I AMsterdam

Soren at Bloemenmarkt. I bought a few bulbs but it gets hot in Texas too quickly so I plan to force them for Christmastime. We'll see what happens. Tulips are one of my favorite flowers--very architectural. The kale and snowberry branches were beautiful too.

We took the hop-on, hop-off boat to get all around the city today. The weather has been so good for us. I went shopping--Amsterdam has great clothes. Wow. In case you're interested, the trends I see here are as follows: skinny jeans in boots, long scarves around the neck, brown and black together, knits, patterned hose and tights with short skirts/dresses.
This house (?) is across from the Rijkmuseum. Notice the orange and white striped awnings on the front windows. They are so cheery. Charming place right on the canal.
Iron fence finial of Rijkmuseum--they were all different stylized flowers. So cool. Scandinavia is well-known for its modern interior design and architecture. Some household items are really quirky and comical--think Ikea. At the museum we learned that the Dutch had it going on in the 17th century after kicking the Spanish out and setting up a Republic. They could build ships and SAIL which sent their trade through the roof which in turn brought economic prosperity to this city in particular. We are proving the quote I taught Soren that if you control the seas, you rule the world. The resources that flooded into the city and the wealth it brought was symbolized by a pair of portraits, father and son. The father was dressed conservatively with a serious gaze. The son was corpulent, ostentatiously dressed and had a silly grin on his face. Another painting was of Catholics and Protestants having a "fishing contest" for souls. There is a Protestant church here that had the speaker stand in the middle of a greek cross so everyone had equally positioned seats and no one was favored over the other. Now, several churches have reverted to commercial use because they are so huge, expensive to keep up and organized religion seems to leave a bad taste in people's mouths here. (refer to above fishing painting) And of course there was Rembrandt's "NightWatch."
Bikes are THE preferred mode of transportation around here. Everyone from young mothers, to bankers, to pot-heads to ladies-of-leisure get on these old fashioned bikes. I read that the government first offered free bikes to the public--they were painted white and the idea was to use them when needed and just leave them out for the next person to use. People began stealing them, painting them and then selling them for profit. I am using this story to help me illustrate the difficulties with socialism. I love the ringing bells though and for such a busy city, it is relatively quiet and low pollution--except of course for the smoking. They have multi-tiered parking garages for bikes.
So, Soren calls Amsterdam "Sin City." That Marijuana is legal is one reason. Here's three packs for 10 euro. I am telling Soren that different cultural norms are not always better or worse than one's own, but we talked about how something that isn't healthful should be avoided. I'll leave the medicinal benefit of cannabis and uses for hemp for another discussion. I made the decision to bring him here so that we could go to the Anne Frank House where she lived in hiding for 1 1/2 years before being arrrested and dying in Bergen-Belsen ONE month before the Allied forces liberated the camps. Soren got a hefty dose of issues surrounding human rights, abuse of governmental power, religious tolerance, the depth of one human's soul, and the importance of writing in a diary/journal. It broke my heart when I watched Anne's father Otto, who survived the war, say after reading Anne's diary after she had died, "My conclusion is that parents don't ever REALLY know their children." He had no idea she thought at the depth that she did. We also went to Coster diamond factory. I have mixed feelings about the diamond industry right now. In the past I thought it was morally superior to boycott it, then I talked to a Canadian geologist that made me reconsider. Soren learned about the ways diamonds are cut, polished and set and saw a map of all the diamond mines, the majority of which are in West and South Africa. Business practices there in the past have troubled me, but I want to avoid fundamentalist extremism. We'll see where I land on this issue.

This city's roofline is great. These dutch gables and curvy hipped rooves are so fun to look at. There is every kind of person here. From every corner of the globe. I here English, Dutch, and Spanish the most but there are many Africans, MiddleEasterners here too. The press and smell of humanity on the streets of a large city is unforgettable. I have to say that eventhough I am open minded about different cultures, Dutch is not the prettiest language to fall on the ears, in my opinion. It sounds as if people are either cussing, spitting, gulping down a letter, or saying "fart" a lot. And then I realize to my dismay, that English is mostly a Germanic language too. I miss Irish Gaelic. Tomorrow we take a train to Paris. My ears will love to hear French for sure.