A busy, busy day — and finally in Amsterdam. 10/24/2019

Greetings from Amsterdam.

It was a crazy and very very long day.

Had quick breakfast near the railroad station in Maastricht, where we went to purchase tickets for our train much later in the day. Wanted to avoid any lines and be sure we could get the train we wanted. Then started our drive to see the L’Arc Majeur – located somewhere about 15 miles beyond Namur in Belgium. I had seen an article about it and we decided to visit. It’s a 200-ton sculptures composed of two arches that don’t complete a circle and are of different sizes – it gives the impression of a semi-circle or a circle set into the road. It was originally commissioned by French President François Mittérand, but was abandoned at least three times. And now it sits on the highway #411 in Belgium and was inaugurated yesterday (we are such trendsetters to come and view it the very next day!; guess if we were really on the ‘in’ list, we would have been invited to the inauguration. Funny, we thought about going yesterday and had no idea there was the official “opening.” The sculptor is Bernar Venet. It took 6,500 hours of work by welders and steel fitters to create the piece.

Some basic facts: Conceived in 1984; 200 tons of corten steel; Cost $2.5M British Pounds; 1,000 cubic meters of concrete.

Naturally we didn’t drive in a straight route and stopped and saw numerous wonderful small villages along the way. Then, after seeing the arc, we realized we were really hungry so we drove to town after town, but the Belgians are like the French and have very strict hours for when lunch is to be eaten. And we were late. It was about 2:45. So we got to see quite a few adorable small villages as each told us we were too late for lunch. Finally we stumbled on Wellin, a town that appears to have built a whole economy on tourists (and lots of school kids) coming to see caves and kayaking. Anyway, we were able to get some much needed lunch. From there we headed back to Maastricht to return our rental car (at the Maastricht Airport) and to catch a train to Amsterdam.

The drive back was considerably longer than the drive to the Arc – lots of traffic and construction. I had driven the whole way to the arc.. and drove about halfway back when I realized I was really really tired, so Carol got us back to Maastricht. By the time we go to the tiny Maastricht Airport it was about 6:30. We couldn’t find any place to leave the car. So I went into the airport to inquire and Carol waited in the car right in front of the terminal. Turns out the last flight of the day had already taken off and the terminal was deserted (although open!). The rental car “desk” was empty; no agents at the counter; the security section was closed off. It was a bit surreal. Finally, some guy came out of a door and I ran and asked what to do with the car. He explained that we needed to bring it to the parking lot and then put the key into this “tube.” Just as I went out to tell Carol, I saw two cops coming virtually out of no where to tell her she was illegally parked and needed to move! We explained our predicament and that we were just going to get our baggage out of the car and she would move the car. Then we asked where we could get a taxi. They explained that there was a post about 100 feet from where we were standing and it listed all the taxi numbers. We thanked them and put the bags inside the “abandoned” airport and Carol took off with the car. I started to go to the post to find the phone numbers for the taxis, but now some woman appeared to say we couldn’t leave our bags inside the airport (I suppose regardless of how small the airport they all follow protocol) unless one of us was with the bags.

Anyway, we managed to call a taxi (whose driver turned out to be from Morocco) and we had some interesting conversation as he whisked us to the train station. We made it to the 7:30 train and would get to Amsterdam at about 10 pm. What we hadn’t really accounted for was that the train had double decker cars and  neither of the levels were on grade with the entrance to the train. And since this was what they called an Intercity (all Netherlands) train, it didn’t have any special place to put luggage. Most people were just going short distances like Utrecht to Amsterdam. So we struggled to get our bags down to the lower level (fewer steps than getting to the upper level. We had to take over about five seats to keep our baggage out of the aisles and to have seats for each of us. After two hours we decided we should perhaps start bringing our bags up the steps so that we’d be ready to get off the train in Amsterdam. Just then. Two cops boarded the train (no guns) and they were trying to figure out what we were doing. After we explained they said we should sit down and relax and that when we got to Amsterdam they would gladly carry our bags off the train! Wow!

We arrived at the hotel – a  bit exhausted, ate at the hotel bar.. More tomorrow. Need to unpack and get to sleep. No CNN – but I am happily watching Al Jezeera.

Best –

Fern