stormdog | Entries tagged with amsterdam

Yesterday, Seregil escaped the apartment for about an hour while we were away getting pre-flight Covid tests. We came back to find him gone and we just about had breakdowns on the spot once we realized. But thanks to neighbors (Danae knocked door to door) we were able to locate him again. In all honesty, I don't know how I would have managed the upcoming 10 hours of plane flights and three days of hotel-stay quarantine if I thought Seregil was lost in Amsterdam somewhere. I'm glad I don't have to find out. I would have been a complete wreck.

So Danae and I are leaving our apartment for the Amsterdam airport at 3 AM, in about 3 and a half hours.
The craziness with Seregil yesterday is a good reminder that, as long as the three of us are healthy and together, the rest will be manageable.

For the moment, I'm having a last cheese treat before leaving the Netherlands. Danae doesn't like blue cheese so it's *all mine*!

Current Mood: relieved
Crossposts: https://stormdog.livejournal.com/1395230.html

I'm sorting out stuff that will come with us and stuff that won't. Seregil is not on the correct pile, but we'll make sure to straighten that out before we leave!

I've taken longer than I'd like doing all the sorting, but it's coming along. I'm also having a lot of allergy problems as I move stuff around. It's mostly clothes left now, and figuring out how to pack the computers when that time comes. They will likely be coming with us in our checked baggage.

Current Mood: okay
Crossposts: https://stormdog.livejournal.com/1394451.html

I went out for a ride this morning and saw this nifty Opel truck.

Current Mood: okay
Crossposts: https://stormdog.livejournal.com/1393018.html

I put this on Facebook a few hours ago. Since I did, 7 people have "wow" reacted which is a lot more interest than I usually get on posts! I hope that means people found it surprising and interesting!

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The Netherlands is synonymous with canals, but I didn't have a good understanding of how and why before I started reading as I planned my move.

Here's an elevation map of the area around Amsterdam. Greater Amsterdam itself is mostly above sea level, but notice the huge swaths of darker blue representing land below sea level. That was basically all part of the ocean bay called the Zuiderzee (southern sea) before the Dutch decided they needed more places to grow things.

Engineers isolated large chunks of ocean by surrounding them with earthen dikes. Once that was done, they set up pumping stations, traditionally windmills since this began as early as 1533. Many of the classic Dutch windmills weren't milling grain: they were pumping water. Running through the mid-20th century, the later projects dried areas as large as 40,000 to 50,000 hectares (apx. 100,000 to 123,000 acres). The dewatering could take a year or more. Once it was done, the already low-lying ocean bottom dried out and compressed down, lowering the elevation further. The area of new land is called a polder.

As you see in this image, a great portion of the northwestern Netherlands is comprised of these polders. The reason canals seem to be *everywhere* is that the polders must have constant drainage toward a pumping station that lifts the collected water up to sea level to be returned to the North Sea: otherwise, they would all gradually flood up to ocean level again. In fact, during World War II, Nazi sabotage and attacks flooded some of the polders.

It's like the basement of a building. Often there's a sump to collect groundwater that would otherwise start filling the basement, and a pump to discharge it at ground level. Except on a rather larger scale.

Current Mood: working

It's a cold, foggy morning in Amsterdam.

Crossposts: https://stormdog.livejournal.com/1390564.html

There was a fire (now extinguished) and a gas leak (ongoing) in the building next to ours, Walmolen. Police and fire have taped off the entire courtyard between the buildings and evactuated all ten floors of Walmolen.

https://www.at5.nl/artikelen/206842/grote-brand-in-noord-politie-ontruimt-flat

Current Mood: worried
Crossposts: https://stormdog.livejournal.com/1386071.html

This is the development we live in. It's called Molenwijk, Mill District, and the buildings are laid out to call to mind classic four-sailed windmills. The buildings are individually named things like tower mill (torenmolen) and bergmolen (mountain mill). We live in Petmolen, which I'm not sure I'm getting the correct translatin for. (Pet mill?) They are ten floor residential highrises with car parks in the middle, and we are on the third floor. Access to the front door is via a shared exterior walkway that runs the length of the building, and we have a back balcony exclusive to our unit.

This is quite atypical urban planning for Amsterdam, but it was built in the 1960s and is much (much!) newer than the old city south of the IJ. If I figured out the translated history correctly, the land we are on was water until the 1870s when it was drained and became a polder. Officially we are in Amsterdam, but it is Amsterdam Noord, across the IJ from the center of old Amsterdam.

The squarish building in the southeast is a shopping center with a grocery store (Albert Heijn), doctors offices, a post office, and other handy things. Even high-rise residential is fairly walkable here! Also, the entire interior of the Molenwijk area, other than the stub roads that to to the car parks, is restricted to pedestrian and bicycle traffic. There are frequently people with dogs visible outside our windows. This being the Netherlands, they are usually off leash. This morning, there were two cute chubby birds sitting in the tree just past our balcony. I really like the place so far.

There's a lot of cleaning left to do at the old place. I'm going to end up taking a few trips to take care of everything there, and will likely buy a bike trailer to take any remaining bits and bobs over here and because I want one anyway for grocery shopping.

