Day 247 – February 8, 2012 – Looking in the mail bag…

Number of days in Amsterdam – 247

Number of days without a bike theft – 243

Days since it last rained – 5

So, despite the painfully cold weather, it looks like the Elfstedentocht is not going to happen.

The ice over the entirety of the course needs to be 15cm deep (6 inches at today’s exchange rates) over the length of the entire course, but is only half that in some places.

They’re saying that, had it come about, over two million people were expected to turn out to watch it. This is a country that cares about speed skating.

OK, but if it’s not going to happen, let’s get rid of the cold, OK?

It’s been a while since I responded to the comments here, but I wanted to go back and grab a couple.

First, Karin schooled me in the comments from this post.

She said:

“in a city that never sees snow”

Well, “never” is a big word. We had White Christmasses in 2009 and 2010. There was snow on the ground for a whole month or more last year. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that Amsterdam has seen more snow these last few winters than in the last decade together. Because of this, there have even been special advertising campaigns for snow tyres.

A few other things: A lot of Amsterdammers simply cycle in the snow. They throw a special salt on the roads, which is why they don’t use those trucks in the city itself, but they do use them on the highway and other important roads. And, every Dutch person I know with a car has an ice scraper. Many older people on our street use those snow shovels, but younger people don’t seem to use them anymore. Could be a generational thing.

As for the car trying repeatedly to get over a canal bridge; if it’s the same incident I saw online somewhere, it was a Japanese tourist, if I recall correctly. You may have noticed that all the other cars simply overtook that one. The Dutch are reasonably used to driving in icy conditions, but I suppose there are inexperienced/bad drivers everywhere.

Duly noted. Thanks. But I will hazard to guess that the ‘Dam, or the Netherlands for that matter, is accustomed to the frigid temps that last this long, just based on how long it’s been since the last Elfstedentocht.

But aside from schooling me, she also asked a question in this post.

I had talked about choosing to patronize stores that treated me well, and she asked:

“We set out to find meat and cheese at a store that came highly recommended, but the guy there was a jerk to us” C’mon spill the beans, which store?

I will spill, because I shouldn’t only be mentioning the great experiences I’ve had here, and should mention places I don’t like.

It was Caulis, on Haarlemmerstraat right by Unlimited Delicious, where I love the chocolates. She also mentioned some other chocolate places I’ll be sure to check out, once it’s warm enough to venture out with the Kitten.

Jennifer asked this one (in jest), but I do want to answer it:

If you say you are from Detroit to somebody in Amsterdam, do you receive the same reaction you would receive if you said you were from Detroit to somebody in Sault Ste Marie?? Do they hand over their cash? Do they run and hide?

Just because Detroit really doesn’t carry the stigma here it does in the States. So many people here have only heard good things about the city, whether it’s Detroit Techno or art. A lot of people here have even seen 8 Mile, but don’t think less of the city at all – not like it gets thought of in the States, anyway.

In one way, it’s really cool. It’s great to have people thinking nice things about where you’re from.

On the other level – it does take away some cred.

Not that I need it here, though.