It is sad to leave a place like Amsterdam. The week went by so quickly, but what a week it was. If what follows seem like the ramblings of a boy in fantasyland it is because they are the ramblings of a boy in fantasyland.
I saw lots of boats and bicycles and then I almost got run over by a bunch of people riding bicycles that were feverishly ringing little bells that were attached to their handlebars and yelling at me. I don’t know what they were saying because I do not speak Dutch, but I know they loved bicycles and I think they were mad because I was standing on that little picture of a bicycle on the sidewalk.
I ate some French fries with mayonnaise in a paper cone while I was standing in front of a coffee house where a bunch of people were smoking something that smelled funny. It’s strange, but it seemed the longer I stood there the better the French fries and mayonnaise tasted. When the French fries were gone I licked the mayonnaise off the paper. I don’t know if you are supposed to do that, but I could not help myself.
I also saw a large group of people playing some very nice music in a big hall called the Concertgebouw. People said that it was one of the best places in the world to play music and some guys named Mahler, Strauss and Stravinsky used to play there. It was incredible how the sound of a few violinists plucking their stings could be so clear in such a big place and they didn’t even have any microphones.
I saw some very pretty pictures while I was there. I saw a huge amazing painting of a bunch of guys in fancy hats by somebody named Rembrandt and I saw a young girl pouring some milk and another of a very pretty young girl with a big pearl earring that the sign said was by a man named Vermeer. I also saw one with some crows in a wheat field that had “Vincent” at the bottom. I don’t know why, but that one made me cry.
If you have never been to Amsterdam I think you should go. It is a lot of fun and the only good thing about leaving is that I am on a train heading to something called “The European Fine Art Fair in Maastricht” in the Southern part of the Netherlands. I think I will see a lot more pretty pictures there and I will tell you about that later.
Stay tuned by adding your email in the column to the right.
March 9, 2016
What Fun!