Saturday, October 20, 2007

Trip Report -- Day 7

Sunday breakfast was the now familiar bread, cheese, cold cuts and assorted extras. The Berghotel provided ample portions served at our table instead of a buffet.

The previous night I had carefully checked the Nuvi's route from Holzerath to Amsterdam. The route took us back on the one-lane road we came in on and eventually north east on the A1. We were only on the A1 a short distance. At first I thought this was another Nuvi error, but the maps showed a large section of the A1 is still unfinished. Instead we cut north west on the A60 towards Belgium. Traffic on the A60 was very light and I set the cruise control at 150km/h. I don't remember passing a single car. As we approached the border, the speed limit dropped to 80 or 60 and the Autobahn narrowed to 1 lane each way. Possibly this was a choke point at the old border crossing. The Schengen Treaty ended border controls between a dozen and a half European countries. Driving from Germany to Belgium is like Driving from Georgia to Alabama. There is a sign, the football team changes and a few of the traffic laws are different.

We stopped in Belgium for fuel at one of the ubiquitous rest stops. After filling up, I was going to use the restroom but Debbie warned me off. She said she'd seen about 15 men go in but none of them had come out. One woman ventured in but ran right back out and grabbed her husbands arm. They both left quickly. I decided that my bladder could wait for The Netherlands. Belgium was just a drive-through.

The national speed limit in Belgium and The Netherlands is 120km/h. After the Autobahn, driving at 75mph felt terribly slow. Traffic as we approached Amsterdam dragged us down to 40km/h or so.

We stayed at the Golden Tulip Amsterdam Art, a modern 4-star just outside central Amsterdam. The hotel has secure underground parking for 14Euros per night. In Amsterdam, finding a hotel with parking is essential. The hotel room was quite nice, if a bit strange. Think stereotypic gay. We unpacked quickly and headed out into the city.

The front of Amsterdam houses and building lean out into the street. I suppose this was done to give the upper stories a bit more room. It may also have something to do with the Nuvi's total failure to work. I had set the Nuvi to give us a walking route to the Anne Frank house. As soon as we got into historic Amsterdam, the Nuvi turned into an evil box. It did things like put us 2 or 3 blocks from our actual location and gave directions that made no sense. I finally turned the navigation off, and used the Nuvi as a dumb map.

We queued for the Anne Frank House a little before closing. That is the best time to go as the crowd is much smaller. The museum consists of the building her family hid in as well as the adjacent house. The Nazis took the furniture, but much of the rest remains. The book case concealing the entrance to the secret rooms, the wall paper, even the magazine pages that Anne used to decorate her room are all still there. It was quite a contrast to Dachau. This was home to several families. No one was murdered here. But it was equally haunting.

That night we had Indian food at a restaurant somewhere between the Anne Frank House and our hotel. After a week of German food, something else, anything else was a welcome change.

Back at the hotel we watched a little Dutch TV. Dutch programming is an intersection of Dutch and American culture. We watched the Blues Brothers Movie in English, with no subtitles. The commercials were very Dutch. The next channel over had music videos. Dutch rap seemed very odd.

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