The Molenwijk Neighborhood in Amsterdam-Noord

Current Mood: content
Crossposts: https://stormdog.livejournal.com/1381895.html

I took a 26 mile / 42 kilometer round trip by bike to a spot on the North Sea Canal about 12 kilometers from the center of Amsterdam. I'd scouted around on Google maps and it seemed like a good place to watch commercial shipping. Far enough west that basically all the ships going to or coming from the north sea should go by before stopping somewhere to load or unload.

It was evening by the time I got there so I didn't stay too long, but in about 20 minutes I saw a couple of large ships go by, as well as some other vessels. Here's the Cape Gavi, a 2008-built 184 meter oil/chemical tanker. Marinetraffic.com says that her destination is St. John, Canada. (When I told Danae that, she commented "Let us on! Let us on!")

There were a couple other folks there fishing along the bank, but it's a pretty quiet and unpopulated place. It's perfect for me. I need a set destination where I can go to to do something I'm excited about to keep me biking regularly. I'm daydreaming about biking out there in the morning with my cameras, something to read, and a packed lunch to spend a few hours reading and watching ships.

Admittedly, 26 miles is more than it was to me a few years ago, so I'm also going to scout some places closer to Amsterdam. Possibly less traffic, but more manageable until if/when I get more fit.

Biking feels so familiar. It took ten minutes or so to rediscover the combination of rhythm and exertion that suits me best, but that feeling like I could just keep going at that pace for hours was wonderful, even if deceptive.

The tanker Cape Gavi in the North Sea Canal west of Amsterdam

Current Mood: content
Crossposts: https://stormdog.livejournal.com/1373261.html

People shopping at Natuur Winkel across the street often tie their dogs to the pole outside the store. While running out to pet them is a bad idea right now, maybe people would like to share in my dog-watching? This good doggo just left with their people. Any breed guesses? I'm not sure about this one. A Facebook friend thinks it might be a Saluki, which sounds right to me.

A dog in front of the natural food store across the street.

Another dog and one of me behind ( the cut )

Current Mood: okay
Crossposts: https://stormdog.livejournal.com/1365836.html

When I got home yesterday, Miriam had a red velvet cupcake waiting for me. I am so lucky to have her in my life!

She is flying 3000 miles away on Sunday. Yes, *this Sunday*. This is so weird! I wish I could help her settle in and take care of things for her so she could concentrate on work, but I need to stay here to take care of stuff with the condo.

Current Mood: excited
Crossposts: https://stormdog.livejournal.com/1345745.html

After all kind of stupid issues, we got our lease signed and sent. How do little things cause so many problems?

We're living on a street called Amsterdamsweg in Amstelween, a southwest suburb of Amsterdam. (There are a lot of things around there named after the Amstel River!) I love that we're in a one-bedroom apartment over a shop; mixed-use development is the way to go and I've always wanted to be in that kind of environment.

Google says it's a 34 minute bike ride to the middle of downtown Amsterdam. It'll be shorter than that for me because I ride faster than their assumed speed. I'm so excited to be able to just jump on my bike and go explore so many things! Once I'm settled in, I'll probably take a bike ride or two to Utrecht, or even out to the coast of the North Sea on the west side of the country; that's only an hour and a half!

It looks like I won't be able to get Danae on my insurance before we leave. I hadn't even thought about the fact that work would want a joint tax return (we file separately) or a marriage/civil union certificate (we do not have one because we never did anything official like that). She's going to get her prescriptions refilled at CostCo through a discount program to keep her until we're settled in in Amstelween.

Sadly, I can't simply get fresh prescription renewals before leaving because I am out of renewals. I also do not have a primary care doctor because the one I was seeing at Rush left the area. I've been putting it off, but I'm going to have to set up an intake appointment somewhere and see someone who's willing to renew my prescriptions so I can get a supply before leaving the country. I finally called Howard Brown today to make an intake appointment and found that all of their locations and they're call center are closed all of today. One less thing on my list to do today at least.

Current Mood: busy
Crossposts: https://stormdog.livejournal.com/1344811.html

We will be basically a couple of blocks from het Amsterdamse Bos (the Amsterdam Woods), which has, among other things, a goat farm with petting zoo and a ropes course. I can climb things and snuggle goats!! I'm plopping pins down on a Google Map as I figure out where things like grocery stores, bike shops and post offices are.

https://www.amsterdamsebos.nl/english/do/

Crossposts: https://stormdog.livejournal.com/1344312.html

Currently, we're trying to figure out where to move to that will allow cats. Seregil is very important to us, especially Danae, and leaving him behind is not an option we're willing to explore. The housing available through the university does not allow cats. He's officially an emotional support animal now, though I don't know what laws in NL are like regarding such things.

So Danae is doing crazy-hard searching of housing listings and even trying to coordinate with potential housemates in Amsterdam. She posted on a Housing for Queers group in Amsterdam and found a few folks who might be interested. I'm a little worried, though, about being in a bigger, more expensive place with several housemates. If more than one flakes at once, we could be stuck with a huge rent bill or even end up homeless.

This is the single biggest point of stress for us right now, though there are many others. The second one is getting the condo here ready for listing. Erik was an *amazing* boyfriend and came over yesterday to help clean. Between us, we got the bathroom and kitchen looking pretty good, but there's so much left to do.

I have half a day off on Friday. I'm going to use it to drive some of my vintage hi-fi and other electronics to Wisconsin, where my parents have been kind enough to offer storage space. (And I offered to let my dad use my turntable and stuff!)

There's just so much. It all feels overwhelming from time to time.