(written on 18 February 2013)

Being in London as a tourist (though I do prefer the term Independent Traveler, yes, spelled with capitals), I suppose I needed to behave as a tourist, so today I went to some of the typical tourist destinations. No walk in Brompton Cemetery today but instead I walked down Cromwell Rd towards the big museums on that street. First up was the Natural History Museum. Now this is truly a gem, in more than one way of the word. It's a beautiful building, housed in a stunning building which actually resembles (on purpose) the great churches built for religious purposes. You could easily convert it to a cathedral if you wanted to (and if you'd be particularly handy with power tools, i.e. a lesbian) but of course the main purpose of the building and the museum is not to be like religion but to show that evolution is a proven theory. A beautiful statue of Charles Darwin sits in the most central location of the entire building, overlooking the museum's awesome collection which also includes a collection of gemstones and diamonds that would make an average royal blush.

I spent much more time in the museum that I had anticipated (and even then only saw a fraction of its collection) and soon enough made my way to King's Cross and St Pancras International stations, just north east of the city centre. The reason for going there was not because of the stations themselves, although they were both fantastically revamped in recent years, but for another exhibition in a gallery as part of the London Festival of Photography. I spent some happy minutes in the stations before making my way to the gallery which happened to be housed in a grim building in a back alley. The exhibition, though small and not for free, was very nice though with many pictures of daily life in Britain. As a bit of an anglophile, I must say I really enjoyed what was on display.

And on I went, this time walking south again towards Oxford Street and then on to Marble Arch and Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park. Now this is truly an amazing place. It's amazing and scary in equal measures. Every Sunday evening you can drag your step ladder from your house to Hyde Park, get on it, and start shouting anything you want to say about the state of the planet to anyone who wants to listen. Not surprisingly, that is often related to religion, and with many religions claiming to be the one and only, it also often leads to discussions and heckling of speakers. It's all allowed. This video shows you pretty accurately what is going on here and you can see in the guy in the picture above in the last seconds of the video. I love to visit Speakers' Corner - most definitely not to participate in the discussions, but it's just very nice to get confirmed about the madness of religion and the correctness of atheism.

(written on 18 February 2013)

The day started with what has almost become a tradition, definitely when I'm staying in this part of town (Earl's Court), namely with a walk in Brompton Cemetery. It seems somewhat morbid, but it's really a most pleasant way to spend an hour or so, certainly in a hectic place like London. Apart from the aircraft on their way to Heathrow (one every two minutes) it is quite a peaceful place, which probably a good thing of course otherwise they'd have to remove all those RIP signs... The picture of the red robin was taken in the cemetery.

From Brompton cemetery I walked towards the King's Road, one of the major roads in this part of town, which goes all the way east to Sloane Square, which is exactly what I did as well. In the GAP close to Sloane Square I tried on some more size 32 jeans... and bought two more. It's a bit addictive, this new size! I spent some nice quality time in the Saatchi Gallery and was thrilled to see that it was completely filled with photography. It's the London Festival of Photography at the moment. I knew that, but did not realise that the Saatchi was participating. A truly stunning collection of pictures, all captured in a wonderful catalog which I also bought.

In the afternoon I rented a Boris Bike and cycled through town for a while and then, just before the shops closed at 7pm, I did a last purchase in the Eastpak shop on Carnaby Street. My old and trusted black backpack is slowly but surely falling apart and especially its inside material is deteriorating quickly. It's a bit sad because that backpack has traveled with me to many destinations. It was with me during the two trans America rail trips in 2006 and 2007, including that time when it got absolutely soaked in torrential rain and caused rain water to shortcut my then mobile phone. It's traveled with me to Scotland, London, Barcelona and Madrid so often, and to many more places. But the time has come to say goodbye to it, and today I bought its replacement; not a backpack but a hip bag. I had one of these in the past and I'm now going to give that a try again because it's just easier to store or retrieve items from a hip bag. It looks pretty and very new but... yeah... it's not quite the same as my trusted backpack.

(written on 18 February 2013)

Now! 50 EUR discount on all iPad accessories if you buy an iPad here!

