Our Eccentric Uncle Rizby....

My dear friend Rizby came for a much-awaited sojourn starting on Monday 13th November. Since his arrival at Delft’s train station was ill-timed, we couldn’t meet up with him due to our compulsory attendance for a TB test at a local clinic. This appointment is part of foreign students’ application for a Residence Permit. As such, he had to wait for us for over an hour inside the station which is presently under renovation.

After filling up our tummies with appelino (another variant of the Dutch’s apple-rich pastries) and slaking our thirst with Nescafe 3-in-1, we brought Rizby to town for a show and tell of the old architecture, our favourite shopping avenues as well as the seemingly endless canals and its feathery inhabitants.

The jetlagged Rizby slept early on the first day, oblivious to the noise we’re making on the floor nearby as he slumbered contentedly on his makeshift bed – our sofa. However, we managed to rouse him into a wakeful state after Sadia, out of curiosity, kept clambering up to take a look at this ‘new’ person in her territory.

The next morning, we all hopped onto the train enroute to Amsterdam. The one-hour train was punctuated with Sadia’s usual antics and crankiness which turned out to be attributed to her ‘poop’ time. As soon as we arrived, we rushed to the station’s adjoining male and female toilet to clean her up. At Euro0,50 each per entrance, we were grateful for the spacious and sturdy diaper changing board and clean surfaces of the sink area.

Following that, we reset our bearing for the correct tram route which would lead us to Van Gogh Museum. Yep, that’d be our first tourist spot for Rizby who, like us, is also a great fan of art history. Before I go any further, I’d better qualify this fact lest my twin sister might quickly correct me again – I did visit VG Museum in 1997 with her and her boyfriend-turn-husband. Satisfied? ;-)

The price of admission for the Museum is quite steep coming at Euro10 but the indoor café is copacetic and relatively quiet. The café’s huge glass windows overlook a large avant-garde park outside which even in this cold weather offers a welcome respite from our fast-paced lives.

We were also famished from our crazy sprint to the Museum and with Sadia’s napping, the time was opportune to peacefully eat our lunch. Perhaps it was our long-drawn hunger but the homemade apple pie and vegetarian quiche were delicious to the last crumb.

We then made our rounds onto the well-maintained gallery. Watching Van Gogh’s oeuvre chronologically progressed from almost monochromes to vibrant colors put us in awe of his inherent, artistic gift. I find it uncanny that sometimes only in one’s death that one becomes famous and widely acknowledged.

After covering Van Gogh’s works and other famous artists’ paintings (Monet, Picasso, Seurat, Gauguin amongst others) on the three-storey building, we made our way to Damrak, Amsterdam’s dense tourist trap to take photos on the Square and to loll at the world passing by inside De Bijenkorf’s café. The gusty winds at Dam Square cut short our photo-taking session. By then, Sadia’s mood had gotten sour so we decided to wrap up our jaunt after hastily gulping our canned drinks (no time for coffee!) and finding Sadia’s ‘fast-food’ Olvarit (ala Gerber or Heinz) at Etos, a pharmacy store not unlike Watson in Malaysia.

The next day, Wednesday, Rizal went on his own to Amsterdam with the purpose of buying certain paraphernalia and souvenirs for people, among which wouldn’t be suitable for us to bring Sadia, if you get my drift. Today, we only stayed in Delft since we have an appointment with the City Hall (Gemeente) to process our RP application. We have plans to go to Maduradam, the famous ‘miniature’ town by the week’s end – one of the must-see places any living person has to visit whilst in the Netherlands.

Too bad the tulips are not blooming at this time of the year. Those were our thoughts as our train passed twice the vast parcels of autumn-hued polder (reclaimed land) which unconsciously convey an air of dreariness and desolation. How I look forward to Spring!