Solo walk

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Let’s go for a little architecture walk in the Jordaan neighbourhood of Amsterdam, shall we? I’m sure you’ll like it. I found myself with a couple of hours spare one afternoon, as Z was at a meeting and Oomoo did a work experience shift at L’s deli shop (he did really well and really enjoyed it. I was so proud of him and he seemed to have matured a few years in just two hours). So, I used my trusty Monocle Amsterdam guide to see what it recommended. Seeing as I was only about a five minute walk away I went to check out the 17th century Karthuizerhojfe (hofje - courtyard) almshouses on Karthuizerstraat. It was originally built as charitable housing for elderly widows, and is now residential. I was lucky enough to be there by my own, and stood there for a while just taking the quiet in.

It felt so apart from the rest of the neighbourhood, and I thought how awesome it would be to live there if you got on with your neighbours, and maybe how less awesome it would be if you didn’t.

This is the street side of the courtyard. I like how the residents make the most of the tiny spaces they have by their front doors.

See what I mean?

You can just picture yourself with a cup of tea and the paper on one of those benches couldn’t you? I don’t think you could do that here going by the chat on my local Nextdoor app. People seem to have their plant pots and anything that isn’t chained down stolen from their front gardens.

Anyway, time to keep walking. Have you ever seen a letter box in stairs before? I sure haven’t. It says ‘The Holiday Cyclist’ and there was a bike shop right next to the stairs, so I guess that kind of explains it… I’m pretty sure it had a door though, so I have no idea why this has come about.

Hoi little doggie. Fiiiiine, don’t look at me.

One of the many many many many many canals. I was texting my friend D back in London, sending her pictures as I was walking along, which she thoroughly enjoyed seeing as she was my architectural walk partner in the lockdowns. She’ll be able to see it all for herself when we go there in May - yay!

This doesn't look like much I guess, especially the shorter grey building on the right, but it was the one that caught my eye. In real life it looked incredibly cosy.

And old bank building which I think has been converted into flats. I couldn’t quite make it out standing and looking at it with a canal between me and it.

Dutch (or at least Amsterdam houses) are usually quite narrow, and as a result the inside stairs are equally so, as well as ridiculously steep. In one Airb’n’b we stayed in years ago the stairs were so much so that you practically had to crawl up them on all fours. Winching your furniture through the windows is the only way to get them in, so most buildings have hooks so you can set up a rope and get your winching on - like here.

Nice bit of randomness above my head.

Amazing bit of brick work above my head.

I don’t think I’ll ever tire of Dutch architecture, new or old. It’s just so different and beautifully done. Even the new builds look stunning, and not like the soulless glass buildings that keep popping up here. British architecture was great up until the Victorian era, but something went very wrong there. It just got really bland. Sure, there are some great buildings from the past 100 years, but as a whole something is aesthetically amiss.

This row of plants - YES! Nicely done.

The bricks are so nice, aren’t they? And the little coloured glass panes in the windows of the left hand building? And the lettering on the right hand building? It’s so funny to now be able to read it and know what it says (it was a life insurance office in a former life).

Hoi little cat. Fiiiiine, don’t you look at me neither.

And finally, it was time to pick Oomoo up from work. I’m pretty sure he’ll be taking up a summer job here once he’s old enough (and lucky boy now also has a Swedish passport so it’s actually an option). I hope he won’t mind if I tag along too.

A perfect Sunday

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One sunny Sunday in Amsterdam we cycled northwards, away from the dream house.

It didn’t take long before the architecture changed. Seems to me I’m yet to see an ugly building in Amsterdam. There must be some somewhere?

And sometimes they come in all kinds of sizes, which is very cute.

Fellow winter swimmer posing for me as we cycled past.

I can’t remember how long the bike ride took, maybe 4o mins at a gentle pace, and our destination was Het Schoolhuis (The Schoolhouse. See! Dutch is basically a third English, a third Swedish and a third Dutch. Perfect for me to learn) for a bit of lunch. I had some amazing creamy cake concoction for afters, and it was so delicious I ordered another portion - something I’ve never done before. Still, all that cycling seems to do something; we ate an insane amount of sugar for the two weeks we were in Amsterdam (so much so that my teeth hurt by the time we got back home, and I couldn’t stomach anything sweet for another couple of weeks) but! I didn’t put any weight on.

Ahh, here I go with my random pictures again. After we’d finished eating we went for a short wander in the neighbourhood, and for some reason we entered the local tiny church, which was being used as a venue for an art presentation that an artist was doing later in the day. There was some nice stuff there, but for some strange reason all I took a picture of was the floor. Sometimes my brain works in mysterious ways.

Minutes away from the church we got to the water, and my shadow might have been a tiny bit tempted to push Z in the water. But most probably it just wanted to be in the shot.

Leaf it out.

Can’t believe how blue the sky was. Not a single cloud all day.

We then hopped back on the bikes and cycled homewards, past these perfectly single striped cows

snd these two, picnicing, having taken out the car seat so they could sit on it whilst they ate. Clever.

The fields were full of birds (I’ve never seen so many in one place before) and they must’ve all been taking a break on their long journey south. Some seemed to be heading that way here though (if you’re looking at this on your phone you might need to zoom in a bit).

