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Serendipity has been ruling this Am*dam visit. Last night we
met Dabor, who became our guide and invited us for a homecooked vegetarian
meal. Today, while renting a bike, I asked if they had maps. The clerk didn't
have any free ones, but he offered one for sale. As we talked, I absently
opened the map, surprised to see it showed not the center, but the north
suburbs. He apologized for the mistake, but now I was curious. He explained
the north is where the "normal people" live. It's a mix of housing blocks,
pastures, and floating bird sanctuaries. He took back the map and replaced
it with a free color photocopy with a highlighted bikeroute. Since we were
on an island in the Amstel River, we were already halfway there, so we decided
to ride out along the
levee.
We were lucky--it was uncharacteristically warm and sunny for mid-October.
As in other European cities, the transition from urban to rural is extremely
abrupt, so although we were close to the center, all we saw all afternoon
were green fields and quaint villages. We stopped for a snack and looked
over the water to the
construction
crane ballet of another Dutch megaproject. Amsterdam is a sci-fi city,
mixing centuries of tradition with futuristic new architecture and massive
terraforming projects. We rode back to the center....
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