OK. That broke my resistance. It was early in the morning as I walked into the electronics store in the tax-free area of Schiphol Airport and saw the sign with the above text. I'd been dreaming of buying an iPad for ages, basically since the first version came out. With the release of the iPad 2 coinciding with me buying an apartment, I had to let that one go as well, but with the third generation iPad now on the market and me having just a bit of financial leeway, I decided this was the time. So I boarded the flight to London Gatwick with in my luggage a white box with the word 'iPad' in silver letters on the side. Just a shame that I will only really will be able to use it when I attach it to my iTunes on my home computer in four days' time!

Yes! It was about time again to visit London! I flew into Gatwick and took my time getting into the city (having a coffee in the airport first) but when I finally did, I took an underground from Victoria to Earl's Court and from there on to one of the least used Underground Stations, Kensington Olympia. My hotel, the wonderfully name Holland Inn Hotel, was just a short walk away. One of the grumpiest receptionists ever (from which you conclude that the hotel was probably appropriately named) welcomed me and gave me the room key... and from then on the relaxed weekend could really start!

Even though the weather was not great, I decided to have a bit of a walk, so I walked down Kensington High Street, going into shops at times, all the way to the West End. The picture of the Routemaster bus was taken at the start of my walk, not too far from Holland Park. In the GAP on the High Street I decided to try on some new jeans and much to my surprise and joy, a size 32 jeans fitted me just fine. What an amazing improvement from the size 36 I'd worn up until four months ago! I bought two pairs of jeans and was tempted to get some more, but decided against it... for now. On Regent Street I walked into a huge and beautiful Superdry store. This brand is rapidly turning into one of my favourites despite the fact that it's generally worn by people have my age. But yes, I also bought a T-shirt there. A little shopping spree on this first day of my London trip.

Normally I would definitely have walked into the amazing Waterstone's book store on Piccadilly, and I would have bought three or four books for sure. But not today. Yes, I did walk into Waterstone's and browsed some of the books, but things are changing when it comes to my book reading. I only read paper books (p-books as I've heard then called) when e-books are not an option (say in a sauna for example) but whenever possible I now read books on my iPod. That is surprisingly easy, in both the iBooks and the Kindle apps. Now that I've bought an iPad, it's likely that I'll switch over to e-books even more. I love Waterstone's and I would hate to see the chain go down the way Borders UK did... but yeah, I do love e-books. That as well... I returned to hotel fairly early and spent the rest of the evening reading a bit (newspaper) and watching a film on my iPod (for that is something that wonderful machine can do as well)

(written on 17 February 2013)

It was another day of training and meetings at work and then it was homeward bound where I packed my bag for a weekend which will start tomorrow and to which I've been looking forward very much! The weather is not going to be very good, but at least it will be better than last Sunday, when the Diamond Jubilee pageantry on the Thames got nearly ruined by very persistent rain. My flight will be early tomorrow morning so I didn't do too much tonight, apart from taking this picture of myself, inspired by Droste's milk chocolates (if you're Dutch you'll understand.) That's all for today.

(written on 17 February 2013)

After years of not having been on a canal boat, I went on one on Sunday on the last day of Andy and Colin's visit and tonight... I found myself on yet another one! My manager, my successor, and some Korean and American colleagues are visiting and we all went out for a meal and an 'activity' tonight. The first activity that had been planned was indeed a canal cruise. The weather at the time of departure, 6:30pm, was absolutely wonderful and the canal boat company we had today took a bit of a different, and longer route than the one on Sunday, so at least I got to see some other parts of the city from the water tonight. The picture shows Westerkerk, which was not included in Sunday's ride - but it was in today's.

The boat ride was only the start of the ride though because then it was up to me to give our guests a small city tour. I walked with them from Central Station to our restaurant on Oude Waal and tried to point out points of interest to them. Damrak, which is where once the river Amstel flowed on its way to the Zuiderzee. Nieuwmarkt, where the medieval city's St Anthony's gate is (these days known as de Waag) and some of the locks that protected the city's canals from the sea. The restaurant had great food but the service was amazingly slow (welcome to Amsterdam!) so it was actually quite a relief when we could finally get up and walk out again. Our guests also wanted a walk through the Red Light District, and that was going to be our 'dessert' but no one had counted on the rain that was coming down quite hard at the end of our meal, so that guided tour was a very quick walk towards Dam Square where I pointed everyone to the tram stop and then walked home and dried off. It was a great evening, and one of the best aspects of our company is how international it is, so no matter how I sometimes complain about work, that still makes it all quite special. And tonight once again highlighted that.

