“Time and tide waits for no man,” a phrase that comes to us from Geoffrey Chaucer – as one of the earliest documenters of travel and travellers, we’ll draft him as a spiritual ancestor of this blog. See? We’re not all dumb puns around here. How is this relevant, you ask? Um… did you notice the cool literary reference? Ok, fiiiine. The point is, we were enjoying the trip even more than we had anticipated, but the end was rushing up on us and there was no helping it. One last descent into the depths of Amsterdam (not hard, considering the city averages -7 ft. below sea level. See? We’re not not dumb puns around here, either…) before a cab gets us to our direct flight to Porto.

We needed to check out from our hotel after breakfast but still had a day in the city, so we left our bags with the accomodating staff. Honestly, we short-changed this place in our last post. The Hyatt Regency Amsterdam was an exceptionally great hotel. The reception area is spacious and full of comfy over-stuffed furniture, offering a cozy place to hang out. The overall vibe is green and jungle-y, with loads of houseplants, solid wood desk/tables under glass lamps, and green plant themed wall decor. It’s an outstanding antidote to the gray outside.

We had access to the Regency Club, an upgrade for Hyatt members. This gave us loads of free amenities like a continental breakfast, all-day snacks and coffee, and a “happy hour” complete with several kinds of salad, Indonesian rice, sweets, fruit, cheeses, champagne, wine, sodas, and juice. The Club is a great place to hang out instead of the lobby, much quieter (except during happy hour!), and full of plugs for working.

Our room was standard for this property, but top of the line. The shower was huge, had both a rainfall and handheld hardware, with great pressure, and got as hot as you could wish. The closet was well-thought out, with plenty of hanging space (and proper hangers!), room for our big suitcase, a shelf above and below for shoes and whatnot, PLUS (ta da!) five good-sized shelves. In the room was a good chair for reading, with a tall back and lamp nearby, a desk and chair for work, a king bed, nightstands, and an ottoman perfect for sitting on to remove shoes. Of course there was a good-sized TV, and reading lamps for each side of the bed. The mattress was great, although the pillows were fluffy rather than supportive. SIGH. Its my ever-lasting sorrow that hotel guests seem to like poofy pillows. Maybe I’m the only traveling side-sleeper?

This whole trip, we’ve looked for interesting-sounding dining opportunities; casual or dressy, simple food or funky. Regardless, we always try to be respectful of the establishment and present ourselves nicely. Not ballgown and tux but, you know, nice. 100% of the time, we’ve overshot the vibe and come in at least a little overdressed. You’d think we’d be used to the dress-down nature of most of Europe, but alas. So finally, on this last big meal day, we say “screw it”; we’re going to be doing some sight-seeing after lunch, so let’s keep it simple. So naturally, when we walk into Bridges we see that, at the table next to ours, the men are in suits and the woman is in Chanel. Flippin’ perfect. Of course, in the manner of truly fine places (as opposed to pretentious) no mention was made nor merest concern observed. Nope, it’s cool. Probably not the first tourists to walk in like that, but we try, ya know? Anyway, we forgot all about what anybody was wearing, or even what clothes are, as we settled into a truly scrumptuous five-course tasting menu while looking out the window at the traffic, aquatic and otherwise, in and along the canal. We seriously could not have enjoyed that meal more if we’d been paid to do it.

After lunch at Bridges we crossed several more…. bridges that is (herp derp), to scamper to our canal tour (Pure Boats’ Ultimate Canal Cruise) shortly before it left. The weather continued to be kinda gross, so the semi-transparent plastic covers stayed in placed, which meant we saw some interesting things but decent pictures were hard to come by. Everyone else in the boat (there were about 9 of us) were Americans, either immigrants or tourists, and it was lovely to sort of catch up on the vibe back in the States while answering the usual questions (“Wait, where do you live? How does that work?”). This isn’t the most evocative description, but honestly while it was a pleasant way to pass a couple of hours, it didn’t blow our minds with information or anecdotes.

Our time thus passed, we began the process of unspooling our travels and getting back home. Now this was an evocative experience, starting with a lounge at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. Thanks to… I dunno, a credit card, we have a benefit called “Priority Pass” which gets you access to ostensibly-premium lounges in airports all over the world. Sometimes you end up getting into the business class lounge of an actual airline, and those can vary in quality but are some degree of “fine”. The Priority Pass lounge at AMS (aka “Aspire”), however, is in serious need of updating. Many pseudo-leather seats are ripped exactly where one would put their bottom. Packing tape holds edging to walls and baseboards. Most of the food and drink comes from machinery, although there was some selection of hot food (soup and noodles) available when we were there at 19:00. It was… rough. Staff were unable to keep up with necessary clearing of dishes, leaving people to clear vacated spaces by moving used items to nearby flat surfaces (see photo for an example). They were moving as quickly as possible, but I would say there needed to be at least one more person (and probably more) to help. The lighting was 70s fluorescent, and not in any of the good ways. What made it seem worse was the lovely natural look-and-feel lighting over the food areas and in tiny 2-person booths around the periphery. Clearly the coveted spaces for those in the know. On the plus side, there were plenty of plugs to charge with, people in the lounge were pretty respectful of space and noise levels (even the children were pretty much quiet). And, ranking very high on the “made it ok” vector — it was NOT the gate.

