Holland

The Netherlands June 2003
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	Amsterdam May 14, 2003 I landed in Amsterdam at about noon on a Saturday after an eleven-hour flight from Los Angeles. I drove my rented car into the city, parked in front of a broken parking meter, and wandered around for four hours. Then I spent an hour trying to figure out where the heck I was, and finally returned to the car to discover a 31-euro parking ticket on the windshield.
	May 15, 2003 Sunday was my only free day in Holland. In the morning I rented a five-speed beach-cruiser bicycle in Noordwijk, where I was staying, and rode it about fifty miles around the countryside. Everybody rides bikes in Holland--every road, including the freeways, seems to have a bike path next to it, and most of them are crowded. The bike was a classic: chain guard, rear wheel guard, bell, generator-powered headlight, spring seat, luggage rack with elastic straps. And a sticker that said it was only to be used within the Noordwijk town limits. But...well, I can't read Dutch.

	So far as I could tell, about half of everything built in Holland borders a canal.
	Monday I spent in a meeting, and Tuesday I was back on a plane to Philadelphia. Thursday night I returned to Los Angeles.