(written on 17 February 2013)

It's a bit of a strange week this one. Firstly, I will only be working for four days this week, because on Friday morning I will be on a plane headed for London for a long weekend there (insert scream for joy here) and also, this week I will finally begin the transition to a new function in the company. My successor will start tomorrow with a two day visit to our Amsterdam office and that's when he will be taking over tasks fairly soon hopefully. It's about time. I was asked to change functions last November and now, finally, it seems my manager has got her act together and found someone to take over my function - thereby finally releasing me to my new function. Not a day too soon, really.

In other exciting news today: I became a member of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy! This is the body that oversees all clubs that maintain the AT as it crosses fourteen eastern US states. I've been reading many books and ebooks from people who have completed the AT (or, thruhiked to use the correct jargon) and I find each and every one of them inspirational. Hiking the AT has been a dream of mine for quite some years now and the flame only got to burn stronger when Colin, Andy and I walked the West Highland Way in Scotland last year. It was awesome (with nastier memories as always suppressed by nicer ones in due time) and I would like to see it as a warming up exercise to the AT. So, today I ordered some guide books and maps from the ATC and became a member as well. This will have to lead to me standing on Springer Mountain in Georgia one fine day...

The picture is one of the lilies that are still in my living room from Andy and Colin's visit. Not in a very photographic mood today!

(Written on 14 February 2013)

The great thing about working for an international company - I've said it before - is how I get to know so many different cultures, even when just mostly staying here in Amsterdam. This week, we have colleagues from South Korea, the US, France and England visiting and it was the Koreans that brought the presents in the picture above. It's funny (and similarly actually quite sad) how all chocolates and sweets in many Asian stores come individually wrapped. The amount of packaging material in anything that comes from Asia is truly staggering (sorry for generalising) but it must be said that the chocolates and other sweets were quite delicious! Funny how lemons are called 'citron' here. Google translate glitch, I wonder...

(written on 14 February 2013)

A bit of a sad day because it was time for Andy and Colin to head home again. It's always amazing how quickly these fun visits go, whether it's me visiting them in Glasgow or them coming to see me in Amsterdam. We didn't part ways without doing some more things that they'd never done before though, so - despite the rain - we got on board an Amsterdam canal boat for a one hour tour on the Amstel, Herengracht, IJ and Oudeschans waterways. The picture shows Andy and Colin at the start of the tour while the boat was still docked. For lunch we went to Cristal, a kebab restaurant on Leidsestraat and perhaps a somewhat unorthodox choice for lunch, but the restaurant goes back a long time in Andy's visits to Amsterdam because he even went there with Paul during his first visit in 2001. It's a tradition!

In the afternoon we took a train to the airport and that's where we said our goodbyes once more. It was absolutely wonderful to see them back in Amsterdam again and to be honest I cannot wait till the next time I see them here - or anywhere. I went home alone again, and once back home watched a bit of the Diamond Jubilee pageantry on the River Thames in London. It must be said that the British capital looked even more drowned than what Amsterdam looked like today so I am hoping that will get just a bit better for when I'm there next week!

(written on 14 February 2013)

"I sure know how to have a good time with my guests!" I said to Caryn when she was over at my place just before she, Ian, Colin, Andy and I went out for food and a film. And even though it had indeed been a nice day thus far, listing the things we'd been doing didn't really make for pleasant listening.

The weather was nice enough so we left the house walking towards the Plantage neighbourhood, which is where the Amsterdam zoo, the Botanic gardens and some wonderful buildings are. Our intention was to go to the Tropenmuseum, museum of the Tropics, formerly called the Colonial Museum. Walking there takes you past the Hollandse Schouwburg, the former theatre that was turned into an assembly place by the nazis in World War II from where many Jewish people were transported to Central Station, from there to the transit camps in the east of the country and then on to the concentration camps in Germany, Poland and Austria. After the war, the Hollandsche Schouwburg was turned into the memorial that it is to this day, a place with a small exhibition space and a garden (the former stalls of the theatre) to reflect. It's a very impressive site.

