Friday, September 23, 2016

Well, some lucky (and very friendly) cafe in Amsterdam has my little book of penciled notes, or else they have blown into a canal in Amsterdam. My fault. I left them on the seat. So today's journal must be done from memory. This could be quite difficult because my memory feels overloaded with, well, memories.

I woke at three and had trouble getting back to sleep. I was excited as all get-out at my day-trip to Amsterdam, and rightly so as it turns out. I drifted back to sleep around Five-thirty and woke to my (New Smart Phone!) alarm at 6:05. Got dressed and stole a newspaper from the hotel and caught the 6:35 RER train from Poissy, changed to line B at Châtelet and arrived at Gare du Nord a full hour before my train time, which gave me ample time to walk around and study the tourists.

There is a game played where everyone stands in a crowd staring at the screens, and when your train is assigned a platform, you all surge toward that platform and mill around in a crowd until you can squeeze into the narrow sheep-race for security. Now on the high-speed train everyone, including me, is assigned a seat, so I don't quite understand why I should confine myself in a narrow space for an extra 20 minutes, so I wander around the station.

A beggar approaches me asking for small change. I shake my head and say "Sorrymite" which is wasted on him because as he approaches other strangers, they make do with just the shake of the head. He ignores the Bureau de Change. That's the first place I would go! They must have oodles of spare change in there.

I gravitate back to the snake-line of perhaps 600 people (I am in car 18, so do the math) and overhear an SNCF staff member say something about "sans luggage". I ask if I qualify, and she stares at my orange shoulder-bag and says Go Right Ahead, so I zoom past the 600-person snake and am one of the first people on the platform. I walk past cars 1, 2 and 3, and approach the part of the train that curves out of sight to the right. Cars 8, 9 and 10 take me into the second part of this train which is really two trains hooked together. Around about car 13 I notice that the train now curves to the left. I have never before been on a 20-unit train that curves in an S-bend.

I board at car 17 and tell the attendant that I have practically walked to Amsterdam, right?

I have car 18 all to myself. The plebs are still waiting to have their suitcases X-rayed.

I am actually as nervous as can be. Never before have I had one of these electronic tickets with the granular square that you see on bus shelter advertisements. (Why did I fork out almost €200 when I could have lifted one from an advertisement on a bus shelter?) My seat faces backwards, so there is a good chance that I will start walking away from Amsterdam when we get there, assuming that my ticket photo on this smart phone works. If not I might end up as a bloody smear alongside the railway tracks near Chantilly.

This is my first trip on a TGV, and we are soon zooming past high-speed suburban trains. We zoom through stations called "", "" and "", and I've left the names blank because you can't read platform signs when they flash past at the rate of about three signs per second. I assume the trucks and cars on the auto-route alongside of us are doing 100 Km/h. We are passing them at about the same speed, so we are traveling at about 200 Km/h. We flash through "", "", "" and "".

What I see from the window is basically a piece of green, then a piece of brown, then another piece of green, then a piece of green with black-and-white things in it, and then we slide into Brussels. Hans was right. The train is basically boring.

Brussels is interesting. The rear part of the train - cars 1 through 9 - is destined for Brussels. All the people in cars 1 through 9 want to go to Brussels. The front part of the train - cars 10 through 18 - is destined for Rotterdam, Schiphol and Amsterdam. Nobody in cars 10-18 has plans to be in Brussels.

So at Brussels, the 20-unit train glides to a halt, the two trains are uncoupled, and our part pulls away and out of the station. There is no delay while people struggle to get their suitcases off the train. We left those problems behind when we uncoupled and pulled away. We waited only long enough for four people to board our carriage (and I suppose others), which they were able to do before the uncoupling was finished.

Brilliant! For all I know (or care) the Brussels folks are sitting there still.

The rest of the trip was a bit of an anticlimax. There is no indication that we are in Belgium until I notice that we are in the Netherlands, which means we have passed through Belgium. Then we are in Schiphol airport. Another mild disappointment, for the rail lines dive underground before we reach the airport perimeter. We stop directly under the terminal (so, just take an elevator to Departures) and exit well away from the perimeter.

And here we are in Amsterdam Central. I am in the leading car, unencumbered, and so I am off the train and searching for Hans before he realizes that he has been given wrong data. Hans is waiting for me on the adjacent platform, and by the time he dashes down those stairs I am long gone, wandering around the vast hall in my blue coat and green hat and orange shoulder-bag.

