Amsterdam Part Five

Our fifth and final day in Amsterdam was filled with excitement, in spite of the ominous skies we woke to, which were drizzling and threatening to downpour.

Marlo now had her cousins Jillian and PJ Pelentay to share the days adventure with! Unfortunately, today did bring a steady cold drizzle, followed by the aforementioned downpour! In spite of the terrible July weather, we still managed to be excellent tourists.

Lori Pelentay (Paul’s sister), Frances Berberian (Paul’s mother) & Lori’s kids, the above mentioned cousins met us in the canal district at our hotel, The Hotel Pulitzer ideally located just two blocks from the Anne Frank House, where the first of today’s Amsterdam adventures would be spent.

After witnessing the line formations over the past 4 days, we knew to arrive early, and waited in the already forming line before the doors officially opened. This is the only way to see the exhibits before the house truly gets, elbow-to-elbow crowded. The crowds may be better during other times of the year, but during high season in July – good weather or bad, the Anne Frank House attracts crowds. This can be an emotional, moving experience, so bring your Kleenex.

After The Anne Frank House and a greatly needed breakfast, Marlo relayed her pigeon feeding encounters to her cousins, who, together decided that Jillian & PJ could not miss out! Thus, we again found ourselves feeding the Dam Square pigeon’s, Marlo’s personal Amsterdam highlight.

For the final feeding frenzy, we purchased 3 sleeves of fresh warm French fries to tempt the portly pigeons out of their shelters and into the rain. The ploy worked and they joined us on Dam Square.

Though the number of pigeons today was smaller, the kids had a wonderful time hand feeding the birds, while Mom & Lori freaked. “Pigeons,” they said, “carry fleas, lice and disease.” Mom & Lori are probably right, but the Amsterdam pigeons on Dam Square have been here for centuries without any historical death by pigeon, and this kind of thing is right up our alley.

Secretly, I think Mom & Lori like it when we infringe upon their threshold of comfort – some of the time.

All the pigeons landing on the kid’s hands and knees were almost more than they could handle! Naturally, the kids loved it; also, Mom & Lori do carry anti-bacterial hand sanitizers’.

To be fair, I looked up fleas, lice & disease in relation to pigeons on the wonderful web. God I love the Internet! For all of you cheering Mom & Lori for their prudence, here are the results:

First, lets look into the ferocious fleas: Yes, it seems that pigeons do carry fleas, but the only site that I could find relating to fleas from pigeons biting humans was a somewhat humorous case report about a Swiss couple. Ironically, the case was noted in several other Blog's.

Next, the subject of lice.  Apparently bird lice are species specific and should they fall off their bird host, the lice will die within minutes. “For a bird louse, its bird is its world and everything else is dangerous.”

Now, let's move on to disease. The site that really blasted pigeon’s was one whose agenda was for the trapping, killing and control of these birds. The numerous others were those offering suggestions in caring for a sick bird, presumably, those birds that reside in homes as pets. Finally, I found the big disease that a pigeon could pass to humans – psittacosis - however, the pigeons most likely to contract this disease are those raised in captivity and / or feral pigeons.

Finally, a neutral site called advice about pigeons is posted for anyone who has interest. As for me – I think I’ve learned enough for one night!

Now, back to the Amsterdam story!

We again rode the Canal Bus, then watched the kids go crazy at Amsterdam’s children’s museum, “Nemo” and became the soggy, walking drenched while searching for a spot to lunch.

If all that did not qualify us as “super” tourists, after lunch, cold and wet as we were, we continued with a visit to the Scheepvaart Museum .

The Scheepvaart Museum is the Netherlands Maritime Museum and is totally cool! We arrived two hours before closing time and realized this was a museum worthy of considerably more time. I really had to eat crow because I’d grumbled, rather loudly, that I wanted to skip this to warm up in a HOT shower at the hotel. This will be a destination to visit again, more carefully, on the next visit to Amsterdam.

As a final point, on departing back into the elements, we got continuously drenched, sang in the rain and were unsuccessful in obtaining a taxi. We somehow made it back to our respective hotels, looking like persons who had stepped in front of a fireman’s hose. Through a combination of canal buses and walking, we made it to the room and I finally got that hot shower. Fortunately, this was the only day of drenching; otherwise it could have been really miserable!

At last, warm, dry & clean, Paul, Marlo & I met our friends Luc & Jo Maene in the Hotel Pulitzer lobby bar for cocktails. This was our last opportunity to visit with them as they had booked a very early flight out in the morning. It was so lovely seeing them! I am grateful for these friendships that have been forged over the years with such interesting people.

After cocktails, we departed for the Inter Continental Amstel Hotel, where Mom treated all of us, Lori, Jillian & PJ to dinner.

I am truly lucky to have Frances as my mother in law. She accepted me into the family as a real daughter from the very beginning. Frances Berberian, smart as a tack, generous and caring to a fault, spends her time traveling, playing bridge and volunteers in the hospital. During the years Frances worked, she was an RN and really knows about the business of care giving. Also, Frances is the person who dropped everything, coming to live with us for months after our horrible automobile accident, caring for us until we were able to care for ourselves. I admire her and am delighted to have the privilege of calling her mom. Frances will turn 70 this December and seems to have energy enough to outshine all of us.

We chose to dine again at the Amstel because Paul’s family was staying here. Though we dined here with the Maene’s only a few nights before, the restaurant we had eaten in was closed, so we ate at the cigar lounge, bistro restaurant, aptly called The Amstel Bar & Brasserie. Dinner was delicious and the perfect end to a soggy day.

The morning of our 6^th day was spent preparing to depart on the MS Prinsendam for our two-week Northern European cruise – round trip from Amsterdam.