Amsterdam!

Today has been a bit of cultural whiplash!   Waking up in a little, traditional Moroccan hotel, where I had breakfast sitting on the ornate cushions of the dining area in the hotel which was decorated in very traditional Moroccan style (deep reds and silvers and golds and beautiful tile...) and going to bed in a third floor loft apartment in Amsterdam, just steps from one of the canals, with the scent of cannabis wafting through my open window!!

My driver arrived early to the hotel this morning and we departed for the airport.  We had only gone about a block when something made me double check that my passport was in its usual spot and I nearly had a heart attack when I saw that it was not!!  In French I told the driver to return to the hotel where, fortunately, it was still at the desk from when I checked in on Thursday.  The desk attendant had not given it back to me at that time and I totally forgot!  Whew!  It would have been a disaster if I had not caught it when I did, as the Casablanca airport is a good hour from the center city!  After that my travels went smoothly.  My bag even came off as one of the first bags on the belt, so I got out to the train and into Amsterdam Centraal Station and a cab to my apartment and arrived a mere 75 minutes after we touched down on the runway.  

This apartment is very modern, on the third floor of the building.  The "bedroom" is actually a bed in a loft which is accessed by a ladder (and a steep one at that!)  To say that this flat is not "accessible" for mobility impaired people is putting it mildly!  There is no air conditioning, but when the windows are open the breeze is really lovely and cools it right down.  When I arrived the landlord gave me a map and told me how to get to the main drag where shops and restaurants are and I went straight out to get groceries in so I could make tea, G&Ts and breakfast in the morning! The grocery store is a lot of fun, because, even though the Dutch all speak English, the products in the store are exclusively in Dutch.  Someitimes it is tricky to figure out what it is you're looking at!!  I bought a bottle of gin in the duty free in Morocco so at least for this part of the trip my nightly treat won't cost me a young fortune.  I brought my groceries back and then went back out to get myself oriented.  I found Central Station and the trams and buses that I'll need for getting around and walked along one main drag that is full of "coffeeshops" (aka places to buy pot, hashish and other such substances).  What a contrast to Morocco!  Here both drugs and alcohol flow pretty freely!!  I walked for a couple of hours and finally had dinner in an Indian restaurant then got an ice cream for dessert and walked back to the apartment with a light rain falling.  It is so much cooler here than Morocco, that I actually feel chilly this evening. Amsterdam in July  is full of YOUNG tourists enjoying the free flowing pot and imbibing the Heineken!  

Tomorrow I've got a ticket for the Van Gogh museum for 10 AM so will head in that direction and probably hit the other major museums in that area while I'm there.  Pics tonight include the outside of the apartment building (3 doors - mine is the one furthest to the right) and scenes of the neighborhood.  I'm going to make my G&T and try not to get high from the pot smoke that is fully in the air this evening!!