The Tropenmuseum is housed in a wonderful building and its collection focuses mainly on those countries that were once ruled by the Netherlands. It's really quite depressing to see how the Dutch controlled vast countries such as present day Indonesia with force and a horrible attitude towards the native people whose countries we had invaded. It's definitely not something to be proud of. But it's very good to know about, and I always enjoy the sanity check I get from seeing how my ancestors in this country misbehaved in countries abroad.

We left the Tropenmuseum via the adjacent Oosterpark where we had a look at the National Slavery Monument (told you it wasn't a cheerful list!) and from there walked back to the apartment. Ian and Caryn arrived in the late afternoon and we left the house to get some Thai food in Bird, Amsterdam's best Thai restaurant as far as I know. We had to sit quite close together to fit but the good food and great company made that quite endurable! After Bird we walked to Central Station and took a ferry from there to the other side of IJ, to the new EYE cinema, where we had some drinks and then saw On The Road, and authentic road movie after Jack Kerouac's book - a book that I had devoured when I was a kid and of which I (mysteriously) have two copies still in my house. I must say that I loved the film, also because travelling aimlessly through a vast country such as the US seems incredibly appealing to me, but I must also say that I was probably the only one of the five of us who enjoyed the film. The others were, unfortunately, slightly less impressed. The way back into the city centre was a bit more stressful due to an incredible crowd at the ferry terminal, which made it quite difficult for ferries to offload and load passenger (and quite difficult for me to control my blood pressure) but ultimately we made it just in time for Caryn to catch the last tram to where she stays. Ian went back to the apartment with us and we had some more wine before it was time to call it a day, and that was already again the last full day of Andy and Colin's visit this time. Time goes too quick! No pictures of any of our activities today (somehow the subjects weren't too cheerful) so just one of one of the lilies I have at my place for my guests.

(written on 14 February 2013)

So, remember how I mentioned that we went to the De Bekeerde Suster pub last night? Where we had some beers? And how we'd had some whiskies at home in advance as well? And how we went to Wildeman afterwards where we also didn't just drink mineral water? Well, especially in De Bekeerde Suster I kept warning Andy and Colin that the beer that gets served there, Manke Monnik, is as delicious as it is heavy. And that it should be drunk, not like a lager, but more like a wine because otherwise you'd not be feeling too super the next day. So all in all it's quite cynical that I was the one who wasn't feeling too wonderful this morning. Sure, I went through the motions of setting the table and making coffee and tea... but then I could quite manage to eat my breakfast and I kept breaking out in a cold sweat. While Andy and Colin seemed to be perfectly OK, I excused myself and sat on the couch for a while. And while they got dressed and then went out for a walk through town (bumping into Anthony somewhere along the way) I lied down on said couch and closed my eyes just a bit. An hour and a half later I got up... and felt fine. It was quite strange, not feeling super one moment and feeling perfectly fine a little sleep later.

I called Andy to find out where they were and we met not long after on Leidsestraat. They had eaten already so we just continued walking through some of the streets in the ring of canals that surround the oldest parts of Amsterdam. Shop owners in nine of the little side streets between the big canals have decided to do some united marketing so these streets are now called 'negen straatjes' (nine little streets) and they do have some really nice shops. We walked through about six of those streets and even had coffee and cakes in one of them, at Pompadour, a wonderful little coffee house with exquisite cakes.

Through some other streets (such as Haarlemmerstraat) we walked back home at the end of the afternoon, only to leave the house not much later to take a metro from Nieuwmarkt station to Zuid station, where the office is. It was just after 5 on this Friday afternoon when we took an elevator up to the 26th floor so that Colin and Andy could admire the wide views over the city. There, they met Caryn as well, my colleague from Cape Town who is in Amsterdam for two weeks and who will be joining us tomorrow for food and film. "I don't know how you can work with such a view!" said Andy and it's true that it is still an awesome thing to be able to look out over the city from this high up.

We left the office and had a wine in the bar opposite the office and then made our way to Ian's new place (just a tad bigger than my place) for a super evening of lovely wines (champagne included) and Japanese style food. We even sat outside for a while because the weather today was just a bit better than yesterday. It was a really nice evening that lasted to about midnight when we got on one of the last trams towards the city centre. Even though the day had quite a rough start (for me at least) it still was a very successful day in the end.