May 20 to May 21, Amsterdam to Madrid—A Rough Trip

Dear Family and Friends,

Dani awoke on Sunday, May 20, at 6:30 AM to the bright morning sunshine. She took some photos of the view from our hotel window of the riverside, packed her pack, read her Book of Common Prayer and the Lonely Planet about things to do around town, and waited for Martha to wake up. Martha got up about 8:30 AM, packed up her pack, and the two travellers were on the town early. We stopped at the train station, paid 6.50 euro each to stow our packs and bags for the day, and hopped on a tram South. After all, we had a 5 PM flight out of the country to Madrid, and still had the Rijksmuseum to visit! More art to see! YAY!

We stopped outside of the museum to eat baguettes: mozzarella and tomato for Martha and brie, tomato, and lettuce for Dani. Just what the doctor ordered, since we’d eaten little the day before. The grand square outside of the Rijksmuseum was open and contained a big “I amsterdam” statue similar to the “Love” statue in Philadelphia and other cities. Although it was Sunday, many folks were already out to enjoy the sunshine and the masters’ pieces in this beautiful building. The parks around the Rijksmuseum were also gorgeous, and we spent a few minutes walking them before entering the museum itself.

You see, Van Gogh is not the only amazing painter renowned in Holland: Rembrandt and Vermeer are from this amazing little country, and it was such a joy to get to see so many of these masters’ works. Dani and Martha figure that they have seen almost 10 of Vermeer’s paintings—and there are only about 35 known by this artist known for his splendid use of light (especially reflected in pearl jewelry)—between the National Gallery in DC (which housed three when they were there for Nora’s wedding last November), the National Gallery in London (which had two or so), and the four or five that we saw at the Rijksmuseum, including Woman in Blue Reading a Letter and The Milkmaid with their splendid, brilliant “Vermeer blues.”

Rembrandt has the most amazing ability to capture faces, and wandering the streets of Holland one can see how the shapes of the faces of the townspeople whom he painted reflect the heritage of these peoples. Rijksmuseum also contains a couple of Rembrandt’s self-portraits from different periods in his life; it is always fun to see how the artists see themselves. But it was the way that he painted the backs of hands that really captured Martha. Her favorite painting of the day was Rembrandt’s Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem, representing the ignored prophet as Jerusalem burned in the background. The detail of his hair, his failed expression, and the composition of the entire piece stay with her days later.

Paintings were not the only treats at the Rijksmuseum, though. Amazing silver pieces by Adam van Vianen and his brother Paulus van Vianen were especially impressive with their raised faces and historical motifs. Fantastically detailed furniture, sculpture, and more filled our morning and our eyes with pleasure.



From the museum, we hopped back on the tram, but had plenty of time before wanting to return to the train station around 1:30 PM. So, Dani called “we’re hopping off at the next stop” and it was a GREAT decision, as we gloriously encountered the flower market!! Oh, the young tulips, the colorful packages of the bulbs, and the snapdragons, sunflowers, lilies, and orchids! Glorious, indeed, and the flowers were part of what we had hoped to enjoy in this sun-filled land. We decided to walk the rest of the way back to Centraal Station and wandered through the shopping district, a purely pedestrian walkway filled with men and women so well dressed, yet hiding behind their big sunglasses. We had plenty of time, so continued to practice our strolling. Back at Centraal Station, we stopped at a shop to pick up some crackers, water, a fruit smoothie (we have not been keeping up with our ‘5 a Day’), and an energy drink to help us rehydrate. Boy, should we have bought more while we had the chance!


The train ride from Centraal Station to the airport cost 4.40 euro for the two of us. We had no problem getting through security and soon were sitting and waiting for the plane to board. Many people had been holding up flights out of Amsterdam, as there were numerous announcements by the loudspeaker lady who tells them to get a move on “or we will unload your luggage.” Our luggage is safely stowed on the plane to Madrid by now. We have nowhere to stay tonight, but that will be fine. We’ll find somewhere for a Sunday and Monday night, I’m sure.

On board, Martha got more involved with her book, The Drifters by James A. Michener--one of her father’s favorite authors and a cherished birthday present from her parents. Much of the book takes place in Torremolinos in Spain during trying times for youth in the late 60s and early 70s. Little did she know how far along she would get into the story in just one night. You see, we were supposed to arrive in Madrid at 7:30 PM, a nice short flight leaving us plenty of time to wander the town and see which hostels had rooms. However, a big storm hit Madrid about the time that we were about to land, and our flight was diverted to Zaragoza, Spain, but we were not let off.

