Holiday Update

Well, Radhika had to work last Monday until 2pm, and then had the 25th and the 26th off. In the Netherlands, both Christmas Day and Boxing Day are days off. The weather was temperate (for Amsterdam standards), hovering in the low 40's. We did a little food shopping, work in the apartment, and had our first movie going experience with a coworker of Radhika's at GE and her fiance. We tried to go to this great old theater near the hotel we stayed at when we first arrived, but that proved to be difficult. It's the one that "The Golden Compass" opened at and I have images of farther down this page. Anyway, we went to a different theater just a 30 second walk away. We saw "Elizabeth: The Golden Age". It was pretty good. A little slow in some parts and not in agreement with actual history as I found out later (Hollywood version, of course). But the acting, costumes, sets, and story were pretty good as they were. Critics weren't as kind to this one as they were the first, but it's still a pretty good flick on it's own. Anyway, after the movie we walked to the red light district. Most of the girls must've been with family as the majority of windows were dark. The "replacements" were easily not the top talent that one usually sees. I went halfway through that section of town about 3 weeks ago, and was surprised at the high ...."visual quality" I saw. It was an odd feeling for me that first time, I must admit. I didn't feel comfortable looking (I know what you're thinking ..... "big wuss") when I was close to their windows. From across the canal I could see women sitting or standing behind the glass, wearing different lingerie or outfits, getting the attention of passersby in the street. Christmas night we actually saw some guy going into the door adjacent to the window. I guess Santa passed his house by so he was "buying" his present that evening! Anyway, we found a Chinese restaurant that our companions had enjoyed previously, so we went in and hammered down 4 pitchers of tap water and some fine noodles, rice, chicken, etc!! We did a little more walking around after grabbing some desert at a small store and ice cream at a McDonald's. From Dam Square, we bid goodnight and walked back to our apartment, enjoying the 5-10 minute walk. What did seem strange, was on Christmas Day to this morning, most of the streets were void of traffic of any kind!! No cars, no taxis, no bikes, no scooters, no pedestrians, and very few buses and trams. Probably looked like something out of "I Am Legend"!! In closing, going back to the movies, they have a cool program here. You can buy a card for E 18 per month that allows you to see any movie, any time. With each movie ticket costing E 9 or E 10, it pays for itself after 2 shows. We will probably take advantage of that from time to time!! Gotta go.