Amsterdam

It would have been hard for me to be more satisfied with Spring Break 2010 than with the 6 nights in Amsterdam. I know it seems strange—the weather is not exactly your classic spring break destination. But for a professor from Cairo, spending a week in Amsterdam is a welcome relief from the Egyptian heat as well as from the third world craziness of Cairo. Things in Amsterdam are clean, well organized, and the pace in the city center is laid back and casual. It suited me perfectly. The weather was a bit too cold at times, but on average it was just chilly and I was OK with a coat, my son Daniel’s cap, and my favorite (and only) scarf. Come to think of it, I think all of the warm weather things I had were given to me: the coat is from my nephew Alex, the cap is my son Daniel's, and the scarf was a gift from an Italian friend I met in Cairo. Most of my adult life has been in South Texas, Florida and Cairo, and living in those places doesn’t exactly fill your closets with warm weather gear. And I consider myself fortunate for that!

One of the best things about Amsterdam is the availability of public transportation. You take a train from the airport to the center of town, arriving at the Central Train Station, which is a beautiful building:

The Metro is here, which is a great way to get around the city, but most of the time I took the trams, because they go to more places and are easier to just hop on and off. The public transportation makes getting around the city easy, but unfortunately actually finding the places I wanted to get to was difficult. I was armed with a guidebook and a map, but I’m not the best at navigating in a new city. I lose my orientation and I think I’m heading north when I’m really going southwest. And this problem is compounded in Amsterdam because the city is built around canals so the streets wander quite a bit. And all the signs are in Dutch, which makes it hard to remember where you have been. I found after the first day that I did better navigating by canals rather than streets, but still, I spent too much time in the city with a map in my hand and a perplexed look on my face, wondering just where in the hell I was.

The city center of Amsterdam, the old medieval part of the city, is designed to be extremely unfriendly to automobile traffic. Bicycles, on the other hand, are strongly encouraged. Bike lanes are everywhere, and bicycles have the right of way. So you can be in the middle of the city on a workday and the traffic is almost non-existent except for lots of people riding bikes. I’ve read some of the history of how Amsterdam’s city planners deliberately put into place policies to encourage the bicycle over the car, and I marvel at their foresight. It seems like most of the locals are fine with biking instead of driving, and it certainly provides exercise and a healthier lifestyle than the American suburban commute (which often also includes a McDonald’s drive-thru). Cleaner air too, and less dependence on foreign oil imports.

The garage right next to the Central Train Station is filled with bicycles:

My first stop in Amsterdam was the Vincent Van Gogh Museum, and my favorite museum from the trip. 

I knew the famous Van Gogh paintings, and I got to see them here, but the best thing about the museum was the portrait it provides of Van Gogh’s life. The top floor of the museum has a room for each place Van Gogh lived. On the wall of each room is written a brief biography of his life at that place and his goals as an artist during that period. As you move from room to room, you can see his development as an artist and how his mood changed over time. So you move from a room full of dark, somber paintings from his time in Paris to a room filled with bright colors and tranquil scenes from his time in Arles- he was obviously happier in Arles. You can get a pretty good idea of this from the museum’s web site.

The most memorable picture I saw in the museum was "Skull of a skeleton with burning cigarette." Just because it is a striking picture and because it seems so unlike the Van Gogh that is famous for sunflowers and starry nights.

  

Of course, you cannot visit Amsterdam without taking a canal cruise. The views on the cruise were neat, but the best part was hearing everything explained in 4 different languages: first in Dutch, then German, then English and finally Spanish.

They explained on the cruise how all of the houses in Amsterdam have a small crane at the top:

Since the city is built on land reclaimed from the water, space has always been at a premium. So the buildings are built tall and thin. One consequence is that the staircases are narrow spirals, because who wants to waste precious space with a wide staircase? So anything large going onto the upper floors has to come in through the window, not up the stairs. The cranes are used to lift things up where they can be maneuvered in through the window. Still sounds like a tough moving day, but probably better than carrying stuff up the stairs.

