When the tulips are in bloom

At last, with the arrival of the spring months and the promise of warmer weekends, my 2012 travel season is beginning. My first weekend abroad, accompanied by my friends Francesco and Esteban, coincided with the Dutch tulip season which lasts more or less the entire month of April. I'd love to write about all the culture and history I discovered, but honestly this weekend abroad was mostly a delightful escape. Here is my best attempt at sharing the weekend's adventures.

Boatels!
The first pleasure of the weekend came with our arrival on Friday night. We bee-lined for our weekend lodging to make the 11pm check-in: we stayed in two neighboring boat-hotels-- boatels-- on a dock not far from the train station. The view from my boatel room was something remarkable.

Francesco and Esteban walking down our dock to the boatels

Couldn't complain about the view from my boatel room

Keukenhof: the world's largest bulb flower gardens with over 7 million bulbs hand-planted.
On Saturday, we spent quite a lot of time making our way out of the city to visit the Keukenhof tulip gardens, where the variety of tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths stunned us. After all the time we lost on transit, we didn't get around to renting bikes from the gardens to enjoy the surrounding farmers' tulip fields. This wasn't terribly disappointing: we saw enough flowers along the 15km of walking paths in the park to check off "see the tulips in bloom in the Netherlands" from any seasoned traveler's to-do list.

Historical tidbit: The tulip was not native to the Netherlands or Europe at all but grew wild in central Asia. Tulips arrived in Europe thanks to the Turks via Vienna in the mid-1500's, and rapidly gained popularity in Europe through the 1600's. There was even a period in the 1600's now referred to as Tulip Mania during which the price of tulips in the Netherlands skyrocketed as everyone tried to get their hands on the trendy new flower.

While we overloaded on flowers, we had the good fortune to miss out on the largest train crash in recent Dutch history along the path we took to travel from the city to the gardens. While happy our weekends weren't to include any cultural exploration from the inside of a Dutch hospital, we still had more than our fair share of exploring the Dutch train system as we tried to navigate the confusing detours resulting from the accident.

Amsterdam itself: Indonesian food, Dutch beer, wobbly architecture, and gratuitous use of the letter J
Back in the city itself, we continued to stop and giggle over the silly nearly-intelligible language on the signs across the city. We got ourselves some delicious Indonesian food at Café Kadijk, Kadijksplein 5, Amsterdam. Indonesia having been a Dutch colony for over 300 years, Amsterdam is a great place to get this cultural cuisine. Finally, dodging "friendly" tourists as we passed through the Red Light District, we meandered our way over to my favorite bar in the city, De Jaren, Nieuwe Doelenstraat 20-22, 1012 CP Amsterdam, where Francesco managed to get himself an entire plateful of whipped cream as Esteban and I sampled the beers.

The view down a typical Amsterdam canal

"Gee! Door over taken" ...gotta love the Dutch language

No weekend with three enginerds is complete without some attention paid to structure and design. Along our wanderings through the city, we couldn't help but stop and admire the street lamps. The lamps are composed of one upward-facing light source at the base and many tiny mirrors lining the top, angled so as to direct the street lamp light in a certain direction, generally toward the street. And of course, you can't neglect the cool side-effect of the reflected patterns on the lamp's glass walls made by the lamp-top mirrors.

De Jaren, my favorite bar/café located along a canal on the edge of central Amsterdam

An exciting Saturday night (if not typically Amsterdam-style excitement) with Esteban and Francesco at De Jaren

On Sunday we decided to go for a more intimate view of the city by undertaking a mission: find the locals' best pastry shop. Sadly, tips we received led us to some dark store fronts. As per the European norm, the Dutch don't work much on Sundays. We were lucky enough to find a lovely organic place for delicious sandwiches and fruit smoothies: Juice and Salad, Vijzelstraat 135, 1017 HJ Amsterdam. After passing up a few pancake houses on the dessert search-- the Dutch are known for their pancakes-- we found ourselves in the Nine Streets, or De Negen Straatjes, a trendy neighborhood, seated in a charming café (tellingly named Café Pompadour) where we realized that most of the pastries could have been plucked from any Parisian boulangerie. We sampled a dense and delicious apple pie with almond paste, a local specialty. As we tried other sweets, we found ourselves forced to acknowledge that we've been spoiled by life in the ultimate city for pastries.

Francesco, Esteban, and me, on the town and with a mission: hunting for the best Dutch pastry shop

The best pastry shop/tea room in Amsterdam? Sampling a local specialty of apple pie and some treats straight from the French boulangers' cook books at Café Pompadour, Huidenstraat 12.

The day was not for naught: we picked up some Dutch words, especially honing in on the Dutch fondness for the silent j. (Example: bakkerij = bakery) We admired the effects of construction on less-than-solid foundations along the canals. We snuck our way into a posh Art Nouveau hotel on our way back to our boatels. And all day we enjoyed the beautiful sun that shone out against all the rainy-weather forecasts. The weekend away without internet and with plenty of good laughs was just the thing for yours truly: a grad student in a bit of a slump with experiments never working quite right, a doctoral contract clock that's ticking, and a big, imposing (if charming and beautiful) home city where it's easy to feel dreadfully alone.

A typically Dutch residential street in Amsterdam

A closer look at the previous photo allows one to peak into three independent lives being played out on the subsequent stories stacked atop one another. I was struck by my ability to peer into three worlds being experienced so closely and yet so entirely separate from one another.

As you can see pretty well along this crooked building line-up, the Dutch buildings don't always have the best "posture."

The ceiling of the Art Nouveau hotel where we played off being guests to admire the interior décor.

As usual, Amsterdam didn't disappoint. Despite its reputation for being the place for legal drugs and prostitution, there's much more to draw a tourist to town. Amsterdam is home to a shockingly friendly populace with remarkably good English (at least in contrast to their Parisian counterparts). This city welcomes its tourists with beautiful parks, delicious beer, cozy cafés, ample biking opportunities, and charming brick architecture lining picturesque canals. Amsterdam is still riding on my short list of favorite cities the world over.