No, we sat on the runway for several hours as refueling was needed, the airport had only one vessel for refueling, the paperwork was incorrect and delayed our turn to refuel, the delay caused us to miss our original new flight-plan time by five minutes, and we were then delayed an additional hour and 45 minutes!! Dani got some sleep, but Martha stayed awake, enjoying her book and never imaging the long night and morning ahead.

We arrived at Madrid airport finally after 2 AM Monday morning … and public transport was closed down until 5:20 AM for the buses, 6 AM for the metro. So we connected our bags to each other as we’d done in the past to protect them when only one of us was with them, and Dani went off to find out about our options for the night and to get us a sandwich to share. She returned with little good news, and then crashed out on the floor to catch a few more ZZZZs. Martha was too oversensitive about the baggage to be able to sleep in this situation, so continued on her book, hitting close to 200 pages for the night before the duo got on the metro to hunt for sleep.

Dani had to take over. We have a long-standing agreement as travel companions that if one of us is unable to function for any reason, then the other one picks up the slack. And it has worked well for us: Dani losing it in Norway when the Arctic storm caused our ship not to dock; Dani losing it as her car’s engine bust in Louisiana just a week and a half before now; and currently, Super-Tired Martha with her heavy back, two additional bags, and no sleep … unable to function but to put one foot in front of the other. Dani deftly navigated the metro system and picked a hostel recommended by the Lonely Planet’s Europe on a Shoestring guidebook--Cat’s Hostel, which has a fabulous 'sala' (large central meeting room) with Arabic mosaics on the walls and a great stained glass ceiling (see photo below, left). She even called to make sure that there was a place for us. Although, she learned that we would have to pay for the entire night that we’d been sitting at the airport if we wanted a bed before 11 AM! Ever frugal (read: cheap), we decided to tough it out until 11 AM and then try to catch up from the all nighter. Cat’s was kind enough to let us drop off our packs in their secured back room until check-in time, so we two decided to explore the empty streets of 7 AM Madrid and weather the next four hours before we could go to bed.

What a great location Cat’s Hostel was in, though. It was easy to find, and we headed from there right to a coffee shop for some café con leche. Unfortunately, the warm beverage had the opposite effect of its intended awakening on Martha, and she was pretty much a zombie walked the streets. But what a pleasant surprise it was to learn that we were so close to the Plaza Mayor, with its grand open space, artistic portraiture on some of the surrounding walls, and early-morning quiet. The benches in the square, though damp beneath the free newspapers that we had picked up to occupy our tired minds, were looking MIGHTY fine, so Martha curled around the bag holding their computer and other electronic equipment (which she is loathe to leave anywhere but behind locked doors), and slept for an hour or so, shivering in the early morning chill. Dani stayed watch, observing the day as it started: two artists who came to sketch the statue in the center of the square, the police officers, students passing by, people walking their dogs, the sun creeping and the shadows withering.

Eventually, 10:45 AM arrived, and we headed back to Cat’s to get in line with the students and frugal adults checking out from their night’s sleep. We secured a private room with bunk beds and two lockers, showered, and slept until 7 PM!!!

In Spain, sleeping until 7 PM leaves PLENTY of time to enjoy ‘the day,’ since a couple hours of light remain and the evening doesn’t really start until well after that for the night crowd. And there were tapas to be had!! Our first stop was at Magister, which touts its own natural beer and free tapas. We sampled the four beer options, made our choices—una tostada for Dani and un autor for Martha—and chose our tapas—salchica (little pink sausage) for Dani, morchilla (blood sausage) for Martha. YUM!

Onward, we enjoyed a glass of wine and prawns at la Casa del Abuelo, a jar of san gria at another stop, and finally another glass of wine at a fourth pub, where we ran into some Americans on their honeymoon. Josie (oddly, our second Josie encounter of the trip) and her hubby were from Oregon, and we had a nice time chatting about life and love with them! Soon, it was late and we headed back to Cat’s to get some shuteye. Next blog, we check into our apartment on Meson de Paredes!

Much love to all of you,

Martha and Dani