The glorious summer days that greeted me on arrival in Amsterdam are gone. We are in the middle of a classic weather pattern…the sky is gray, the temperature is cool, the air is damp and chilling. After three early summer days, completely unexpected and totally blissful, I am not going to complain. But as with my return to New York after living in Los Angeles, my post-Senegal blood is a little thinner and the cool a little less welcome. But so what? The warmth of friendship more than compensates.
Yesterday, David and I hopped on the bikes and went. Our first stop was to have been the new subway station under Centraal Station. Amsterdam has a comprehensive metro-transport system that includes trams, buses, and rapid-transit trains. Since 2002, the city has been building a 20 km north-south subway line. Several of the stations are nearing completion, including the station near Michael and David’s home. The bore is about half-way along the route and is now estimated to be completed in 2013.
The station designs reflect that the Netherlands is home to some of the most innovative designers on the planet. The multi-use spaces include shopping, bike parking, theaters and other sorts of leisure activities. Unfortunately, we had to learn all this from an exhibit rather than a tour of the new station. The newspaper published the wrong open house date, and we missed it. Nonetheless, a project of this scale is exciting simply because of the challenges that are inevitable when boring two massive tunnels through a central city that is a) laced with canals; b) built on reclaimed land; c) has many residential areas that are 300-500 years old.
Engineers and parents…two professions that always amaze me!
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