20 years ago today - Day 107

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Tuesday, June 18th – trip to Alkmaar and back, 5232 km

It is instinct to check the weather before anything else when I wake up. It is still grey but not raining as it has been much of the past few days. Because of the rain, I have decided to stay one more night in Amsterdam, using today to do an unloaded cycling trip north to Alkmaar, Hoorn and Edam. I am alone in the apartment so I can make all the noise I want.

I leave at 9am and catch the ferry from Central Station downtown to the north shore. I do a loop up north-west to Alkmaar that leaves a lot to be desired. The scenery is bland and Alkmaar is like most Dutch towns, neat and pasteurized but not exactly interesting in any notable way. My plan was to go directly east to Hoorn but I am running behind schedule and I am not expecting there to be much in Hoorn anyway, not with Alkmaar being such a disappointment. I head straight for Edam and south through Waterland on my way back to the city.

I am back in Amsterdam by 5:30pm. I have only taken four or five quasi-interesting photos. I shop for wine and groceries because I have offered to make a pasta dinner for Marc, Fio and Annette. It's a linguini with a salmon sauce - very delicious! No one is at Marc's place when I arrive, which means I can prepare the meal in peace, not that it's a hard meal to make.

The meal is ready by 6:20 but the others have not shown up yet. By 7, when Marc finally calls, the sauce is cold. Fio and Annette are still practicing their performance pieces (Annette is one of Fio's school mates) and marc is helping them so they won't be home. Marc suggests I meet them at the theatre school at 11pm.

That is a bit disappointing, but given their record so far of not committing or cancelling, it is no surprise. The sauce is totally re-heatable and so is the pasta. I eat my dinner and read. I succeed at reaching Dini and Wim van Veen, Seph's cousins in Utrecht, and they have agreed to host me tomorrow night, but only for one night. I also reach a friend of Pierre Lamy's, Cornelius de Boer. He lives a 10-minute walk from Marc's home and he invites me over for a drink at 10.My evening is filling up.

Cornelius is waiting for me on his third floor balcony as I ring the buzzer at his building. He calls to me, waving his arm, instead of answering the intercom. He's a quiet, orderly fellow, as I can tell by looking around his apartment. He collects several things that are carefully arranged around his living room. He is Pierre's age - late 40s - with short, grey, balding hair. Everything about him is gentle and attentive. I think he is a bit lonely. His style is so different from Marc's - a life built around things instead of people. We talk for the full hour I have with him and we connect so well it's hard to say goodbye. He highly recommends Luxembourg and asks me to write to him. I promise I will.

I find the theatre school without a problem. I arrive a bit later than I hoped to but Annette is still preparing her space and Fio is adjusting the sound and lighting for his performance space, which is a small exterior courtyard. Marc is fiddling with a video recorder he will use to record their performances. Their performances will be part of an open house where the public can wander from space to space. The performers will repeat their dance pieces over and over during a 45-minute period. Tonight is the dress rehearsal. The start is delayed an hour by rain and a lighting problem in the gymnasium. Marc and I go for a short drink to kill time.

Annette's piece is minimalist: a dance with simple props, a man in a fedora playing a cello, a single blue light bulb hanging from the ceiling, two slide projectors showing only squares of white light. Annette is lying on her side in a fetal position. She moves slowly like she is coming out of a trance or hibernation. She chases her foot for food and it struggles against her. She becomes attracted to the white light of the projector and rises to press her face to the wall.

Another woman performs an imaginative and amusing number in a woodworking shop, using a buzz saw, drills, sawdust with classical and jazz dancing done with the interactive 'music' of an air hose. Later, she and Fio perform an amusing dance number for the whole school. It is only their second full rehearsal so it is far from perfect, but it only makes the performance funnier and they take great enjoyment from each other's mistakes. I admire the pleasure and ease with which they perform. I wish I was more confident and at least in front of others.

It all wraps up around 2am. The performers and Marc are still full of energy, but then they prefer the night hours and I am a morning person.


PHOTO 1: Alkmaar market
PHOTO 2: windmill east of Alkmaar
PHOTO 3: Hoorn
PHOTO 4: Edam
PHOTO 5: bike trail back to Amsterdam, south of Edam
PHOTO 6: Javastraat, re-entering Amsterdam
PHOTO 7: another A'dam canal