Amsterdam Day 2

There can’t possibly be any tort law in this country.

The entire transportation system is an accident waiting to happen. Cars, pedestrians, bikes, trams, trucks in total anarchy. I get the feeling that anything goes although I did see a guy get busted today after zooming his motorcycle through a pedestrian area.

Today there was a crew tearing up the street which was just one lane. The Dutch don’t pay someone $30 an hour to hold a flag and wave everyone around. The cars just drove up on the sidewalk to get around it. And the people and bikes just got out of their way.

Bob and I both had to watch for a minute to make sure we were understanding what was happening.

Also every restaurant has the bathroom in the basement and the stairway is practically a ladder.

A great day although a tad long and food deprived. It was sunny! And probably hit 45 degrees! All the Dutch people were sitting in the sun smoking cigarettes and smiling.

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More on the hotel. It’s like a design experiment. It’s called citizenM. The first floor is like a giant lounge with all kinds of tables, chairs, couches, TVs, work areas and food/bar. We’ve spent our evenings there before going to bed and it’s nice. I guess it’s not so much a tourist hotel as a business traveler hotel.

The room has it’s own computer thing where you can set up your lighting, music, window shade and so forth.

Last night at midnight the alarm went off. All the lights came on and the sound of stampeding elephants. I’m not making this up. I woke up and was thinking: what the hell? It can’t be morning yet. I waited for Bob to deal with it and finally elbowed him because he was sleeping through it. This morning I figured out how to turn it off so there won’t be a repeat performance tonight.

Also you can pick the color you want for the toilet and shower pods. It is the world’s tiniest room but we like this place.

One more big day tomorrow. More museums and I’m sure lots of wandering around completely lost.