On Missing My Best Opportunity
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| Part of the bicycle parking at Sloterdijk Station |
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Outside the Game:
Perhaps unsurprisingly for the first jetlagged day in a new country, I had a lazy morning. I was up pretty early, and I dragged myself down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast right after it opened, with only one or two other souls up and eating along with the service staff.
And what a breakfast it was. The buffet spread was copious, but the centerpiece was various rolls and brown breads, a head-turning selection of cheeses, and a similarly wide choice of cold cut meats--and proper cold cuts of meat, not Oscar Mayer crap. And there was beans, bacon, yoghurt, pastries, eggs, and all manner of other sundry choices. With a plate laden with cheese and meat, I sat down at a table with some tea brewing and a conga line of juice glasses ready to go.
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| Light breakfast |
And I absolutely gorged myself. The cold cut and cheese sandwich was literally heavenly, though afterwards, I realized why the Dutch bike everywhere. With the amount of meat, cheese, and beer they consume, they would weigh a thousand kilos if they weren't regularly burning off a ton of calories.
Afterwards, I went back up to my room and napped again for a considerable time before finally rousing myself to a shower and new set of clothes to get me out into the world a little before 11 AM. I did some shopping for essentials and things like bottled water at the store by the station, dropped off my purchases, and boarded the next train to Centraal.
I stopped off at the tourist office to find out if I should get a pass of some sort. I ended up buying the tourist office's three-day pass for use at the start of next week, but the attendant also let me know about the Museum Pass that I read about in my Lonely Planet book. I had to buy it at a museum, so I headed off for my first stop for the day, Nieuwe Kerk, the church right next to the Royal Palace on the Dam. After a suitable bit of getting lost trying to walk straight south, I found myself at my destination.
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| Nieuwe Kirk |
Asking at the counter, I was able to buy my Museum Pass, but found out it wasn't as my guide book described it--or they had just changed it up recently. In the guidebook, it was unlimited uses for a month, but now, it was in five-location increments, which was less good, but still good enough to purchase.
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| A new age |
To show you what a different world the Netherlands is, Nieuwe Kerk, one of the oldest churches in the country, had been decommissioned and turned into a museum that was currently hosting the World Press Photo 2019 exhibition. How's that for separation of church and state? The exhibit was quite interesting, especially nestled within the historical treasures of the church itself, but the large posters talking about the dangers the press was facing by governments hit a tiny bit too close to home. As did a presentation in the video area about the Jeju ferry disaster in South Korea that happened a year or so after I visited. I watched a good, long portion of that, which talked about the panicked last hours of the trapped children in the middle of the government cover-up of their culpability. It was all too real, as was a series on the parallels of youth indoctrination by right-wing Americans and Russians. It was informative, though-provoking, real, and making me terminally depressed a day into my vacation.
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| Book fair |
After my visit there, I tried to make my way over to the Amsterdam Museum. Again, I got hopelessly lost trying to make a simple western course, eventually finding myself in an open-air book market in the Spui (pronounced more like "spow" and not a spitting sound for some reason), which in itself wasn't a bad thing. I'd like to say I didn't buy anything, but I think we all know that would be a lie.
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| Shoe older than America |
I eventually found a tourist street sign, and with a little navigating, I finally made it to the Amsterdam Museum. I smugly used my Museum Pass and ditched all my gear into a locker and headed into the labyrinthine museum. One of the first displays is a 400-year-old leather shoe they found in the foundations when they were expanding the building. I was just behind an older French couple as we toured the place, and we ran into each other numerous times. The museum did a good job of covering all of Amsterdam history, with a famous gay bar recreated in the upper levels, an open-to-the-public gallery of art, LEGO city planning exercises, and an ongoing quiz keyed to the audio guide that told you which of Amsterdam's characteristics you most exemplified. (Mine was "freedom.")
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| And what are you doing? |
And they really didn't shy away from controversial issues. The museum had holograms of slave plantation owners, defaced Catholic statues, the tram stop for the murdered Jewish area of the city, and an entire exhibit examining Dutch culpability in the murder of nearly its entire Jewish population by the Nazis. Definitely not an American institution.
