We checked out of our cool
apartment at 11 am today but before that strolled around our little
neighborhood, eating a fantastic breakfast at the place we had passed everyday
on our way to the U-Bahn, going to the grocery store (Rachel had discovered in
Germany they sell Lion (her favorite candy bar) cereal), and wandering the
farmers’ market in our square. After a
week it starts to feel like it really is our neighborhood...and we were sad to
leave.
We got to the train station with
plenty of time to spare, and then our train was 40 minutes late on top of
that. We had reserved seats so I wasn’t
worried about the hordes of people on the platform but when we boarded we found
that they had sold reserved seats to seats that somehow didn’t exist on our
train. Our seat numbers were thankfully here but we had to kick people out of
our seats who had nowhere else to go. In
my stereotype of Germans, this situation is really uncharacteristic. For the first half we sat on the train with
many people who had to stand or sit on the floor all the way to Amsterdam. It was super hot and just a little miserable. In some ways it made it easier to find time
to catch up on the blog and read. There
is a very nice woman (50s) sitting next to me with her mother (80s). She didn’t speak great English but good enough…and
definitely better than my German! Turns
out they are Polish (where the older mother still lives) but the younger one
lives in Berlin and works at the Jewish History Museum we visited
yesterday. The 80-year-old Polish lady I
think really liked hearing that the girls had Polish blood and from then
assumed I could speak Polish – though I was clear it wasn’t my blood. She would every now and then explain great things
to us in Polish. She was so cute, we
just smiled along.
Midway through the trip our train
stopped and after great confusion we learned we all had to get off, cross the
tracks and get on a different train to get to Amsterdam. It all worked out for the best though – we eventually
got the seats we actually reserved in an air conditioned car – sitting in a
group with a table in between us. For
this part of the trip we sat across from a young man from Australia traveling with
a young Swiss woman. They had each been
traveling on their own but met in a hostel in Scandinavia and started traveling
together. We ended up having a very interesting conversation with them about
world politics…and how all of our countries are struggling right now. They were
both very well spoken and, as we had with the Polish women earlier, we had to
somehow try to explain what could possibly be happening in America that Trump
has gotten as far as he has. I found his
explanation of Australian history and the poor treatment of the Aboriginals
there very interesting – especially in how much he and his country seem to own responsibility
for past generations.
We finally arrived in Amsterdam, stored
our bags at the station, and head out on foot to have one final adventure. Rachel
led us to an area near the train station to some restaurant choices along the
canals. It was a perfect night – the temperature
just right for sitting outside. When I
saw an available outdoor table in a great setting it turned out to be the same
vegetarian restaurant the girls had gone to with my mom and were happy to go to
again. Unfortunately, the service was
super slow. We sat at 9 pm and didn’t
get served until 10. We had wanted to
try to get to a grocery store to bring home more treats but by the time dinner
was over, the stores were closed. We thought about getting pancakes but those
places were also closed! We walked back
to the train station enjoying the Amsterdam vibe and coffee house culture,
picked up our bags, and headed to the airport Ibis Budget Hotel – about as nice
as it sounds – to spend the night before heading home tomorrow. We fly out first thing in the morning.
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