Seven: Infinity and Beyond

We visited Den Haag on Saturday. I forgot the camera of course, so we bought a disposable. We stopped by Scheveningen - the Netherlands' most popular beach - on the way to The Hague. It had a Coney Island meets Martha's Vinyard sort of feel, with grass dunes and a boardwalk. By all accounts the place gets nuts in the summer.

In The Hague we walked around the Binnenhof ('Inner Court') and the Plein ('Square':essentially the city center). The Binnenhof houses the Dutch parliament and the Prime Minister's office. Also many international courts. It used to be a castle surrounded by moats but has been modified many times as government offices grew.

We went to the Mauritshuis Royal Picture Gallery (Vermeer's the girl with a pearl earring and view of Delft and Rembrandt's The anatomy lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp among the portraits, still lifes, landscapes and cityscapes from Holland's 17th century). We also visited Escher in het Paleis. Escher starts to melt your brain after an hour or so. Some of his earlier cityscapes are just as impressive as all the plane and infinity stuff.

Later we drove through some old world neighborhoods with estate/manor type homes along beautiful tree-lined streets. We stopped in for a beer at a pub where there were more dogs than people. The dogs wanted you to feed them peanuts. We had a great meal at an Indonesian restaurant, but as usual ate way too much.

Kim traded in the convertible Puegot (boooo!) for a regular car with a real back seat. Some sort of German vehicle (Opel Astra). Now we can take our visitors to places outside Amsterdam (yey!).

Six: The Missing Cat

So this was an eventful week. It started with the flu. Both Kim and I got sick at the same time. There was puking. Luckily it only lasted 24 hours. The highlight was sickly swaying in front of the medicine selection in the grocery store clutching a box of tissue and a bottle of apple juice and trying to identify something that would help. I finally went up to some kid, handed him a box that vaguely resembled TheraFlu, and asked, "what is this for?" He was surprised but helpful.

Then two days later one of our cats (Rollie; for those of you who have encountered our cats, she's the annoying one) went missing. Vanished off the supposedly safe and ideal rooftop deck during a rainstorm. We searched the rooftops. We searched the chimneys. We made fliers and canvassed the neighborhood. We wandered the streets in the evening calling her name. The neighbors and proprietors of the neighborhood cafe, hair salon, flower stand and post office were genuinely concerned and suspiciously helpful. They had cat stories with happy endings. They studied the flyer and proclaimed they would look for her. They posted the flyer, with no prompting, in the windows of their shops. I felt like I was in Europe or something.

By the third day, our lovely and charming downstairs neighbors/landlords Michael and Eva were crawling around the rooftops with us, looking in chimneys. This was humiliating, hilarious and depressing.

People called with leads, resulting in encounters with several neighborhood cats, none of them Rollie. After three days, we were pretty sure she was gone for good.

Six: Part II; The Visit

Our neighbor Mark from Seattle came through Amsterdam on his way home from travels in the Middle East. He only stayed two days, but they were action packed.

Saturday: Mark arrives and announces "I know how hard it is with Rollie and everything, so if you need some space I can totally go off and do stuff on my own". However I for one am not about to let this opportunity for some much needed fun and distraction with a friend from home go by. We rent bikes. We ride around the Jordaan (where the Anne Frank House is), eat at a Dutch pancake house, go to a locals beer hall with a huge selection of Dutch beer. We go through Oud Zuid (Old South) and De Pijp (The Pipe). Really nice, very Amsterdamy neighborhoods. We ride along the Amstel River. It's perfect. Then we ride back to our neighborhood and walk around calling for Rollie, to no avail.

Sunday: Kim and I wake up around 5:30 and hit the streets looking for our stupid cat. At this point my voice is almost shot. "Rollie! Rollie! Rooooollieeeeee!" The neighbors are probably wishing we would go missing, too. After an hour or so, we go back to the apartment feeling defeated. Again. She's gone for good. We sleep for a while, then get up and go for breakfast with Mark. Today we plan to visit the Greenhouse (coffee shop) and the Van Gogh Museum. We make a quick stop at the apartment to pick up a few things. Mark and Kim step out on the deck for a moment, and Kim throws out a few half-hearted "Rollie!"s. Almost immediately she hears it. Yowling. The loud, obnoxious, question mark yowl that can only be made by one particular cat. I come out of the bathroom and see them peering into the garden courtyard below yelling "Rollie!!" I run out and sure enough, she's down there darting around and looking panicked. I dash down to Eva and Michale's place to access the garden. They are in their robes (about the 3rd time I've burst in on them in their robes) but of course are as convivial as ever. I run out into the courtyard. Several neighbors watch from above. Mark directs "Left! More Left! Right!" Eva and Michael are shouting stuff, a neighbor woman is shouting stuff, it's pandemonium. I crawl through gardens (smashing flower beds along the way) and finally find her under some stairs. She comes out but is definitely freaked. I grab her and quickly go back through Michael and Eva's place, tracking mud on their pristine white floors while apologizing profusely. They are convincing in their assertion that it is no problem at all and they are just happy we found her. I hope never to have to disturb them again.

"Holy shit! No way! I can't believe she came back!" Kim says. "It's a miracle. It's a miracle. It's totally a miracle" proclaims Mark.

We happily head out for our day of biking, coffee shopping and Van Goghing. I shut the front door behind us. I realize I forgot my bag. I realize the keys to the apartment are in the bag. I realize I have to ring Michael and Eva to get them to open our front door.

Five: Waffles and Hats

Went to Belgium last weekend. Brussels and Antwerp. We consumed many belgian waffles, frites and chocolates. We navigated our way using our trusty TomTom, Jane. Turns out Jane is no good at navigating if you are on foot. We went to Atelier Coppens, Christophe Coppen's hat store. He is the royal family's hat maker. I had a hat made.

We ate dinner at Belgo Belge, a local's favorite in a cute neighborhood a short cab ride from our hotel. The area is a lot more welcoming than the austere and somewhat gritty city center. This is the sort of restaurant you would not discover without some insider knowlege (another Global Exchange expat told Kim about it). It was excellent. We asked the waitress to bring us the most representative selections, and she came through. We had a really good shrimp scampi in tomato cream sauce, rich beef stew (french style) and chicken braised in cream. And of course a chocolate lava cake for desert. It was such a good find that we agreed that if ever in Belgium for dinner again we'd return, forgoing new dining experiences.

The buildings in Grand Place in Brussels and Market Square in Antwerp are over the top. We'll have to return to Antwerp; the shopping is supposed to be great but nothing was open when we were there (Sunday). We also missed the Rubens on display at Cathedral of Our Lady.