Europe 2002 Trip Reports Part 26 Amsterdam Day 4 Morning

This is the 26^th of a series of posts recalling my trip to Europe, using e-mails sent at the time.  Unlike later trips, I didn’t e-mail people everyday.  Trip reports are largely as I wrote them at the time with two exceptions: I was usually pretty rushed due to Internet fees in Europe, so I’ve cleaned up my e-mails to make them more coherent, which wasn’t a priority at the time.  Also, in some blog posts I’ll add additional thoughts with the hindsight of nine years later or to add further clarification.  I’ll use “NOW” in such cases.

This 26^th report covers the start of my fourth (and last full) day in Amsterdam.

Last full day here.  Luckily less snoring this time around than usual.  I found a little bit of my medication so that may have helped me sleep through it, but there was a noticeable lack of a chorus when I woke up the next morning.

Last night went for a walk (this being Amsterdam I put everything but my locker key in my locker first before going out).

Some not very bright kid took a close-up picture of one of the women in the windows in the red light district.  The women flipped him off.  He may have gotten lucky, though it's also possible that when he left there was someone waiting on a nearby street.  Not very bright to take a close-up of one of those women.  You're just asking for a world of pain doing that.

For my own part I did take a picture a couple of days ago, but much farther away (well down a side street) so that I'd be less likely to be noticed, and in my pic you can probably only barely make anyone out if at all.  My picture was more to show that I'd been there and that it was as advertised than to get a memory of someone specific.  I wish to stay alive a little longer.

[NOW: I never actually saw an incident while there, but apparently it’s not unknown for the women in the windows to have men outside protecting them from photographers.]

I did see something really touching yesterday night, probably the most touching thing I've seen on this trip: there was a tire on a rope at the canal near my place partly dipping into the water.  I heard a sound from it and noticed that a duck at turned this into a nest and seemed to be using it to keep warm.  I didn't take a picture because it was getting dark and didn't want to disrupt the mood with a flashing light.  I did take a pic this morning of the tire sans duck.  Just goes to show that life can adapt anywhere any place to any sorts of conditions.

Raining today.  Disappointing but not unexpected because it's been overcast these last couple of days.

[NOW: Sadly I never did get to see Amsterdam on a sunny day.]