Arrivaderci, Amsterdam!

One of the most wonderful things about living in Amsterdam is the relative ease and speed with which one can be someplace else. Amsterdam's central location makes London, Germany or Brussels reachable by a train ride of reasonable length. Extend your travel mode to include flying and all of Europe is less than three hours away.

We recently flew from Amsterdam to Rome for a four-day break. The round trip airfare was even less than what I had paid last month to fly roundtrip from Philadelphia to Norfolk, Virginia: about three hundred dollars. Our KLM/Allitalia flight to Rome lasted less than two hours.

I am starting to think that these escapes to sun-filled Spain or Italy are necessary if one it to make it through the Dutch winter with one's smile intact.

Ahh! Sunny Rome. We stayed in the low key Trastevere neighborhood, ate dish after dish of exquisite homeade pasta, saw ruins and famous art and religious artifacts until we dropped. The sun shone, the scooters roared, and it seemed that everyone was in a mild argument. After four nights in a city so dense and immense with history, culture, business, tourism and life, I was reminded yet again of how much I love coming home to gentle, small Amsterdam.

Oost West Thuis Best -
Dutch proverb meaning, East, West, at home is best.