The map is not the territory
14/09/2006 11:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaHard to believe but this time next week, the Izzie will be slinking through the canals of Amsterdam and babysitting her ickle nieciekins.
So, it was fitting that we spent some of the gorgeous sunshine in the gardens of our favorite lunatic asylum writing down the wishlist of things to do while there. Had recently borrowed a book from the city library - due back next Tuesday but bringing it back tomorrow - a tour guide for Amsterdam. Wrote down the names and addresses of the various museums, parks and things that we wanted to see. The book even had their web addresses.
So far - only got 6 or so on the list including the botanical gardens.
While perusing through this book, came across a map of the metro. After a quick peek, realises that Amstelveen is on one of the lines so may be just a little bit easier to get to than we thought. So did a bit of googling later and even managed to find the actual street where the serpent's sister lurks. Around the corner is a cute and quirky museum - for of all things - bags and purses. Now that we just gotta see. So we now know how to get to and from the central station but could find nothing about the airport at all. But it did say that Amstelveen is very near the airport - near enough to be one of its main sources of employment.
A grand map of the main metro and some miniscule detail of the street but nothing in between. That was until tonight. The Oracle of Google revealed to Izzie the page for the city's public transport system which filled in the missing link so now we won't have to feel guilty about arriving at 7 or so in the morning and having to hassle her other half to pick us up and disrupt his work routine.
Confirmed our flight today so we are really getting into the festive spirit. But still procrastinating on packing the evil green serpent case. It's the clothes that is the scary bit.
Yesterday was simply gorgeous. Got up at 9am and did a bit of laundry and housekeeping before slinking off to Fremantle on the bus at 10.40 am. First stop was our usual haunting grounds. Had been playing the Pipsqueak while on the bus and it seemed so fitting that the song that was on when arriving at the gardens was the Waterboys "A Pagan Place" Yessss indeed. Along with the bloodcurdling "The Wind that Shakes the Barley" certainly got the Izzie is a most mystical and enchanted mood.
Was there until around 2.40 or so, squiggling in the spiral notebook, writing the wishlist for next week and then visiting the vaults and various exhibits in the museum - including the padded cell preserved for posterity. There's a tiny window with bars where you can see a very high wall and just a itsy witsy bit of the plane trees and gorgeous blue sky. Hard to know which is worse - having no view of the outside world at all or seeing a little bit and being made all the more aware of being imprisoned. A true Dementor's Delight.
After munchies at the Juicy Beetroot, returned once again to the gardens until closing time.
The evening was not so productive. Decided not to waste precious sunny days downloading podcasts but would instead pick up one or two at the Lair. Even with ridiculous speeds of 4-6kbps - since intending to lurk for two hours or so - should not really matter too much. Took more than an hour to get only 50% of a 25mb radio program. At about 64% it suddenly stopped downloading and then the mouse got all cranky and jerky and just would not do what it was told. The tracking pad was no better. In the end, had to turn off the whole thing and restart. That's the end of doing such silly things at home. It was not the first time that the iPodder software had made the Preciousss all cranky. At that stage, was no longer in the mood for chatting like originally intended. Especially annoyed as we'd lost a few good metro maps (Thank the Cat for Simpy bookmarking - managed to snatch some good stuff before the big freeze and to thus pretty much go back to where we left off)
Today was just as gorgeous. Once again visited our favorite place but bumped into Petunia while waiting at the bus stop for the 106 (She was walking back from her morning at bootscooting) Was telling her about the maps and the museum. She said that it's been closed a while now. Bummer - looking at ancient moneybag artefacts would have been just the thing for the inner goblin.
So, another thing we learned - the Escher museum is closed on Mondays. It would have so sucked to have done a day trip to The Hague only to find that the one place that we absolutely have to visit in Holland was not open. A bit like our attempt many moons ago to visit Giverny only to discover that Sunday was the one day of the week that the train only went as far as some village half way there. So - Tuesday 26th looks most likely from here.
The Izzie will never cease to be grateful to the local libraries which provide such a gold mine of information for free. So so glad to have read that guide book and save precious time now rather do all our sniffing out of serpent spots while over there.
