So this afternoon, we found our way back to maintain our tradition. Some travelers consider it sacrilege to stop at a Burger King, a Starbucks, a McDonalds when out of the country. But we've stopped hiding from this; sometimes, you just need a "taste of home." (Yes, sir, we've seen a lot of museums in eleven days! I love this shirt!)
On the way back to the hotel, we walked again through Dam Square, which is the historic heart of the city. Amsterdam got its start here around 1250, when fishermen in this marshy delta settled along the built-up banks of the Amstel River. They built a "damme" to bloc the Amstel River and created a small village called "Amstel-damme." Get it?
My memories of Dam Square are from my very first trip to Europe in 1989. The square seemed bigger then (isn't that always the way?) and was busy, busy, busy with drunks, bums, and street entertainers, like this accordion player entering his "venue" today to join the mimes, jugglers, and human statues who still mingle with locals and tourists. I even remember from my first trip a person swinging on a trapeze which reached into the air! And all this was happening during the day--you can imagine what "events" were held in the evenings. But Amsterdam has been cleaned up over the decades and is not as seedy as my first impressions attest. And yet I have very fond memories of that trip.
The Bulldog Café Coffeeshop, towards where the accordion player is headed, is not the most famous or original Bulldog, which is in the Red Light District facing a canal. The chain claims to be the city's very first marijuana coffeeshop established here in 1975. It is a famous and well-known destination for all young American visitors--touristy like a Hard Rock Café. True connoisseurs (and Rick Steves' tour members), however, seek out smaller, neighborhood places with better-quality pot and those playing Donovan music for their older and mellower clientele.
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