Caliban – Opinion and Righteous Anger

Well, I landed safe and sound in San Francisco amidst thunder and lightning. Most odd; the weather in Amsterdam this morning was decidedly better.

Geoff picked me up from the airport, where I had been given the third degree over my immigration status. It turns out that the consulate in Amsterdam hasn’t yet informed the authorities here that I’ve surrendered my green card, so they wondered why I was coming in on the visa waiver programme. Whatever.

After coffee at Café Borrone in Menlo Park, Geoff drove me to a car hire agency, where I rented myself a handy little Nissan for getting around over the next few days.

After dinner at Pizza Chicago and a quick coffee down the road, I headed back to Jim’s place, where I’m staying while he and Susannah are out of town. I’m about to crash, as I’m absolutely knackered. Internet access here isn’t working, so I’m using my mobile phone as a Bluetooth modem. Bah! It’s as slow as hell.

Leaving the family behind this morning was excruciatingly hard. I shed more than a few tears during the course of the day. I don’t think I’ll make another trip away from my ladies any time in the near future.

Tomorrow sees Geoff and me head to Oakland for the first Dead Can Dance concert. That should be pretty special. Let’s hope so, because I’ve come a long way for it.

We arrived back from Paris Sunday evening.

What can I say? All of the clichés of wildly gesticulating Parisians and angry, arrogant, rude people have been grossly exaggerated. We found the French to be courteous, polite, helpful and kind to a fault.

The food was out of this world, with bakeries and brasseries at every turn. There are probably twenty bakeries in Paris for every one in Amsterdam and even more probably more bakeries in Paris than in the whole of the US.

And, for a big city, we couldn’t believe how relaxed its atmosphere was. No-one seemed to be in a hurry or stressed in any way. No nutcases screamed unintelligible expletives from the corner of the street. No-one tried to mow us down in a car. No-one bowled us over as we boarded the metro. People even gave up their seat to Sarah; consistently, too. I thought such politeness belonged to a bygone age.

The trip down to Paris was sheer bliss. The first class of the Thalys train took good care of us, with Wiesje sleeping most of the way there. A quick metro ride from Gare du Nord to Châtelet brought us to our hotel, which formed the base for our daily excursions out and about.

The Cathédrale Notre Dame was overhyped, in our opinion. It was an impressive building, but not the stuff of global fame. We much preferred Sacré Cœur with its domination of the horizon and stunningly ornate interior.

Many kilometres passed underfoot during our few days in Paris. We managed a visit to the extremely busy Eiffel Tower, several walks along the Seine, a walk along Les Champs-Elysées, and the discovery of many of the city’s back-alleyways and passages. The baked goods, strong coffee, hot chocolate and freshly squeezed juices made us feel like royalty. Good weather formed the icing on the already delicious cake.

In short, Paris really surprised us. We can’t wait to go back and visit some of the city’s museums, as there was just no time on this trip. Both Sarah and I can easily imagine owning a small apartment there and using it to escape from the overcrowded Dutch capital from time to time.

Anyway, I’ve put up some of our photos from this trip. More will join them later.

Tomorrow, I get on a plane and head to San Francisco for the first of four Dead Can Dance concerts. I’ll be meeting up with my old friend, Geoff, and driving down the Californian coast, passing by Los Angeles and ultimately arriving in San Diego. It’ll be weird to be back there for a week.

In my absence, Sarah will be a one-parent family for three days, before being joined by her folks, who are coming to Amsterdam on a two week trip. Hopefully, the weather will be kind to them. The forecast at this stage is good, at least.