After walking around there for several hours, I was extremely hungry, and decided to stop in at the museum cafe. I ordered up a Dutch egg and cheese sandwich and had some time to observe the world, as my waitress disappeared for a good, long time. During my wait, I was able to catch up on my notes for the day and people-watch, particularly Russian tourists that came by as part of walking tours that kept trying to sneak in to use the bathroom even though it was for customers only. Despite the wait, the sandwich was, in fact, quite good, and I was out again into the afternoon.
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| Flower market |
After some more false starts and mis-steps, I was at the Amsterdam flower market, a canal lined with flower booths for sale. Nearby was the old mint building that had been turned into one of the official concessions for Delfware Blue. My tourist self went in an made some discrete purchases before heading out for the one road that ran straight up to Centraal. I needed to buy a phone for use in Amsterdam, and after a couple of tries, I managed to purchase a burner unit for E20 or so.
Armed with a phone, I took the tram back to the Centraal and headed back to the hotel for a quick nap and shower before heading out for the evening. Not knowing any better, I decide to try to see if I can get in the last few tours of the night at the Anne Frank House. My guidebook said you probably had to order tickets in the morning, but I had nothing better to do, so I gave it a shot. I took a tram from Centraal towards the museum and found out that many trams in Amsterdam actually have a customer service desk built into the tram car, manned by a person who checks and sells tickets. It was quite a culture shift to see one.
I got out by the stop and a short walk with minor mis-steps later, I was at the Anne Frank House, and its endless line. A sign explained that today was completely sold out. I tried to see if I could find out about tomorrow, when I overheard a woman trying to sell an extra ticket to some people, but they needed two. I asked if she had a ticket to sell, and since I only needed one, she was willing to give it to me.
Except that the ticket was only E10, and I only had E20 on me. The tour was set to open in ten minutes, so I told her I would try and find a way to break my E20 quickly and come back.
Except that everything was closed or closing. I went in entirely the wrong direction, and by the time I had corrected myself, the tour had already entered the building. Oh well, I thought. No big deal.
Except that the Anne Frank House was sold out for over two weeks. The earliest I could get tickets, I would find, would be a week after I left. So that was my only opportunity to see the house, and I failed because I couldn't break a bill.
So it goes.
My luck continued for the night as I took a tram back to the old city center and tried to find a restaurant named "Anna" that came highly recommended. Except it was in the middle of the Red Light District, and I couldn't find it. I was wandering around the same blocks looking for this place over and over again, and the working women on those streets probably thought I was a nervous punter trying to work up the courage to take the dive. After a few circuits, I used my tablet to triangulate the place on the map, and while finally standing right in front of where it should be, it turned out to be closed and the sign removed, which explains my inability to locate it. So the guidebook was 0-2 today.
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| Canal-view soup |
The good news was that I was in the touristy part of the city and finding another restaurant shouldn't be too hard. I eventually settled on a canal-adjacent eatery called the De Haven van Texel that advertised traditional Dutch fare. And verily there I had my first Dutch pea soup, a thick, green concoction, filled with sausage and love. I had my single malt with a main course of Dutch pepper steak with frites and mayonaise while watching the darkening canal. This was my first try with mayo on frites, and it was actually pretty good, but I tried not to think about the calories.
After a lovely relaxing dinner, I managed to march back to Centraal without getting too lost and was quickly on a train back to the hotel. I was asleep within fifteen minutes of entering my room.
Amen.
The Accommodations:
I remained at the Urban Lodge Hotel. I spent a good portion of my morning in the room, but most of my only time was spent sleeping in the room during my nap in the morning and afternoon, and for the evening upon returning back after dinner.
On an Increased Sample Size
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| XLLease Park Dorrestein, 2019 |
Saturday, May 11, 2019
L&D Amsterdam vs. Quick AmersfoortXLLease Park Dorrestein
Honkbal Hoofdklasse
Amersfoort, The Netherlands
2:00 PM
Outside the Game:
Still fighting the jet lag, I had another lazy morning, to the point that I skipped the hotel breakfast and just floundered around in bed before eventually showering and heading out at around 11 AM again. Not having a proper breakfast, I grabbed some food from a kiosk at the station, Smuller's, that had an automat area where you could insert a bunch of coins and get food from a little door. How couldn't you?
