Amsterdam

I have commented before on the Amsterdam passages in Poul Anderson's Time Patrol story, "Star of the Sea." Some time travel stories are set entirely in the past, e.g., Anderson's excellent "Ivory, And Apes, And Peacocks." Some time travelers regularly revisit their base period but merely to report back indoors, e.g., in Anderson's "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth." In "Star of the Sea," late twentieth century Amsterdam provides a colorful, even exotic, but also safe environment for the intervals between time journeys.

On p. 479 of Time Patrol (New York, 2006), Everard walks from the Dam to the Central Station, takes a canal tour, eats eel and visits the museums. On p. 480, he walks from the Museumplein through the Vondelpark where he sees water agleam and green life glowing with sunlight. On p. 522, Everard and Floris eat Surinam-Caribbean food in the Ambrosia, then emerge into air cleansed by rain beside a canal.

Everard enjoys this evanescence, warmth, light and savor surrounded by an unbounded darkness and so should we.