To get out of the city center one day I ventured out to tour a working windmill. I didn’t know it until I got there, but the windmill is used to pump water out of the city (I imagined grinding grain). I cannot say enough about how excellent our tour guide was:

She was very knowledgeable about the mill’s history and operation, and could even answer all of my technical questions (that mechanical engineering degree wasn’t for nothing, you know). I was also impressed that she was fluent in English, Dutch, German and Italian, and I’ll bet Spanish too. She explained how about half of Holland is below sea level so it is not possible for storm sewers to drain the rain water by gravity to the sea. In Holland gravity works against you, so they have to use windmills or electric pumps to get the rainwater out. This is done through a series of canals, and each canal is assigned a water level, like 1 meter below sea level, for example, and it is the job of the pumping station to maintain that level. They pump into a canal with a slightly higher level, and then the water is pumped into a still slightly higher level canal, and so on until the water is finally pumped out to sea.

 Here is a picture of the mill. The windmill blades were removed a few days before for maintenance. This was actually a good thing, because it meant the mill was not operating at the time so we could go in and see all the workings inside.

The last day I was in Amsterdam I visited the NEMO museum. 

The building that looks like a large tanker ship in the distance is the museum. It was designed by a famous Italian architect, Renzo Piano, who I had not heared of before this visit but is evidently quite famous to people who follow architecture. The museum is a science museum for kids and is the best of its kind that I have seen anywhere. The exhibits are hands on, fun and instructive. I spent about 3 hours there and really enjoyed it. The day was a school holiday, so it was full of Dutch school children, and that also made the visit fun with their energy and excitement about the exhibits.

Oude Kerk means “old church” in Amsterdam and I made a visit inside this famous church. The church sits right beside the Red Light District. So you can literally walk out of the church and look across the alley and see sex shops and girls sitting in the window with the red light on.

They are renovating the church so there wasn't much to see. Most of the stained glass was missing and half of the church was blocked off as a construction zone. I read in the guide that Rembrandt’s wedding started here but was completed at some other church, for reasons I didn’t exactly understand. There is a sign in the church where some part of the wedding ceremony takes place that says in Dutch, “Those who get married in a hurry end up crying for a long time.” Ha!

They were tuning the pipe organ while I was there and that was nice to hear.

There are also a lot of people buried under the floor of the church. I think this is a common European custom, but I found it a bit creepy. Here is a video I took walking along looking at the floor, most of which is marked for who is buried beneath:

Finally, here a just some random shots from around the city. Here I am on the bridge heading over to the NEMO museum:

I don't remember where these shots are from:

Another view of the central train station:

The Vondelpark, a large park in the museum district:

I also took a brief tour of the houseboat museum:

And found beer available in vending machines:

I stayed at the Brouwer Hotel which was a quaint little place with only 6 rooms. The view from my room during the day:

And the view at night:

I really liked the vibe in Amsterdam. And while I did see some people smoking pot at a few of the cafes, for the most part that whole side of Amsterdam is out of sight out and out of mind if you are not looking to indulge. I guess if you want to go there and get stoned it is a great place to do it, but if not it is a great place to just wander and visit the museums. A lot of flights from Cairo to the US go through Amsterdam, so I should get another opportunity to visit there again.

Desert run with the hashers

A quick blog today because I have to pack and get ready to go to the airport and catch my plane to Amsterdam. Yesterday, I joined the Cairo Hash House Harriers for a desert run in Wadi Degla and got some nice pictures in the desert. After the run, I spoke to one of the other runners who is a geologist here working for BP. He explained to me that the area was under a shallow ocean about 20 million years ago, but then when the African continent separated from the Sinai it pushed this landmass up, along with the mountains on the Sinai. So Mount Sinai is a result of the same geological forces that shaped this area. It was interesting and the desert sites are both beautiful and fascinating.