Pleasant or not, it gave us a place to wait out an hour or two, and from there we were an easy delivery. The flight was fine, with no troubles, and the steadfast Orlando (seriously, this guy needs a spotlight shined on him when we get a quiet minute) met us at OPO to ferry us home. We’ve said it a few times now, but this was a lovely trip that accomplished everything we wanted. The only downside is we now have “longer trip to Vienna and Amsterdam” added to our to-do list.

As has been discussed (ad nauseum) (shut up) we left Vienna in the late evening and drifted off into sleep. The good news is we slept “ok”, which might not sound all that exciting but category of “good slight we’ve had involving mass transit” is dang-near empty, so we’ll take it. We arrived in the mid-morning at Amsterdam Lelylaan, which is not the more historic “central” station but is actually a super-convenient location if you aren’t staying in Tourist Ground Zero… which, as per usual, we were not. So instead, we took a quick hop and a skip into a cab and plopped ourselves in our hotel, which fortunately had an early room for us. The Hyatt Regency in Amsterdam is lovely, with a “green” decor that led the place to be festooned with live plants everywhere. We would have taken more time to relax and enjoy it but we had places to be, toot sweet.

So what gets two mildly bleary, half-bedraggled travelers to hop right back out of their digs instead of settling down for a bit? We’re in Amsterdam baybee, the answer is the Van Gogh Museum. Getting to it was a nice introduction to the city in and of itself. First off, the weather was kind of crap – cold breeze, intermittent rain, just the right combination to leave you deeply unsatisfied. Second, the city is f-l-a-t flat. We’ve heard of a lot of places that are “walkable”, but I don’t know that I’ve ever been anywhere so genuinely pancaked as Amsterdam. I feel like you could pick almost any spot, drop a marble in the street, and it wouldn’t roll away. And third, for the citizens (and visitors) who don’t feel like walking everywhere, they make it easy to get around by any method except cars. Automobiles are allowed in the city but they are clearly the most dis-incentivized option. Bike lanes are everywhere, and they are jammed with bicyclists. Light rail seemed to go dang near anywhere, and for longer transit needs there’s a subway through the major arteries. Everything well maintained and more-or-less clean. After a long train ride, though, we stuck to our feet for this first jaunt.

The museum is in a frankly aspirational park complex that’s home to a half-dozen different museums, big and small. John always gets a little carried away with his love of this kind of place. He has often said “when the next age comes and goes and the one after that, and archaeologists are digging through the remnants of the ancient empire of the United States, I hope they find the Washington Mall. All those Smithsonian museums and monuments, maybe they’ll think kindly of us.” Well, the Netherlands maybe doesn’t need as much reputational rehabilitation as some countries (ahem) but it’s still true that this area is the kind of place you brag about. Gorgeous, spacious, and home to a collection of art and science. For today though, we were beeline-ing for one spot in particular, the aforementioned Van Gogh Museum.

The museum is a fairly modern building and it is curated with a modern sensibility. They do a lot of heavy lifting to put the man’s work in context with the work of his contemporaries, and spend a lot of time (and space) showing the development of his aesthetic over time. The Picasso National Museum in Paris tries to pull the same tricks but honestly this place does it better. That or we just like the work more. There is an interesting tension in the work, though – if you want to see Van Gogh’s most famous works you might just be in the wrong place! You see, just prior to and then after his death, his sister in law, Jo van Gogh-Bonger, took on the mission of ensuring Vincent’s legacy, and one of the ways she did this was through ther shrewd placement of his work in museums all over the world. As we all know she did a great job, but it means that a lot of his blue ribbon work is scattered. Anyway, not to say that the museum is a let down, just be prepared to walk out wondering where “The Starry Night” is. (It’s at MoMA in New York, by the way.)

Once we spent a few hours at the Van Gogh Museum, though, we were well and truly tuckered. We had vague ideas for dinner based on some recommendations, but we were tired – we punted the plans and went back to the hotel for mediocre room service. And thus ended day 1 of our survey course on the Netherlands.