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| Amersfoort Station |
I bought my return ticket at the station and even though it wasn't a long trip, I had to switch at Utrecht before arriving in Amersfoort. I purchased a return bus ticket at the station and went outside to find my bus berth via the helpful digital signs that were a feature of all Dutch mass transit. There was an Amsterdam fan waiting with me in a Pirates jacket. As expected, he was with me for the entire ride to the station by the ballpark, and I was able to let him get off first and follow him to the park as a more personalized GPS.
The Quick's stadium was in another sportpark, this one much more rural than Amsterdam's. As I was early, I walked around and saw the farm animals in the surrounding area and then stopped in at the other fields to watch some softball until it was about a half hour before game time, and I went to the main field.
After the game, I walked back to the bus stop to find the Amsterdam fan from before waiting for me there. We got back to Amersfoort station just in time to miss the express. He waited for the next express train, but I just got on the confusingly named "Sprinter" local train and managed to get back to my hotel just fine for another late-afternoon nap.
I did some more shopping at the convenience store by the hotel, got all my gear ready for the next day, texted work and my landlord with my vacation phone number, and then headed out for dinner at around 7 PM. Despite its failures the previous day, I was trusting my guidebook to suggest another restaurant, this time in the Museum District. Upon boarding the tram, the information kiosk lady informed everyone the system was down, so we were on the honor system for fares. Nearly everyone showed passes anyway when the beeper didn't work.
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| Stampot |
I got off at the stop near the restaurant and managed to make my way there with surprisingly few misdirections. I got to "The Pantry" at just the right time, as I was able to grab the last non-reserved two-person table outside, as everyone after me without reservations were turned aside by the very friendly wait staff. This was another purveyor of "Dutch cusine," so I started with the pea soup again, but had a "stampot" for my main, which is a Dutch variant of meat balls and various mashes root vegetables which was a lot better than it sounds. A yoghurt custard for desert topped it off, and then I headed to nearby Vondel Park to walk a bit of it off.
The sun sets late in Amsterdam, and as I was having my constitutional, it was just starting to going down. I walked around for a bit enjoying the atmosphere (as well as finding an abandoned jacket and half-eaten melon that I could only assume was related to the homeless in some manner) before heading back to the tram stop. The tram was crowded, and I ended up standing by the information kiosk, having a nice discussion with the female attendant on the way back. She gave me some pointers and told me that I had to try out the new Amsterdam metro system, as they were all very proud of it. I promised her I would.
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| No, really. Jacket and mellon |
I got back to the hotel at a reasonable hour and had a nice, hot shower to warm up, and planned the next couple of days with a cup of herbal tea. I turned on the TV for a bit to see what was on, but most of the channels were American and British broadcast content, so it was less interesting. The TV went off and I went to sleep early again, still trying to find my footing.
The Stadium & Fans:
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| Home plate to center field, XLLease Park Dorrestein |
My second experience with Dutch ballparks was to be XLLease Park Dorrestein, no doubt named as park of a sponsorship deal. It was located in another canal-lined sportpark, but this was more rural and beautiful than the more urban park in Amsterdam, though it still was arranged like a Spring Training complex, with several other field surrounding the main park, the one next door hosting a youth softball match this afternoon.
The main entrance is from the parking lot for the sportpark under a branded archway right behind the field. The area behind home plate has several shipping crates worked into a press box and VIP area in front of a row of wooden bleachers that runs from dugout to dugout behind home plate. A second, separate set of bleachers are around by third base which seems to be the visiting team bastion. You're able to walk around more of this park than Amsterdam's, getting to the edge of the outfield on both sides. A low-lying player's clubhouse runs behind third base, covered on one side with a mural for the team. A concession grill stand for the team's special burger sits in front of this building.
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| The clubhouse |
The clubhouse is found in short left field and is completely encased in foul ball netting. Outside the building, there are the ever-present smoking tables, and at the far end of the patio, there is a small area selling general baseball merchandise. Inside the clubhouse are baseball-themed decorations, trophies, schedules, and other bar games such as foosball and darts. A small canteen serves up reasonably priced beers and grilled-up bar food. Further down the left-field side are netted-up batting cages. A small scoreboard with just balls, strikes, and outs in addition to the scores juts out on the wall in right-center field. The backdrop for the park is all trees as far as you can see above the advertisements on the outfield wall.
