feldmanlarry

I hope not to have as busy a day as this maybe until I get to Italy in about 2 weeks. This was a day of contrasts, going directly from celebrating my favorite non-Canadian beer, to feeling the horrors of the holocaust, to a beautiful 18-dish meal.

Yesterday, I couldn’t find a place to buy a European sim card so I was using ATT on my old phone. I was directed to a grocery store to get a sim. A Muslim woman was working the desk and walked me through what I needed to do to get started. I asked her if she had something like a paper clip to open the sim drawer on the phone and surprisingly, she gave me the pin from her scarf. This gesture will stick with me a long time (pun unintended at first).

Often people (Margaret) tell me how wonderful the mornings are when it’s so peaceful. One of many reasons I’m not a morning person is that NOTHING’S OPEN IN THE MORNING, for a good reason – no one wants to work in the early mornings. I had to pass by several great looking cafes that were all opening at 11.

I loved these escalators that had a ramp instead of steps. It was a little disorienting at first to be leaning forward or back rather than standing vertically.

I won’t bore you with my next two excursions – a one hour bus tour and a canal boat. The heavy rain kept me from fully enjoying them even though I’m really glad to have done them.

I got off the boat at the Rijksmuseum stop with the intention of going to the nearby Van Gogh museum. It was a ten-minute walk through brutal blowing winds and rain. When I got there, there was a 45-minute line and they were closing soon after. Apparently a rainy Sunday is about the worst time for museums since the locals are looking to do something indoors.

I’m not colorblind but maybe I’m “color dull”. Colors don’t stand out as much for me as for others. My world doesn’t have many shades, just a handful of basic colors. I don’t think it’s a medical condition that warrants me getting handicap parking (although that would be nice).

Given this “color dullness”, I find it hard to really love art but I can enjoy going through a museum seeing pictures for their story line but not so much for what the artist does with color. I went to the Rijksmuseum and appreciated Vermeer’s Milkmaid and Rembrandt’s Night Watch.

I then fought the ridiculous rain and the even more ridiculous umbrella to get to the “Heineken Experience”.

I enjoyed tasting Wort, the sweet water and barley mixture used in the early part of brewing.

There was a tame ride where the ground shook while we were being beer that got mixed and packed among other activities. It was hard not to gulp down our small sample when they were teaching us the proper way to do a beer tasting. Fortunately, we were given two full beers to drink at the end of the tour.

At this point, I was done with sightseeing. It was 6:30 or so and I figured out a tram to get back to my apartment. Unfortunately, it closed its doors when I was a few feet away while fighting the wind and rain. I gave up and took a taxi. My plan was to relax a little then go out to dinner.

Someone had given me the advice to try to get Anne Frank tickets online to avoid standing in line for 2 hours or so. I laid down and checked my computer and no tickets were available until May. Just before shutting my computer, I clicked on the more info link on today’s date and surprisingly, there were 3 tickets available for 7:30, which was 30 minutes away. I filled my credit card info in, ran out the door, got a taxi, and was inside the museum at 7:30. Eating can wait.

I was moved by seeing the bookcase that hid the stairs, climbing the stairs, and walking through the rooms.

I couldn’t keep back tears watching the videos of people describing what Anne Frank’s story meant to them. I was born only 7 years after she was killed. If I had been born earlier and lived in Europe, most likely my fate would have been the same as hers. At Yad Vashem in Israel, I saw several Feldmans on a train list going to an extermination camp.

From there, I got a taxi to go to dinner. The taxi driver translated a message about my phone data plan that was in Dutch. It was a little scary that he was driving while reading and translating. I bought 1gb of data for 10 Euros (about $11). ATT charges $30 for 120mb.

I had wanted to get an Indonesian Rice Table for decades. They said they normally don’t make a rice table for just one person but they did it anyway. It cost 45 euros (about $50) and it included about 18 dishes. Here’s the list.

I had been preparing for this. My only food since breakfast was French fries in the train station around noon. The food came close to 10 PM. After the appetizer, these 17 dishes came out.

Here’s what was left. I was able to eat maybe 3/4 of it. This may have been the best meal I’ve ever had!

I was going to walk back to the apartment but the tram was right there. I got off after one stop and felt like an idiot holding it up since I didn’t know that you have to press a button to open the door.

I walked more in this day (11,276 steps) than any day in at least the couple of years I’ve been keeping track but this is a just a below average day for Margaret. My mind, emotions, and stomach were churning with too much input.