So, it was fitting that we spent some of the gorgeous sunshine in the gardens of our favorite lunatic asylum writing down the wishlist of things to do while there. Had recently borrowed a book from the city library - due back next Tuesday but bringing it back tomorrow - a tour guide for Amsterdam. Wrote down the names and addresses of the various museums, parks and things that we wanted to see. The book even had their web addresses.
So far - only got 6 or so on the list including the botanical gardens.
While perusing through this book, came across a map of the metro. After a quick peek, realises that Amstelveen is on one of the lines so may be just a little bit easier to get to than we thought. So did a bit of googling later and even managed to find the actual street where the serpent's sister lurks. Around the corner is a cute and quirky museum - for of all things - bags and purses. Now that we just gotta see. So we now know how to get to and from the central station but could find nothing about the airport at all. But it did say that Amstelveen is very near the airport - near enough to be one of its main sources of employment.
A grand map of the main metro and some miniscule detail of the street but nothing in between. That was until tonight. The Oracle of Google revealed to Izzie the page for the city's public transport system which filled in the missing link so now we won't have to feel guilty about arriving at 7 or so in the morning and having to hassle her other half to pick us up and disrupt his work routine.
Confirmed our flight today so we are really getting into the festive spirit. But still procrastinating on packing the evil green serpent case. It's the clothes that is the scary bit.
Yesterday was simply gorgeous. Got up at 9am and did a bit of laundry and housekeeping before slinking off to Fremantle on the bus at 10.40 am. First stop was our usual haunting grounds. Had been playing the Pipsqueak while on the bus and it seemed so fitting that the song that was on when arriving at the gardens was the Waterboys "A Pagan Place" Yessss indeed. Along with the bloodcurdling "The Wind that Shakes the Barley" certainly got the Izzie is a most mystical and enchanted mood.
Was there until around 2.40 or so, squiggling in the spiral notebook, writing the wishlist for next week and then visiting the vaults and various exhibits in the museum - including the padded cell preserved for posterity. There's a tiny window with bars where you can see a very high wall and just a itsy witsy bit of the plane trees and gorgeous blue sky. Hard to know which is worse - having no view of the outside world at all or seeing a little bit and being made all the more aware of being imprisoned. A true Dementor's Delight.
After munchies at the Juicy Beetroot, returned once again to the gardens until closing time.
The evening was not so productive. Decided not to waste precious sunny days downloading podcasts but would instead pick up one or two at the Lair. Even with ridiculous speeds of 4-6kbps - since intending to lurk for two hours or so - should not really matter too much. Took more than an hour to get only 50% of a 25mb radio program. At about 64% it suddenly stopped downloading and then the mouse got all cranky and jerky and just would not do what it was told. The tracking pad was no better. In the end, had to turn off the whole thing and restart. That's the end of doing such silly things at home. It was not the first time that the iPodder software had made the Preciousss all cranky. At that stage, was no longer in the mood for chatting like originally intended. Especially annoyed as we'd lost a few good metro maps (Thank the Cat for Simpy bookmarking - managed to snatch some good stuff before the big freeze and to thus pretty much go back to where we left off)
Today was just as gorgeous. Once again visited our favorite place but bumped into Petunia while waiting at the bus stop for the 106 (She was walking back from her morning at bootscooting) Was telling her about the maps and the museum. She said that it's been closed a while now. Bummer - looking at ancient moneybag artefacts would have been just the thing for the inner goblin.
So, another thing we learned - the Escher museum is closed on Mondays. It would have so sucked to have done a day trip to The Hague only to find that the one place that we absolutely have to visit in Holland was not open. A bit like our attempt many moons ago to visit Giverny only to discover that Sunday was the one day of the week that the train only went as far as some village half way there. So - Tuesday 26th looks most likely from here.
The Izzie will never cease to be grateful to the local libraries which provide such a gold mine of information for free. So so glad to have read that guide book and save precious time now rather do all our sniffing out of serpent spots while over there.
