Movin' on Up

This has been a quiet week. Upon our return from Morocco we moved, by prior agreement to an apartment one flight up. This apartment is much more modern & does not have the funky character & charm of the one downstairs. It has a full sized refrigerator and a dishwasher. It also has a washer & dryer that work & work well! This was essential as all of our things smelled like smoke from the fireplace in Morocco.
The view from our window remains the same, overlooking the beautiful canal with the heron & boats in the foreground. Toward the street we see cars, bicycles & the trolley going by. Now, a new sight as the leaves on the trees are beginning to open. You can almost watch the spring colors popping up all over. There is a saucer magnolia (at least that’s what I think it is) around the corner from us. Didn’t know that’s what it was until one day I saw the flowers beginning to open. Beautiful! There is some kind of fair going on across the street & behind some apartments. For the last few days we’ve seen one of the rides, day & night, popping up over the building.
The week has gone by quickly with not a lot of activity. We spent Tuesday getting ourselves situated in the new apartment, doing laundry, grocery shopping.

The modern kitchen - complete with dishwasher & full sized refrigerator!

The bathroom even has a tub, along with the washer & dryer

Bedroom

Living room

Wednesday we didn’t venture out until late in the afternoon. The wind was very strong all day. Too strong to rain, we were told. We braved the elements (fortunately it wasn’t that cold….in the high 40’s) & went to the market. That was the big excitement for the day!

Thursday we took off for Delft. It is about an hour away by train. It is located between Rotterdam and The Hague. Famous to being the home of Delft pottery ceramics, mostly blue and white hand painted pieces. There are stores that sell everything from very expensive original ceramics to souvenir shops selling the same items at a fraction of the cost.
In the main square, a market was in progress. We wandered through seeing everything from clothing to food. For lunch we found a restaurant with a good variety on the menu including panokoken. We opted to try the puffy miniature pancakes called poofertjes for dessert. They were delicious!

Wandering back through the market, we found a bargain we couldn’t resist. A duffel bag to add to the luggage we’ll be bringing

back home. Back to Amsterdam & the apartment by late afternoon.
Friday we walked out to street level & did something we had not done previously. We turned left! I had actually turned left once or twice but only to go the half block or so to the flower stand.
This adventure took us to Haarlemerstraat. The usual variety of bakeries, markets, restaurants & an Etos that I could not resist. Etos is a drug store and for whatever reason, every time we pass one, I feel the need to stop in for something. This time it was for shampoo & a new make up bag. The one I had with me smells like, you guessed it, smoke.

We made a circle, walking through the Dam Square & stopped at the Albert Heijn Food Plaza. Compared to the small neighborhood markets we’ve been shopping at in the Jordaan, this was like Central Market! The only problem, we were about a half hour from ‘home’ and did not really want to carry that much. I purchased a few ‘essentials’ and then stopped again at another market closer to the apartment. Dinner at home Friday night. Allan, the building manager popped by as we were finishing dinner. He stayed & had some stew….apparently enjoyed it as he asked for my recipe!

Saturday we wandered down to the open market to buy some bread. Stopped for milk on the way back & that was it for the day. We made brunch, read books, caught up on e-mails & even took a nap! It was a great lazy day!

As we wrap up our trip, there is so much to reflect on. We have met some really nice people. We have seen so much. Amsterdam is truly a lovely, comfortable city to spend an extended period of time.

The city of Berlin was so interesting. Such a contradiction to so much of Europe. It is so bright, shiny & new but with the ruins of the cathedral in the middle of the city – I am certainly glad we visited it.

The frenetic pace of Rome left me almost breathless. What an incredible place. The history, the buildings were almost too much to comprehend. I look forward to spending more time in the future in Italy.

And finally Morocco - what an experience. I don’t want to repeat what we’ve already written about. Suffice to say, it was unlike anything I have ever seen or done. A unique experience that almost defies description. And of course the added benefit of seeing and visiting with Kareem who helped make it an amazing adventure.

We have been fortunate to have so many visitors. Six weeks is a long time to be gone. To have a little bit of home every few weeks has just been wonderful. Thank you Frank, Jill, Ryan, Sean for taking the time to come visit us. We loved having you here.

The Road to Morocco

Thursday, March 6
We started off with an early 4AM start for our trip to Morocco. From Casablanca we followed Kareem’s instructions and found our way by train to Rabat, the capital. We had expected Morocco to be desert like and were surprised to see green fields with an abundance of wildflowers on the trip to Rabat.

