Yesterday we went to the Artis Royal Zoo.  I loved it, and the kids did too.  When asked on the train what her favorite parts were, Caroline mentioned the lion roaring, the apes wrestling, the giraffes just sitting around, and the monkey who threw poop (yes, she has a four-year-old ear for comic effect).  It helped that many of the animals had delivered babies this summer, so many groups had playful pups to watch wrestle and frolic.  There was also a playground with nets to climb and slides to descend. When Margaret saw it, she said, “I love monkeys.  I’m going to climb and swing just like a monkey.”  And she did–to the tune of blisters on one hand and an open sore on the other.  The Artis is not a collection of smelly buildings.  It’s a beautiful botanical garden, with interesting old houses and glassed enclosures across what seemed to be an old estate.  Add healthy and extremely diverse species, great food service (Heiniken, panini, and poffertjes anyone?), and you get an amazing zoo.

“This doesn’t feel like a day in Amsterdam,” Becky commented, as we as we strolled under a canopy of huge sycamores.  It’s true.  Amsterdam has so many faces.  Leaving the train station to walk almost anywhere, our kids are going to encounter marijuana, cheap hotels and sex shops, even if we avoid the big windows of the Red Light District itself.  But walk two blocks in the other direction to find endless high end shops, restaurants, and picturesque tree-lined canal streets of steeply roofed old Dutch row houses.  Walk further and you spend the day learning about either Dutch Masters or Van Gogh in museums to daunt even the heartiest aficionado.  Head back to the water and you get the best of new urban design–architecture that reclaims or reinvents four walls and a roof.  Yes, there are houseboats and bike paths, trams to hop and tulips to buy.  There are also offices, classrooms, schools, and plenty of construction sites.

When the sun is out, the city is bright: dappled light from water and glass, leaves and bricks, white and red paint.  Yesterday was sunny–as have been the other six days in my life when I’ve walked around Amsterdam.  Being here a year–including a winter–I know I will learn another Amsterdam.  I’ll learn the working world and the cozy bars and pancake shops into which one can retreat from the drizzle.  Maybe by then I’ll be able to pronounce “gezellig.”