I remember arriving in London in Spring 1999, getting to know my new flatmates and asking the inevitable question: "Where are you going for Spring Break?"
Many of my cohorts were straight off to Amsterdam (for the pot), but I had a lifelong dream of seeing Scotland (for the ancestral ties). So while they took the Chunnel to the Continent, I took Brit Rail to the highlands.
Now, it's my turn...all these years later, I'm off to Amsterdam. I leave on Saturday (overnight flight), and I'm so excited, I can hardly stand it. I have no interest in the pot culture (to each their own and it's just not something that excites me), but I have every interest in the canals, the museums (Rembrandt, and Masters, and van Gogh, oh my!), and the Anne Frank House. I want to take the quick trip to Zanse Schaans, a traditional Dutch village with windmills, a wooden shoe maker, a cheese factory, and a coopery--yes, a cooper!
I will take the 15-minute train ride to Haarlem to see a church organ where both Handel and Mozart performed.
And on Friday, I will take the train to Delft, and spend a day with a dear duck lady, Amanda. We're meeting before that, too, for dinner on Wednesday, as she will be in Amsterdam that day for work. After dinner with her, I will be going to a Wynton Marsalis concert at Amsterdam's grand old concert hall.
Did I mention that I'm excited?
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