The run is held every Friday at different parts of the desert site. Yesterday it was in the very back of the park, so it was about a 30 minute bouncy ride through rough desert roads (more like paths, really) to get there.

Today was trash day for the run. Many of the regulars brought trash bags and picked up trash after the run. The park is really trashed out in some places, and it is a real shame.

You see zillions of these little snails in the desert. I originally thought they were fossils, but the geologist explained to me that the snails can go dormant for long periods of time, and they only "wake up" after a rain to eat, reproduce and go back to sleep. I said Oh, I see, these must be the males.

You can see the edges of Cairo in the distance. The city is expanding rapidly out into the deserts on both sides of the Nile. Wadi Degla is set aside as a national park, for now at least, so hopefully this area will remain free of development.


I made some videos during the run. It was very windy, so the wind is loud on the video, but it does give you a good idea of the landscape.

Cape Town, South Africa

I attended the African Finance Journal conference in Cape Town South Africa this past week (March 18-19, 2010). I flew overnight from Cairo to Cape Town on Tuesday night, arriving in Cape Town on Wednesday, March 17, 2010. I was surprised at how long the trip was. It was almost 8 hours in the air from Cairo to Johannesburg. That African continent is a lot bigger than you think. I looked it up and the straight line distance from Cairo to Cape Town is 4,500 miles. Compare that to 2,500 miles from NYC to LA and you’ll see what I mean.

While looking up that distance, I saw this interesting article about plans to build an unbroken rail link from Cape Town to Cairo. 

I had to change planes in Johannesburg, and on the flight from Jo-burg to Cape Town I sat next to a Cape Town resident. He told me I should surf at Muizenburg and also recommended some other places to go downtown. He said cabs were expensive and that I should think about renting a car.

So after landing in Cape Town I went to Avis and found that their rate for the car was less than 1,000 rand for the entire 4 days, which is about $120. So I decided to rent the car. They gave me the keys and I headed out to a wonderful Volkswagen. Except the steering wheel was on the wrong side! I went back in and asked, “What side of the road do you drive on here?” She paused, and said, “Let me think…well, it is the opposite of America.” I considered handing the keys back, but then decided that Hey! I am Dr. Williams, Professor at the American University in Cairo, accomplished international man of mystery, and I wasn’t going to let a little thing like driving in the left hand lane stop me from seeing the town! So I kept the car. I’m glad I did, because I couldn’t have done so much without it. The first day with it was tough, however, and I almost couldn’t get out of the parking lot, I made a few wrong turns (actually turning into oncoming traffic once) but by Saturday I had it all figured out. It was also a manual, I might add, which I’m used to but I had to work the gears with my left hand. But as I said, by Saturday I felt like a native South African cruising in the left lane.

I started in the wine country at the Spier Hotel. This place was terrific, my room was like my own private condo, the pools were nice, the staff was nice, and the conference was a nice experience. I presented my paper, got a few notable comments, and saw a few presentations that gave me some ideas about possible future finance papers. Here are some pictures from the conference and the area around the hotel:

Also at the hotel site is area where they have cheetahs that have been raised in captivity. Evidently, cheetahs are under some ecological pressure and they have them here as an effort to raise awareness. So for 10 rand you can walk out on the observation deck and take pictures. For 150 rand you can go inside and pet the cheetahs, and I saw people doing this, but I also heard a lot about that tame killer whale recently deciding he wasn’t so tame and killing one of his trainers, so I decided I would keep a fence between me and the cheetahs. I mean, I’ll drive in the wrong lane, but why be reckless?