Kareem had arrived a few minutes earlier from Oujda and met us as we arrived. It was great to see him!
A resident of this country for just eighteen months, Kareem seems to have embraced its people and culture. He is fluent in the language, knows the infrastructure, moving seemingly seamlessly throughout the country. He is able to use his genetic charm to his best advantage as he chats with people & barters his way through the day. He is charming, inquisitive & thoughtful of the people he encounters. It was a pleasure to observe him in his newly adopted country. The kid we have known and loved for so long seems to be truly in his element doing something he really enjoys. What an honor to spend time observing him & seeing this country he has such strong feelings for, from his perspective.

After checking into our hotel Kareem led us on a walk to the Medina, the old walled city with its myriad of stalls selling everything from clothes to carcasses to individual hooves hanging in the front of the butcher’s stall to vendors selling baked goods and just cooked hot garbanzo beans. There is a massive cemetery extending down the slope at the end of which is the Atlantic. We walked around a bit, took a taxi back to our hotel and called it a day after stopping for a light dinner at a local place where the personnel knew Kareem.

Friday morning we took a 4 hour bus ride to a place called Chefcaouen, a mountain town of 45,000 northeast of Rabat. The city’s name can also be spelled Chefchaouen. It is an incredibly beautiful step back into a much earlier time. The medina (old city) consists of plaster buildings going up the mountain side, however they are painted blue rather than the expected white plaster. The blue comes from the city’s large Jewish population and the city is also known for its distinctive blue doors. We walked though the alleys to get to our hotel. Kareem had booked the hotel taking into account our requirements of a western style toilet (in lieu of the local “turk”, a hole in the floor) and a shower in the room. The hotel, Dar Terrae, is owned by an Italian guy and access is simply a door in one of the alleys. It has 7-8 small rooms located on 3 floors, all opening to a courtyard in the middle. There are no other windows in the rooms other than on the courtyard as the only outside wall the hotel has is at the front door. The place was like walking into Disneyland, blue plaster walls with typical Moroccan doors and portals framed in yellow. The room was tiny at best, with a brick semi-circle serving as the bathroom and a brick fireplace. Truly unique, there cannot be another hotel like this.

Kareem led us down toward the old city square. The city consists of many narrow alleys, not large enough for cars. The alleys are lined with very small shops again selling anything. They sell the usual tourist trinkets, tajines (a ceramic cooking and eating dish with a ceramic top), wool, sacks of different brightly colored pigment, sacks of beans, rice and ginger root, foods, leather and rugs to name a few of things sold in the tiny stalls. Some of the stalls are workshops where men use looms to make woolen goods, some are barber shops. The alleys are full of brightly colored blankets, purses and other goods put out by the shop keepers. All on a backdrop of the blue doors and blue plaster walls. Hatman was the name on the outside of a very small shop (called the small shop) that may hold as many as 2 customers interested in woolen products. Hatman sits in the back corner of the shop knitting caps, leggings and gloves. We walk past hatman’s shop every time we go to and from the shop. Kareem stopped at hatman to see what he had in the way of knit caps and struck up a conversation with him in Arabic. Hatman’s English wasn’t bad. He wanted to know where we were from, to make sure we were happy (an often repeated question from many vendors) and let us know he had a democratic price. Democratic prices were mentioned by several vendors in Chefchaouen and Tangier. We’re not sure democratic pricing is. Hatman assured us he was happy, which he undoubtedly was. He lit a fresh incense stick as one walked into the shop to disguise the smoke from the locally grown products. He had an interesting outlook on the sale of a cap to Kareem, that being that one cap equals one tajine (dinner) to him.

The square is lined with cafes where you can get a meal or just a cup of coffee or tea. The local cafes almost seem to have a 100% patronage. Women were more prevalent in the tourist cafes that overlooked the Kasbah (fortress) on the square. The tourist cafes are complete with hawkers to draw you into their place. One guy claimed he was from Chicago then switched it to Boston to convince us he had the best café. We ordered some coffees and people watched. There was no shortage of people walking through the square. There were families in western attire, families where the mother wore a veil, other where the women were completely covered head to toe with the exception of their eyes. Many women wore kaftans, most with traditional hijab scarves and some without. Some women looked to me like they were out of the Andes rather than Morocco wearing brightly colored hats, they being wrapped in bright blankets. The men wore western attire, jeans and jelabas, a traditional Arab robe. Many, mostly older men, wore burnooses, a woolen hooded cloak. There was a cluster of the old guys with the burnooses sitting outside the Kasbah talking to each other. It looked like a small group of wizards got together to watch the afternoon together. Some got up and followed the call to prayer from the mosque next door, some stayed. While in the square we walked through the Kasbah which provided great views of the old and new cities, the surrounding mountains and the valley below the new city.
Back to the hotel for the night. Our hotel did not have heat or air conditioning so our host built us a fire. Although there is a chimney leading above the roof, the flue also seems to vent into the bathroom. The better the fire, the more smoke in the bathroom. Well, as the entire room was probably no more than 50sqft so the smoke was throughout.

