jazz-crossover vocalists, accompanied by.... two tubas :D sounds wierd, and it was, but wonderful! sounded like an opera diva cutting loose in the shower - fun pop and oldies standards with a wonderful bassline, good humor.... my double scotch didn't hurt, and being able to lounge on the steps (because i got there in the nick of time and they were basically sold out) in a little black-box theater. the bimhaus is supposed to have amazing acoustics, they were good in the little theater, but i think the main one is award-winning - didn't matter, it was amazing anyway. back to the hotel to find tony gaspingly sick in bed :(, but i wasn't ready to turn in, so i talked my way into a group of UIowa 4th year architecture students (small world!) and we went out... i felt like an old hand after one day and night in amsterdam, could show them the fun districts anyway. was fun to meet new people randomly and move on.... 

Shadow puppets!

I like shadow pictures way too much. this picture also illustrates the wonderful sense of social consciousness the dutch have - there were public recycling bins all over, and people used them. and bikes! everywhere, people dressed up and using them, flocks of people traveling together on them, many people doubling up on them - it was wonderful, they had their own lanes also (which made for pretty wide confusing roads, but cool) and it was such a pleasant looking way to get around... the size of the city was perfect to make it more then practical. although biking in that cold.... well it wouldn't have taken long to get anywhere though. Not too much said about the city yet, but we had walked a long way and seen many things by 6, and i crashed for a few hours in the hostel.... goood sleep. 

Snow/Sun Showers!

You can't really catch it in this picture, but the weather this day was very cool and wierd. Lots of sunshine, but lots of clouds too that would drop mini-blizzards on us. very beautiful still and strange. makes the light very unique. here's one of the canals - odd in that it has a park beside it too - most were built up on both sides, but with roads before the buildings, unlike venice. a cute little town - i walked past many places multiple times in the day and a half i was there. this was after going to and rejecting entering the Kunstmuseum and the Van Gohe museum - maybe next time, they were expensive. after that we were in a pretty bourgoise (pronounces booje) part of the city, wandering for a long time to find something to drink... admiring the strangeness. the ducks there are crazy-messed up - just there, everywhere else they're normal. polluted water for longer or something. 

Amsterdam 1 - Sat 11 Mar 2006

Set off for amsterdam friday afternoon/evening. beautiful train ride across absolutely flat plains in bright sun and fog. better/worse then the plains around fargo - i like flat more then i should admit. was dark already when we got to amsterdam, a quickish walk got us to our hostel, a few bars - one cool one with old men playing canasta and chess for everyone - and bed.

Saturday was bright and sunny and OMG cold! but we shiveringly set off for the docklands.... brand new architecture on brand new land reclaimed from the ocean - interesting to see new stuff work, and work well. Saw the well-published MVRDV building on the ocean first, the off to acres and acres of new stuff right by the ocean - felt like the edge of the world.