Sleepless nights in Amsterdam

 Blog 06-18-22 Saturday

I can’t explain it but on this, my fourth day abroad, I have yet to have a good night’s sleep. My second night I didn’t sleep at all, the longest night of tossing and turning I can remember. The next two nights I’ve managed about four hours each evening. The end result is that I’ve been groggy and dispirited since I landed at my hostel.

Today, finally, I had some relief. Not sleep, but my day was active for the first time. 

I registered for a ‘free’ tour of Amsterdam’s Jewish Quarter and the history that goes with it. The guide was an American expat, married under Holland’s gay marriage statutes. One of the first things he told us was welcome solace. I had not been able to get a ticket to Anne Frank’s home — you must register about ten days in advance to procure one of those rare ducats. Our guide assured us that ‘you aren’t missing what you think you are missing’. The actual home was demolished long ago and replaced with a sleek, modern museum. The experience of walking the same steps as Anne wasn’t possible, and thus my disappointment was not as crushing as I thought. 

Like much of Europe the Dutch have gone to lengths to symbolically atone for the crimes of 1940-45. They are building a Holocaust Museum; they have put up a Names Monument with over 100,000 names inscribed in brown brick; the streets are peppered with small, bronze plaques containing the names of folks who were literally dragged away to Mathhausen, Sobibor, and, of course, Auschwitz.

The people who lived at this home never came back .

Small comfort to the remaining 15,000 or so Jews still resident in Amsterdam. Apparently Holland had the highest percentage of Jews killed of any country in Europe, chilling when I think of how many Polish Jews were murdered The theory for the high death toll is that Holland was ruled by the SS, whereas most other lands had Quislings to buffer the murderous zeal of Himmler, et.al. 

After the tour I sat on a park bench and watched the boats sail by.

The water in the canals, once fetid, have been cleaned up enough to allow swimming, thought I saw very little of that. 

There are untold numbers of water craft from the most jerry-built to the kinds you’d see at any American marina. Since Amsterdam is riven with canals there are ample avenues for people to motor about in the sun, many stretched out for complete solar coverage. Not as many drunks as I expected. 

Twenty minutes after I sat down a man next to me — Robert — started up a conversation with me. For two pleasant hours we chatted up the world’s affairs and our own personal experiences. After four days of loneliness this was just the medicine I needed. 

Sarphati Park, across from my hostel, is a splendid piece of urban geography, wild but safe, pretty much trash-free, full of people and wildlife. It's about three blocks long and two blocks wide. 

My plans are to linger here in Amsterdam for three more days, thence to take a bus to Rotterdam to — I hope — take in the Rotterdam Bluegrass Festival next weekend. It’s a free concert lasting three days. I couldn’t get a ticket via the internet so it is possible I won’t be able to get inside the gates but I’m going to take the risk. At a minimum I’ll spend a day in Rotterdam. Next stop would be Antwerp, Belgium if all goes as planned. Then comes the big question: should I head to Paris, the ultimate Tourist Trap? I have ‘sort of’ promised friends I’d take in the Louvre, but another part of me would prefer to take in the French countryside and skip the crowds. Even Amsterdam, as much as I like it, is diminished by the hordes of folks elbowing their way past the bars and sidewalk cafes. 

The dutch are making provision for electric cars. I saw lots of Tesla's. On many streets they have these small outlets that you can hook up to. I'm not sure how much competition there is for these now but in five years I'll bet landlords will reap profits by boasting one of these out front.