Sunday, 9 March 2014

Amsterdam


Poul Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006).

The most fully realized setting in Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series is Amsterdam in "Star Of The Sea."

Everard remembers a visit thirty four years previously - longer for a time traveler - and is not disappointed on his return:

scruffy youth but no trouble from the Dam to the Central Station;
side-walk cafes off the Damrak;
small bars with large beer selections;
extraordinary bookstores;
sleaze shops far apart;
a canal tour;
dignified centuried houses concealing the red light district in the old part of town;
a friendly little place serving eel for lunch;
two Museums;
Vondelpark - water, leaves, grass, sunlight, a young couple in a canoe and an old couple under the trees, a band of bicyclists -

- and I need some breakfast. Maybe more on Amsterdam later.

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