The crowd again was about 100-200 people, increased as the softball game next door ended and the players came over to watch the top-level mens' game. There was next to no fanfare again except the seventh inning stretch, again graced with Meet Me in St. Louis for some reason. The fans that were there, both for the home and visiting team, knew what were going on and expressed their interests at the appropriate times. Again, the staff were volunteers, so everyone was friendly and helpful and not just there for a paycheck.
At the Game with Oogie:
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| Quick Big Burger |
This was my first afternoon game in the Netherlands, and it was sunny for perhaps the first time since I got there, if a little chilly still. I wandered in to the park at about a half hour before gametime (again, no admission charge), and I saw a more traditional park layout than the previous facility. I went around and took my pictures before heading over to the clubhouse, where I got a cheese hot dog and a Gatorade before supplementing it with a "Quick Big Burger" from the concession stand by first base.
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| We meet again |
I started out in the seats behind first base in the sun, but without proper sunscreen support, I moved over to the shady first-base side of home plate for the second half of the game. Also present was the husband, wife, and my nemesis dog from the Thursday game. I still wasn't sure who they were supporters of, but the dog at least recognized me, sniffing rather pointedly at me before going to back to beg for food from other people.
The close proximity of all the sports fields came into play when a foul ball outside of first base landed in an active youth soccer field next door. Thankfully, the action was on the other side of the pitch at the time, but one has to wonder about the potential for injuries with such occasions.
The Game:
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| First pitch, L&D vs. Quick |
It did start slowly, though, with both teams going in order in the first. L&D got on the board in the second, however, with a single and two errors getting a run across the plate for a 1-0 lead. Amersfoort went in order again, and the game slowed as both teams went in order in the third as well.
Amsterdam continued the pace, going in order in the fourth, but the Quick at least broke up the perfect game (if not the no hitter) with two stranded walks in the bottom of the fourth. L&D broke it open in the fifth, with four straight singles to start the inning and later a ground out and another single helped bring in five runs before a bizarre double-play ended the frame at 6-0. Amersfoort managed a walk in their anemic half. Amsterdam only had a walk to show for the top of the sixth, and the Quick again went in order.
L&D started the seventh with a leadoff homer to right that extended their lead to 7-0. But in the bottom of the seventh, Amersfoort finally broke up the no-hitter and got their first run on a walk and two singles, closing the gap to 7-1. Amsterdam got it right back in the eighth on a leadoff walk and three singles, re-establishing the lead to 8-1, while the Quick stranded two singles. L&D went in order in the top of the ninth, and Amersfoort missed doing the same only by an error on the shortstop, and the game ended with an Amsterdam 8-1 victory.
The Scorecard:
L&D vs. Quick, 05/11/19. L&D win, 8-1.
Once again, I was using the BBWAA scorebook in leiu of a local alternative, and this game had some doozeys. There was the now-regular error/passed ball/wild pitch totals (including a passed ball on a strikeout that lead to a runner reaching base in the top of the seventh), but this was counterbalanced with the first double-plays I had seen turned in the league.
There were several plays of literal note. An attempted sacrifice bunt in the top of the fifth led to a bunt single. And there was a weird play to end the inning. It was a somewhat conventional strike-em-out-throw-em-out double-play. The strikeout was the second out of the inning, but the runner on first got caught in a 2-6-3-4t rundown that allowed the runner on third to score before the third out.
This was also my first run-in with the questionable umpiring in the league. In the bottom of the second, with a man on first, the batter hit a pop-up to the second baseman. Say it with my folks: infield fly rule. Except the umpires didn't call it, the player dropped the ball, and the runners were on first and second with, I guess, a single. sigh
I was able to get the names of nearly all the players thanks to the lineups from the previous game, but a pinch-hitter and the pitchers for the Quick both escaped my ability to identify.
The Accommodations:
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| Sunset from my room |
I had some major puttering-around time in my room in the morning, late afternoon, and evening. It was a good room to putter around in, and now that I had fully settled in, I was beginning to appreciate the space a lot more.
That said, nothing really interesting to report on that front.
2019 The Netherlands
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