He spots me and we set off to walk around Central Amsterdam.

Did I tell you that I love the signs in the Transilien system? This is quite a low level of detail for the massive interchange at Châtelet-Les-Halles I need to go one stop North on line B. Three days from now at this time I will be going to the end of that line at CDG.

And that makes me feel sad.

With time to spare I step outside Gare du Nord and take a photo of the hotel. I imagine some American Tourist jetting in to CDG, managing to get the only train from there to Gare du Nord and then booking into this hotel across the street and never managing to get more than half a mile away, and feeling quite brave.

A bit like I was all those years ago.

The day lightens up, and so should I. This is part of the facade of Gare du Nord. Compare this to the shot at St Lazare yesterday morning.

Part of the line up in the sheep race for my train. I drove sheep when I was younger.

The queue doubles back on itself twice, and then sends a tail out into the concourse.

Whereas me and the other guy stroll nonchalantly to our car, which to me is almost half-way to Amsterdam.

I am in the first car after the locomotive. Just ahead is the metro line 2 through La Chapelle. That gives you some idea of the length of the train.

And here I am in "my" carriage.

I have booked a window seat, but it is facing backwards. My friend Brian says I should study The Man in Seat 61 . I will study it once I get home. I'm not being silly here, I would have studied it before I left had I known about it.

TGV overtaking an RER train outside Gare du Nord

TGV passing two RER trains outside Gare du Nord

A plane coming in to CDG, keeping up with our TGV!

A couple of photos to show what track-side looks like. But a better idea of the speed is given by the movies I took, especially the one where we travel alongside a plane coming in to land at CDG.

TGV overtaking traffic on the autoroute

I am in Amsterdam and Hans is showing me the sights. I look back at the facade of the Post Office Building.

This is the day-ticket for Amsterdam. Note that you get a full twenty-four hours of travel. The meter starts ticking at the moment of the first use, and that its first use could be any time in the next fifteen months.

The river Amstel established its estuary here. Early settlers built a protective dyke or wall or dam. This was the dam of the Amstel, hence, the Amstel Dam. Now you know.

The old city is surrounded by concentric arcs of canals, with radial arms connecting the arcs. Hans explained that as the city grew, another canal was built outside the previous moat.

Like you, I have seen this sort of photo before, but I am lucky enough to see it in the stone, as it were. These buildings are 400+ years old. Start noticing the pools of bicycles.

Canal! Click!! Barges!!! Click-Click-Click!!!!

I give part of a finger to a boatload of tourists.

The entrance to the Flower market (I think). Look at the buildings, how they lean according to their age, their foundations, and the strength of their neighbours.

A tram! Hans had bought me a day-ticket, but in Amsterdam the day-ticket lasts for twenty-four hours from the time-of-first-use. I am impressed.

I left my paper notebook (a.k.a. memory backup device) at a cafe, so I have no idea what this is. OK. It's a tower with bells. A few hours later we walked by as the carillon sounded a melody. Beautiful.

A close-up of the bells.

We walked away from the tourist areas and hopped on a #1 tram for a few stops towards the Vondelpark. Half way across the waist of the park Hans bought us deep-fried goat-cheese balls. Don't tell my doctor, OK?

I have no knowledge of the Dutch language. The only word that made sense here was "brom", and you already know my predilection for "Vroom-vroom!"

Parts of this notice were self-evident: the range of dates and range of times. I can't say I had much success with the rest of it, although a slow and near-literal translation made sense.

The truth is, if you are sentient citizen of this world, you already know how to behave in a public park.

The herons in Amsterdam have become quite tame, and like wildlife in other major cities, migration has been suspended, maybe because of slightly milder winters, but I suspect the availability of food is the main cause.

Squirrels are visible year-round in Toronto.

The picnickers are quite amused.

Houses are narrow because water frontage is valuable. So staircases are narrow. So houses have cranes to hoist furniture and possessions in and out.

Never pick a fight with a Dutchman. This old man is pushing a scrap container around with just one hand.

GreenWheels is a car-sharing option in Amsterdam.

Canal! Click!! Houseboats! Click!!

I am pleased with the camera. I took this shot to obtain the colour contrast. Aimed into the sun I could not see the screen. In fact the red-painted part looked to be yellow on the viewfinder. It came out quite well, I thought.

