The Taxi service

Turning the mother-in-law loose in Amsterdam

After the Delf excursion we realized that with the five of us going anywhere the probability approaches one that someone will get sick, overtired, overhungry, or hurt.  So friday Marilee came to Amsterdam with me.  

The trickiest part of the trip is getting from our house to the train staion, Leiden Centraal.  It's about 2.5 km and it's anomalously cold here.  We've gone twice by taxi with varying results and expense.  So Marilee was going to bike, but her broken arm was sore, so I put the kid's seat on the rack of my bike (the landlord's bike actually, not my good bike, I wouldn't leave that at the train station).  Unfortunately, this is the best picture we got.  The bike is the Dutch step-through type and a fairly cheap one at that, so it starts of whippy as a wet noodle.  Put my mother-in-law over the rear axel and with great will power applied, it will almost go around corners.  Nonetheless, we were passing several other two-uppers with skinny little teenaged girls on the back and big young strapping guys up front trying to get it up the slope approaching the station. 

Tears

Once in Amsterdam, we went to the Anne Frank house.  What can you do but cry?  

There is a new exhibit since last I was there.  It's an interactive bit on the limits of freedom.  E.g. should it be allowed that the NeoNazis march in front of a synagogue or that the Irish protestants march through Catholic neighborhoods to celebrate the victory of William of Orange?  I'm generally libertarian on these sorts of things, but I know that US law strikes what I think is a good balance.    Your free-speech rights end when you are obviously trying to incite violence either by encouraging others to commit violence on your behalf or by picking a fight directly.  The law even defines ``fighting words." Seems like the aforementioned marches are pretty blatant attempts to pick a fight by choice of location.  Anyway, you get to vote on the answers and see how other visitors have voted.  

We had lunch and I left Marilee on her own to wander.  She managed to make it to VU on her own later in the day by tram and we caught the intercity back to Leiden for dinner.  

I am not South African

A worker at the Anne Frank House thought my Dutch was good enough that I might be South African.  I'm not sure what to make of that.   It's a bit like being told your English sounds like you might be from the American South.   

Einstein Cafe

Albert Einstein was on the faculty at Leiden fora couple of years and his time here is still celebrated.  Today Ethan and I went to the Einstein Cafe.  I had the Einstein hamburger:  sliced boiled egg, chease and mayo sauce on a burger that's made like meatloaf with bread and spices.

 

More taxi service

I got to be taxi service for my wife tonight when we went out for a little date with out the kids.  She probably would have been better-off on her own bike as she just got cold sitting on the back of mine.  We had an American-sized meal at a chinese place and then stopped off for a beer and Irish coffe at an English Pub.  There's a smoking ban in Holland now, but some of the pubs in smaller towns a re flaunting it.  This one had out a jar to collect for the fines.

Cultural observation 2

Most Europeans do not smile and acknowledge strangers.  This is a very American thing to do.  If I smile and nod to someone I pass on the sidewalk leaving my house ( they're neighbors after all ) I automatically get a ``Hello" in English instead of a ``goedemorgen."   They know.  The Dutch, at least, think we are overly polite and sweet.  The French think we're grinning idiots.