Day 2 - the World Cup begins, and the Rossos wander aimlessly around Amsterdam

Amsterdam is confusing! As cities go it's not all that large, but there is no grid to organize it and the street names are difficult to remember - like Nieuwgewijds Voorburghwal. But we're starting to get the hang of it. We figured out the tram yesterday, which was a boon to our weary feet.

After breakfast at our hotel, we trammed to Museumplein to visit the, ah, museums. Betsy went to the Van Gogh while I went to the Rijksmuseum. Most of the Rijksmuseum is closed for renovations, but they've collected a sample of the best stuff in one wing that can be explored in a couple hours. Currently they have a multimedia exhibit of Rembrandt's the Night Watch, created by film director Peter Greenaway.

The Museumplein includes a large field and a reflecting pool. The field was filled with children playing soccer and the reflecting pool was filled with toddlers in various states of undress. It was a pleasant place to sit and read, which I found Betsy doing when I returned from the museum.

We had lunch at an Surinamese restaurant - chicken and lamb stew with vegetables and roti bread. After lunch we walked through an extensive market that included clothes, fish, electronics, spices, kitchen gadgets, etc. And of course Holland jerseys everywhere (with a smattering of England and Germany).

And then it was time for the games to begin. We began watching the opening ceremonies in an Irish pub, but it seemed too pedestrian, so we wandered back to our neighborhood around Lindengracht and found ourselves in a local bar filled with Dutch partisans. I owe a big thank you to Melissa Levy for the Paulo Wanchope Costa Rica jersey she gave me, because it helped me make a barfull of friends during the Costa Rica-Germany game. Men were patting me on the shoulder and rubbing the back of my jersey for luck. Sadly, Germany prevailed (4-2), but I was proud that my man Wanchope put two well-taken goals past the Germans. We also caught the last 30 minutes of the Poland- Ecuador match at a bar near the red light district, during which we made friends with Greg, a man who worked for DC United during their glorious first 4 seasons (when Bruce Arena was coach and they won 3 championships). He said Marco Etcheverry is a terrible pool player but he loves to gamble, so he was good for a couple hundred bucks a night in Greg's pocket.

Today we visited the Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam's botanical gardens originally created after a plague in the 1600s so doctors and pharmacists could collect herbs for medicinal use. Today it includes some plants that are hundreds of years old and a butterfly greenhouse filled with extraordinary fluttering beauty. We took lots of pictures.

Other interesting notes:
*it gets dark here around 10:30pm and the pink sunsets over the canals are lovely
*they're big on cheese here, and many cafes sell tostis, the equivalent of grilled cheese. you can order yours with young cheese or old cheese.
*there are extensive open-air markets everywhere that sell everything from fresh fruit & veg to dove soap to underwear to rugs.
*there's a big park near the edge of town where we saw dozens or hundreds of muslim women (wearing headscarves) playing games like sackraces. there seems to be a large muslim population here, which is interesting. it seems like a really diverse city, but it's hard for us to tell who lives here and who is a tourist. but there is a wide variety of people everywhere we go.
*what i learned at the van gogh museum: he was a failed evangelist until age 26 and he decided to be an artist. he had no experience and no training and he taught himself to draw, then paint. he was heavily influenced by japanese art and he only painted for 10 years before he killed himself. his brother died 6 months later.
*you can smell pot everywhere you go, regardless of whether you're in a "coffeeshop" (where it's sold) or just hanging out at a cafe. so far we haven't noticed any effects of secondhand smoke.

Tomorrow (happy birthday Susannah!) we head to Essen, where we're staying for Monday's US game in Gelsenkirchen vs. the Czech Republic. We anticipate running into a few folks there and meeting new friends, since you seem to run into people everywhere in Europe. Last night at a tapas/mexican restaurant by our hotel we ended up seated next to a couple who used to live in Georgetown in Baltimore. We'll be taking the train and Randy will have the opportunity to dust off his German. He has been valiantly attempting to speak a few words of Dutch here, but everyone speaks English so it's somewhat futile. I've been proud, though, that people don't automatically pin us as Americans because they seem to speak to Dutch to us when we first approach. So we must not look TOO dorky. :)