IN THE LAND OF THE GIANTS JUST FOLLOW THE TRAM: A PHOTO MEMENTO

DOCTOR TRAVERS BARCLAY CHILD

I went to Amsterdam not on buskation, but on kindred adhesion.  My youngest son, Trav, was defending his doctoral thesis on political economy (specifically the war in Iraq and Afghanistan) at the University of Amsterdam.  The panel “opponents” (we would refer to these scholars as “external examiners” in North America) were flown in from The Hague, University of Palestine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and from the University of Oxford.  I must confess I was immersed and impressed by their academic grandiloquence the entire defence.

Dressed in the finest tux and footwear from a local Dutch haberdasher, student Trav was anointed, Doctor Travers Barclay Child.

This blog title:  In the Land of Giants because the tallest men on the planet are Dutch (and the women of Holland are tall, too); Just Follow the Tram was a line of advise from our hotel clerk, the secret to finding places and not getting lost in Amsterdam; and Photo Memento is today's blog format.

No matter where you go, there you are (Rolf Potts).  Well here we were (Carol and I) back in Amsterdam, joining Trav and his Turkish girlfriend, Sila.  (Sila has been in my blogs before, especially when we are mountain hiking, the last time being in SKETCHES OF MARRAKECH, April 2017, hiking the Atlas Mountains in Morocco.)

ALWAYS, except for this one trip, whenever traveling abroad, we hike and I make time to busk.  This trip, however, was different.  We stayed in a hotel in downtown Amsterdam, had coffee and a waffle every morning at the bakery next door, took the Tram several times by day, and dined at night on ethnic cuisines.  I did not thrum.  I did not draw.  We stayed put in Amsterdam the whole time.

And so now with a chuckle I’m thinking of what Underground Garage radio host (Sirius radio) stated about going outside of any city.

“I prefer garbage cans and gun shots.  Nature connotes eight-legged creatures and serial killers.  Nature, being a slaughterhouse, is Exhibit A for Existentialism.”  

Of course I’m not in agreement with his preference for city over nature; but I do certainly agree on Nature being Exhibit A for Existentialism.  (Exhibits B and C could certainly be human beings in their natural competitive habitats, war being just one example.) 

THE VIEW FROM OUR HOTEL ROOM WINDOW

A DR. T-SHIRT GIFT FOR DR. TRAVERS CHILD

THE VIEW FROM THE ROOF-TOP PARTY (THE DAM SQUARE IS UP AND TO THE LEFT)

VIETNAMESE CUISINE INCLUDING A QUAIL EGG

BICYCLES EVERYWHERE

TYPICAL AMSTERDAM LEGO DESIGN

NOT MOROCCAN TEA BUT CLOSE

A SPANISH EVENING

MY FAVORITE SPORT EVEN IN AMSTERDAM

TURKISH DELIGHT

THE COLDEST DAY IN AMSTERDAM WOULD BE THE WARMEST WINTER DAY IN REGINA

Pictured here is Sila, Travers, and Carol.  This picture depicts a typical winter day in Amsterdam.

Where you are is where it’s at.  We stayed in Amsterdam because that was where it (what we’d come to see) was at.  We saw our son's academic defence of his doctoral thesis and ... we made a point of ethnic dining every evening. 

Those marching in my CHAUCERIAN PARADE this week:

JORDAN, A PRACTICUM SOCIAL WORKER COLLEAGUE

 

SID, ANOTHER COLLEAGUE AND FORMER UNIVERSITY STUDENT OF MINE