August 2002
Where else? Amsterdam looking
beautiful.
Amsterdam Centraal, the
main train station
The inner harbor, from where
the touristy canal boats depart.
The building to the right
is the Amsterdam Stock Exchange.
Dead center with the white-and-green
awnings is a large hash bar, the Grasshopper.
A watery corner in the oldest
part of town.
Walking over the ring of
canals through the Jordaan neighborhood.
The Jordaan, roughly demographically
equivalent to the Lower East Side in NYC.
The sign says, "Oh Amsterdam,
how beautiful you are!"
Amsterdam has a severe housing
shortage.
Some manage to live in the
city by occupying stationary houseboats.
This is a houseboat-turned-museum.
Our friends Iwan and Lorraine
own this building in the Jordaan.
For many years Iwan ran
the café himself but now he has a normal job.
They came with us to Paradiso
to see Guided by Voices, and then took us back to their once
working-class neighborhood,
De Pijp, to witness the gentrification that has taken place there in the
last decade.
A very Dutch sea of bikes
outside De Bijenkorf
(the Beehive), Amsterdam's
largest department store.
The Royal Palace on the
Dam. A protest against globalization was being set up.
De Nieuwe Kerk (it's actually
about 700 years old), where we
saw an exhibit of postwar
sculpture from the Stedelijk Museum.
Protest stage being set
up in front of Robijn's former employer,
the ABN AMRO Bank. The sign
reads "Trade has limits!"