Agh, so pretty.

Coming back through the same trees as in the first picture, but with the sun in a different place and going the other way.

And just like that, we were back in the city again. I keep thinking about this Sunday every now again - it really was perfect in every way. Sun out and riding bikes. Good food, good friends, good times, so easily taken for granted. What a flippin’ crazy world we live in, where life now continues as normal for some of us, whilst others have had theirs turned into a living nightmare in the space of just a few days.

The dream house

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Just a week after I went to Stockholm in October, me and Oomoo went to Amsterdam for two weeks to see our bestest person, Z, and to check out her and her other half’s new digs. I think hands down it’s the dreamiest house I’ve ever stayed in. It obviously helps that Z lives there, and that Amsterdam is my home from home. I’m so glad that the people I know with the nicest homes are the ones who have worked like dogs - they really deserve it. As our summer had been such a dud, with Mr Famapa working for most of it, I thought that there was no way me and O would just sit at home for two weeks at half-term, whilst he had a five week long job. When I booked the tickets the rules were that I would’ve had to self-isolate for a week, so to cover it I booked tickets for two weeks. However, by the time our travel date came round the rules had changed, and I wouldn’t need to isolate at all. We timed our trip immaculately as the rules changed back again three weeks later. Oomoo had a solo guitar performance at school a week after we’d get back, so he had to bring his guitar with him, and I can’t tell you how nice it was to be in the house with classical guitar being played in the background.

There’s a small lake/inlet coming off a canal right in front of the house, and even though Z has seen people swim there in the summer, I didn’t bring my cossie, which turns out to have been a wise choice, as the Netherlands has some of the most polluted waters in Europe (due to farming practices apparently). I made do with watching the ducks and cormorants instead.

Z & L’s interior style is minimalist, which is the complete opposite to ours, and I wish some of it could rub off on me. I just can’t do it, probably because we’re so rubbish at de-cluttering. Coming back home after having stayed in such a serene place was quite a shock. So much stuff everywhere! Honestly, I thought our house looked like a hoarder’s. My eyes hurt looking at it all. It took a good week before all the clutter blended into the background again, haha. And no, I haven’t gotten round to de-cluttering yet.

Anyway, three animals live in the house too; Nero, who has since sadly gone missing,

his mum Bella,

and Duana, the tortoise.

Human coming back in, cat going back out.

Oomoo and I shared a room, which I always enjoy doing - it’s just so cosy! We’d lie and read our books in the evenings before turning the lights out.

In the mornings we’d watch families cycling to school on the other side of the water. Best way to commute.

As well as living minimally, Z & L hardly buy anything mass-produced, and so as a result almost everything looks like something out of a styled cookbook.

See what I mean? And it’s not contrived either, it’s all functional and just happens to look good too.

Turns out it was a good thing that we were there for so long; Oomoo caught a cold (remember those?!) not long after we arrived (and no, it was not Covid), so we had to stay at home for a couple of days so he could recover.

Which he did rather quickly.

It also meant that it didn’t matter that the weather wasn’t always great.

Luckily the rain wasn't constant. Isn’t the light in the house great?

Even the shadows were good.

One sunny afternoon, when we got back in from town, hanging out on the balcony felt like being somewhere warm, like Spain. Like a holiday within a holiday.

Nero liked it too. Come back home fool! Your human mama and cat mama miss you.

Part of a sunset.

And a half rainy one. I wish we could see sunsets from our place too. I must say I spent quite a lot of time just looking out of these windows.

I loved seeing how different the water would look on different days. I tried to convince Z that she should take a picture of the water at the same time every day for a year. One day she might.

This neighbourhood has sprung up in the past few years, with a tube that gets you in to Central Station in 6 mins. And if you cycle 10 minutes in the northwards, you’re in the countryside. In the first lockdown I started looking at houses for sale in the area, and found one on the same street as Z’s (although nowhere near as nice as this one) for half of what our house is worth. So tempted! But we missed that window with Brexit innit. And coming from a family with parents who moved countries with kids in tow, I’m very wary of doing so myself. For the first few days of this trip I kept thinking that we should move here (as I always do when I’m there), but by the end of it I realised that I love my life in London, and that it would be exhausting to try and start a new one somewhere else. I also know that if Z ever moved away from Amsterdam, the city on its own wouldn’t be enough for me to want to live there. Funnily enough she keeps saying that we’ll move there once I’ve finished my Dutch lessons. I have less than a year and half left. Imagine if she’s right?!

In the evenings Z, and sometimes O, would light a fire. As they moved in just before the arrival of Covid in 2020, they hadn’t got round to fix the place up completely. At times it felt like glamping. One night I had to cook dinner by candlelight as there weren’t enough light to see with. Funny.

Z placing a light so we could see a bit better.

Some evenings we’d play Rummikub which neither me or Oomoo have played before. Good game.

This lady’s laugh is one of the best sounds there are. Someone should bottle it up and sell it as an anti-depressant.

Bella begging for some yoghurt. She was successful.

One night we watched a Swedish film, which was such a nice thing to do. See those piles of magazines? Guilty as charged. The only clutter in the house was mine and Oomoo’s.

In less than two and half months I’ll be back here again. Can’t wait.