Saturday morning we retired to the roof of the hotel for an outdoor breakfast brought to us by Fatima. We bid good morning to hatman and headed for the square where the wizards were in their usual place in front of the Kasbah. Kareem took us out of the Medina downhill to the new city with its own city square and park. We went back to the old city and out a gate on the high side of the city leading to the river. There were 2 covered areas below us that were used to wash clothes and rugs in the river. There were many women washing clothes and blankets in the river. The walls above the river were full brightly colored rugs drying in the sun. We stopped again at the tourist café and people watched followed by a very nice dinner at Ali Baba’s.

Sunday we bid goodbye to our hosts in Chefchaouan and took a cab to Tangier, about a 2 hour drive. The scenery was again beautiful, 6,000’ mountains, green fields and lots of wild flowers along the way. Tangier is a major port at the entrance to the Straits of Gibraltar connecting the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Kareem and our driver, Ottman, were involved in conversation most of the drive. It was fascinating to watch Kareem hold the conversation fluently in Arabic. In Tangier, we stayed at the Riad Tanja, a very nicer older hotel in the medina. We walked through the medina to the Mediterranean beach and up to the city square outside the medina. On one side of the square is St. Andrew’s Anglican Church, built in the late 19th century. We walked through the graveyard to the church and were soon met by the caretaker, Mustapha. Mustapha is very proud of his church, opening it up and showing us all around. He showed us the area behind the altar with the wall on which the Koran is written in Arabic in a Christian church and the rope he pulls to ring the church bells (he pulled it once for us and called it a small service). We asked if he would take a picture with us. Mustapha is a very friendly man with a lilting voice. He liked the picture idea, hugged us all and headed off to the cemetery. He returned with a small bouquet of flowers for Nancy for the picture taking session. He is a fascinating man. We wrapped up the day with a very nice and lengthy dinner at our hotel. A bottle of wine and excellent conversation were a nice close to a wonderful trip. It was great to see Kareem and enjoy the long conversations covering world hunger, politics or anything else that came up. Ramzi and Livia would be even prouder of him as they watch him interact with locals.

We saw a lot in Morocco. So we would not forget all that we saw, the three of us made a list of things to write about. Most are covered above, other observations are:
There is not much place in an Arab country for dogs, but cats are everywhere in Morocco. They’re on rooftops, under your feet at the café, saunter in shops and play with things in the alley. They can also on occasion get a bit pungent.
Smoking of tobacco and the locally grown alternative is widespread. Many vendors sell cigarettes individually.
A unique product we saw for sale was the Soft Acrylic Mink Blanket. An acrylic mink sounds interesting.
What looked to be a snail soup was sold by several street vendors. We opted not to try it out.
Most of the beggars are women.
We saw quite a few people on crutches, a lot of them looking like they had been struck by a disease like polio.

Sean's Visit

Friday morning we discovered Kalverstraat & Spui Centrum. We had briefly walked through this area when Ryan was here. The reason for our visit this time was to find bookstores. I was almost at the end of my final book and getting desperate. I was assured I could find anything I wanted at these stores. There were several stores to choose from, including the 3 story American Book Center. I saw Waterstone’s Book Center first & happily picked out several books. Wandering further into the area we found yet another Friday street market. This one, in the book store area was filled with stalls of books & pictures. Very cool. We didn’t have long to stay but it would definitely be worth a trip back at some point in the future. Looked like lots of neat children’s books to add to my collection!

Sean arrived mid afternoon. Shortly after we were back at the apartment, the rain arrived. And the wind. We read the winds were somewhere around 50mph overnight. At one point, one of our windows blew in (they open in) because it was not locked correctly. With it, rain & wind. It was a struggle to close it against the elements.

