adrienne's Tour Diary

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May 20, 2005
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May 18, 2005

May 19, 2005

Dan and I bought chocolate croissants at the Jewish bakery near Aunt Maggy's for breakfast. We have a room in a building that is two buildings past Maggy's, off the #5 tram line from Amsterdam centrum. All of our band gear is stacked into the room we're in--it's a big room and not unlike a college dorm, with a wardrobe, desk, and its own bathroom, with extra space for our guitars, drums and amps. We're one floor up from the ground floor and I feel fortunate that my roommate and I have so many common interests.
Henny, Maggy's sister, met us at Maggy's at 10:30 and we drove with her to Museumplein where she parked her car. Dan exchanged our Danish Kroners at Leidesplein and then we took the #5 tram to Centraal Station and walked past the floating boat/hotel, Botel, and the floating Chinese restaurant, to the temporary home of the modern art museum, formerly the central post office building, a spare concrete and metal building that has been stylishly repurposed to house the current collection which features one piece from the years 1874-2004 to demonstrate modern art through the last 130 years. Before starting our time travels, we went to the top floor cafe and had some drinks while taking in the views of the whole city. Henny pointed out landmarks, including the palace and we watched a man work at the same height as us from a crane, slowly moving heavy metal at a construction site. The crane swayed before us. We saw the man eat a snack.
We returned to Museumplein with Henny to get our jackets out of her car and say farewell after she drew us a map of where to take the #5 tram back to Maggy's. Dan and I wandered back towards the center of the city and stopped for some food, a salad and sandwich, at a cafe. We walked some more, past coffee shops, snack shops, a series of shoe stores, and then rows and rows of alternating restaurants: Argentinian Steak Houses, Chinese Dim Sum, Indonesian, Thai, Italian. At Rembrantsplein we sat at a table outside in the plaza and had some pizza and beer while a puppeteer worked a few tables behind us. So many people seem to be speaking English here. In a way it reminds me of Waikiki--makes me wonder who lives here and who is visiting. Is everyone visiting?
Chris W. texted my phone to ask where we were. It had almost been 24 hours since the 5 of us were together, and after nearly 3 weeks of being together constantly, it was kind of weird not to be. We met CW and Mai at a fondue restaurant off the Dam Square, near the Krasnapolsky, where they're staying and took them to the first coffee shop I ever went to, Coffee Shop Free Adam, whose smoking lion lured us inside. Chris G doesn't have a phone, so we couldn't get ahold of him. It was probably for the best, however, because he abhors reggae, and the soundtrack in Free Adam is exclusively Marley, Bob.
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chrisg has a diary entry for this date as well
This entry is part of the Euro 2005 tour
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May 20, 2005
older entry >>
May 18, 2005
© 2005 Citizens Here and Abroad ·  · Photography by Jason Koxvold