Thirty: Drive-bys

We've had a couple of short but sweet drop ins recently... a variety of visitors that provided great company and an excuse to practice my tour guide skills.

At the end of August family friend Russel Grenham and his girlfriend Alecia - roadtripping around Europe for a couple of weeks - stayed with us for two days. We took the bikes downtown, wandeled the 9-streets, visited the Rijks, popped into Amnesia for milkshakes. Russel (a rather large fellow) looked sweet on my omafiets with pink saddlebags.

At the end of September another family friend - Marseille Markham - spent a few days of her open-ended backpacking odyssey. I sprung her from the Flying Pig youth hostel and set her up on our less than comfortable pull out couch. We biked along the Amstel to Ouderkerk, stopping at De Zwarte Kat for a riverside lunch. We walked around downtown, sat in a few cafes, visited the very popular Grasshopper, drove out to Kinderdijk and took the train to Delft. And then she was on to Poland, but hoping to make Greece by Christmas.

In mid-October a co-worker from Makers - Sean McCormick - and his folks arrived. They'd rented an old (built in 1926 I think) houseboat on the Bloemengracht, right across from the Anne Frank House. The whole family works or has worked in architecture and/or urban planning. They were very keen on Amsterdam's building design, infrastructure and policy - we discussed everything from how the parking rates encourage bicycle use to the type of delivery trucks servicing downtown alleys. On their first day I joined them for a walk through the Jordaan, the 9-streets (complete with breakfast at Pancakes! Amsterdam) Dam Square, the Red Light District, the University campus, and Museumplein. In the afternoon we checked the Concertgebow to see what was on, got caught in the rain, then settled in at Cafe Hoppe to sip genever gin and snack on bitterballen. To cap off, Kim and I took them Oude Smidse, a favorite restaurant in Ouderkerk.

The 'cool' prize goes to Greg (one of our Quad neighbors,) who came in for about 3 hours during a layover (he would return for a longer visit with Francie a week or so later.) We met at Central Station and did some early morning adventuring downtown before he returned to Schipol and flew off to Rome.