A fleet of bicycles is a common sight. This is not a group-tour thing, it's just that the light has turned green. In Toronto these dozen or so people would be represented by a dozen cars in two columns of six (plus five lane-changers for a total of seventeen car-spaces).

Hans explained that in Amsterdam, cars and bicycles and serious motor-bikes are equal-status, whereas pedestrians do not have priority. Time and time again Hans grabbed my arm because a cyclist was coming. In Toronto pedestrians have priority and they get run over.

The house on the left is about 400 years old; the office on the right perhaps 40. The street (off to the right in this photo) has been widened and so it is composed of newer buildings.

The street that runs either side of the canal shares its name with the canal. Makes Sense.

Pedal-boats can be rented.

Just for a change I managed to get Hans's finger in the camera lens.

I think this is an empty tourist boat, although right now there are no empty tourists aboard.

Barges and freight boats and private pleasure-boats line the canals. I began taking an interest in the shapes of the roof-ends. At the right-hand side is a gable with concave sides. In the centre of the photo we see a straight-side structure.

Mostly all original houses, so about 400 years old. the building on the right is either modern done-in-the-same-style, or has a renovated facade.

A bevy of private boaters.

More houses, right?

Take a closer look.

No, I mean CLOSER. 1675. One year before the colonies kicked the British out and the British turned to Australia.

1671. Even earlier. I would assume that these houses have provenances in the form of title deed records.

The fleches in the speed-bumps are not adhesive rubbers, but bricks laid in a pattern. How Twee!

Amsterdam has trees much as does Paris.

Amsterdam has trees much as does not Toronto.

At first glance this house appeared (to me) to be built out of Lego.

It looked better than this in real life, with the sun hitting the gold and then bouncing off there into my eyes.

More decorative brickwork, with a pixilated roof structure. To the right another concave.

A most wonderful day draws to a close. Well, not really. There is a lot more yet to come, unbeknownst to me. We stroll back after a sumptuous meal (thank you Hans!) towards the railway station. This day has shown me that Amsterdam is worth a week's stay to explore.

We walk through the station. I raid piles of maps from the tourist information office - which is right inside the station. Not at all like Provins .

Out in the canal a huge “Empress-of” boat lies waiting to take you on a unique experience, along with 4,000 to 8,000 other people.

Buses shoot along an elevated bus-way above our heads. The end of the station is the trough of the U-shaped bus loop.

A small vessel and a barge appear to be in a race.

I gathered that this barge could cope with the North sea on a trip to England, presumably on a calm day.

Out onto the platform. My train is late coming in from Paris. We stare at another Hôtel ibis. I dream of a hot shower in about four, at most five hours time. Little did I know.

The train pulled in, we said goodbye, I hopped on board and within five minutes we were on our way out of the station.

We are sitting in Brussels station for what seems like a long time. A stop of over two minutes seems like a long time on the Thalys train.

So.

What went wrong?

Basically I was tired. I have been awake since three this morning.

I should have used the washrooms on the train instead of waiting until we arrived at Gare du Nord in Paris Kiss ten minutes goodbye walking to the toilets and walking back again to my starting point.

I missed the southbound RER to Châtelet-les-Halles by seconds, literally. I waited ten minutes for the next train.

At Châtelet-les-Halles I missed the westbound RER literally by seconds. Since the next two trains were to stop at La Defense and St Germaine-En-Laye I figure that I had just missed a Poissy train.

I had forgotten that line-work is scheduled this weekend. I had assumed they would start first thing Saturday morning.

I sat on the platform waiting for a Poissy train, watching the signboards light up in succession La Defense, St Germaine-En-Laye, La Defense, St Germaine-En-Laye, La Defense, St Germaine-En-Laye, until it dawned on me that the services to Poissy and Mantes La Jolie had already finished and that track work had begun.

At this point I lost my mind.

I hopped on the next train and resolved to take a taxi to Poissy, I was too tired to negotiate late night or shuttle buses.

The next train terminated at La Defense. I should have waited for the train after that which would run much further on to St Germaine-En-Laye.

From La Defense I took a taxi.

€70.

And he dropped me off at Gare Nord, so I walked the last ten minutes home around the stations.

I was home about one o'clock in the morning. A long day.