Vertrek

Vertrek means departure in some language. There's a reason it's on your train ticket--it tells you what time the train leaves.  I had convinced myself I was taking the 11:42 from Bruges but that was the time it arrived in Antwerp had I taken the 10:18. So, I took the 11:18 and got to Antwerp at 12:42 for a 1:00 train to Amsterdam but turns out, it had been cancelled. "As usual" is what the lady in the store told me when I asked her to translate what happened to my train. I had to hang around Antwerp Central for over an hour and that is when I quit being enamored of European rail travel.  BTW, outside the station is one diamond store after another and there's even one in the station, next to a sandwich shop.

I saw beautiful, new double-decker trains going somewhere but the train I got was old and dumpy. It was crowded, even in 1st class, because the last train had been cancelled. I had to sit with my luggage in a single seat while everyone else spread out in the two-seaters.  After an hour, the conductor came to stamp tickets and threw out a couple in the wrong class so I got a better seat. It was still miserable.

I know I'm in the land of the double vowel but riding trains has made me wonder whether it's double prepositions, also.  As you approach a new station, you get this message on the marquee--We komen aan in Antwerpen.  I translate that as "We coming on into Antwerp," but I'm not sure that's correct.

So made it to Amsterdam; a little warmer here but still rainy.  My instructions were to get my apartment keys from the tourist shop and that my door is next to The Magic Mushroom.  Admit you always wanted to say "I live next to The Magic Mushroom." They sell psycho-active drugs, teas, seeds, etc. and are open later than other stores which close promptly at 6.  When I walked by, they were playing "Whiter Shade of Pale." So nothing has changed since I was here 40 years ago.

This apartment is the best one I've ever rented in Europe.  It has a real bedroom, bathroom, and living room/kitchen with two couches and a couple of comfortable chairs. It is literally in the middle of the flower district so the views are great.  The stairs are very narrow and steep and turn a corner but luckily, my landlady had left a man to show me the apartment so I made him carry up my suitcase.  If worse comes to worse, I'll just throw it down the stairs when I leave.

My cab driver said there are 16 million people in Amsterdam and 20 million bikes. I asked him if there were a lot of accidents and he said some but mostly tourists who don't know what they're doing. These bikes are parked everywhere.  I do live one street away from the famous pedestrian only street, though, so I feel safe from traffic there. The problem is, it's their designer shopping street so there's no real reason to go there.

And that's it, for starters.