I left the conference Friday at noon and drove downtown to the Adderley hotel. I still hadn’t had much practice with the car, and it was Friday afternoon traffic, and I had never been in the city before, so I had a difficult time. I finally found the hotel, but it was in the middle of a busy city block and there was nowhere to park. I finally parked about 10 blocks away, asked a nice young girl on the street how I was supposed to pay (you pay a “marshall” who is walking around on the street). I paid for an hour of parking and walked back to the hotel. I got there, checked in, and asked about parking. She gave me directions to the garage, but I didn’t understand, and it was a lot of turns, and all I could think about was I still am not sure which lane to turn into, and there is so much traffic out there…so I was about to say, “Listen, I’ll give you 500 rand (about $70) if you will have someone go get my car and park it for me.” But before I could offer that, I guess she saw the look on my face, and she said “I can have someone go with you if you like.” And I said that would be terrific. God bless ‘em! I can’t remember the guy’s name, but he cheerfully walked on a hot summer afternoon 10 blocks to my car and patiently gave me directions on where to go and which lane to turn into, and got me parked in the garage. I tipped him 50 rand (about $7), which is a good tip in Cairo but maybe I should have given him more. I saw him later, and it turns out his brother tends bar at the hotel on weekends and his sister works the reception desk. I gave his brother a nice tip at the bar. They are excited about the 2010 FIFA World Cup coming up soon; he said the hotel has been sold out for it for over a year. Here are some pictures from the roof of the hotel, where there is a small pool:

And here are some pictures of the downtown area:

I went out on Long Street Friday night, which is Cape Town’s version of Bourbon Street. I had dinner at a café with this picture on the wall:

I then went out to a couple of other places people had told me about, but it really wasn’t my scene. Everyone was much too young, I hate to admit, and although I did meet some nice people, I ended up just coming back to the hotel around midnight.

The next day I had breakfast at Lola’s Café on Long Street and then drove the car to Table Mountain National Park. I had in mind either walking up the mountain or taking the cable car up, but it was very overcast with a thick blanket of fog covering the entire top of the mountain, so there wasn’t much use going up. I did walk around a bit and took some pictures and video:

I say on the video that it is 720 feet up—it is 720 meters! That is 2,300+ feet, so quite a climb. Maybe I’ll go back next year, but I just wasn’t up for it, especially with all the fog.

From there, I decided I would try to find some surf. My plan was to go down to Camp’s Bay and find something there, because I heard that the swell was on the Atlantic side. But I didn’t see any nice beach areas there. I know they are there, I just didn’t know where to find them. But I got past Camps Bay and decided I would just cut across the peninsula to Muizenburg and try to surf there. I found a route to do this on the map and ended up on Chapman’s Peak Road. I didn’t know it, but I saw later in my guidebook this drive described as “one of the most spectacular stretches of coastal road in the world.” It was incredible, and I was lucky to stumble upon it. Just driving the several miles made the entire trip a success for me. The pictures don’t do it justice, you really need to drive this yourself, so for all of my blog followers out there, put this on your list (especially the Itzkowitzs!). Here are some pictures and video of the drive:

Once across the peninsula I headed into Muizenburg, rented a board at Gary’s surf shop, and headed out into the water. It was fabulous! The water was really cold. I had a wet suit on, but still. My feet got so numb I could hardly feel them. I saw one person out in the water without a wet suit, but everyone else had full wetsuits on. I’m not a good enough surfer to do much in this kind of water, it was too deep for me to go way out and catch the first break, so I stayed back and caught a few smaller waves. I rode a few in, nothing too exciting, but it was just great to be out there with a board and taste the salt water. I surfed until I was too exhausted to paddle anymore and then headed in. Here are some pictures and a video I made on the beach:

I went home exhausted but feeling like I had really made the most of the trip. I slept in Sunday, ate at Lola’s again, and then went to the airport and flew home Sunday night, arriving in Cairo at 5AM Monday. Great trip!

I leave for Amsterdam on Sunday. From the bottom of the world to the top in just 7 days! I love it. I often think, what would the 17^th century explorers think if they could see how we hop across the globe now? I doubt they could ever imagine you could be in Cape Town on a Sunday, spend the work week in Cairo, and then spend the next weekend in Amsterdam.