Saturday morning did not look too promising, weather wise. We headed out in tremendous wind to show Sean the sites. First stop, breakfast at Sara’s Pancakes. Then back out into the wind & cold. We stayed out about 3 hours but that was plenty. We did the usual walking tour of the canals, the Dam Square, the Red Light District & a few shops before giving up. On the way home we stopped by the Saturday street fair. There were not as many people out & a lot less vendors than normal. None of the booths had covers on them – too windy. We bought some focaccia bread to have with dinner & headed back. A few minutes after we were back, Sean gave up entirely & was dozing.

I headed out again to the grocery store for dinner ingredients. When I got back, Allen, the apartment manager from upstairs (around Sean’s age) was here visiting. His visit turned into dinner for the 4 of us. Late Saturday night, he & Sean went out to some of the local bars. I happily went to bed, around 1:00 a.m.

Sunday did not start early for any of us. Once we got up & going we walked toward the Leidseplein for the canal boat ride. We have been on this so many times, we could probably commandeer the boat & give the tour ourselves. But the canals are so important to Holland & the buildings you see are so beautiful that it’s a nice ride. The driver was very good. He did not leave the pre recorded commentary going as most of them do, preferring to add his own running comments. He was funny and added some facts that we had not heard previously. When he wasn’t speaking, he played a variety of music. From the canal boat to the Vlaamse Frites stand for the next obligatory stop on the tour. From there, we made our way back to the apartment & a very late dinner.



Nancy & Sean, Zaanse Schans, NL


Monday morning we headed out fairly early. The wind was strong, rain showers were threatening. As we headed out, both rain & ice pellets greeted us. We ran for the bus to Central Station.

By the time we got there it was windy & cold but the rain had stopped. Our destination on Monday was Zaanse Schans, a neighborhood about 20 minutes away by train. It has windmills, little wooden houses, shops, stores & a couple of restaurants. All set on the water with pretty gardens & fields that have goats & sheep. We wandered around the village & then stopped at the pannekoek restaurant for some breakfast. Savory cheese & bacon pancakes for Sean. Apple cinnamon for Bob & I. They tasted good but even better, we warmed up & were out of the wind!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaanse_Schans

After our fill of Zaanse Schans we headed back to Amsterdam Central & walked toward the Jordaan to the Delft shop. It closed at 6:00 & Sean wanted to get there before it closed. We walked back to Museumplein to visit the Van Gogh museum. We had not been there before & I enjoyed learning more about the artist and seeing some of his work.


Sean, enjoying Vlaamse Frites with mayo!

Another stop at Vlaamse Frites for a late afternoon snack & we were done for the day.
As we made our way back to the apartment, the light was perfect for some photo ops. Sean & Bob stopped to take their share.







We all agreed that we had walked a LOT on Monday! Back to the apartment for dinner, another visit from Allen & before we knew it, the evening had passed & it was 11:00 p.m.
We left the apartment before 5:00 a.m. on Monday to make the 5:30 a.m. train to Schiphol. Sean’s plane left for London Gatwick at 7:00 a.m. Fortunately, it was not raining when we walked to Central Station. Buses don’t even run that early & that had been a concern. Sean got checked in without incident & headed off. We loved having him here, the visit passed way too quickly. Our last visitor on this trip. Sean’s visit & our visit to Morocco were so far away a month ago when we got here. Now, this trip is winding down.


Aalsmeer Bloemenveiling



From the airport, we made our way (without incident this time….see blog re: Frank & Jill’s visit) to Aalsmeer.

We have been numerous times but the sheer enormity of the warehouse space & the number of flowers everywhere is just incredible. I never tire of visiting here. After leaving Aalsmeer, the next stop was Luchtvaart Hobby Shop for Bob. This is a hobby shop that I actually discovered for him several years ago as we were driving by it. He had just a few minutes in the shop before we had to catch our bus back to Central Station. From Central Station we headed to the apartment, doing a few errands on the way.


After straightening up the apartment & catching up on e-mail, nothing sounded better to me than a nap. The rain increased again in the afternoon, perfect time to read my book….uh, sleep. Bob went out & picked up dinner for us & by the time he got back, it was snowing. Nothing stuck but it was beautiful to watch the big white flakes come down in the late afternoon light.

This flowering tree is outside the window of our apartment. It & several like it span the bedroom & kitchen windows. When we arrived, a month ago, they were barely beginning to bud. Now, the flowers are all beginning to disappear as the leaves unfurl.

A few errands today as we prepare to make our way to Morocco & Kareem early tomorrow morning. This trip is winding down very quickly!