the dangling carrot

So, as of last night, I have squared away my flight to Amsterdam and twelve nights of accommodation split evenly amongst two locations. The first is a studio apartment in an area of Amsterdam known as De Negen Straatje, or The Nine Streets. The second is a private en suite room in a hostel on the edge of a large public park, just slightly south-west of the first location.

Neither location is quite in the bleeding heart of the city, for which I'm grateful. I don't really have any desire to be smack in the middle of a bunch of doped-up twenty-something tourists behaving badly in the Red Light District. I'm excited because this arrangement will let us get to know Amsterdam from more than one vantage point. I'm also excited to be spending time in a city best explored by foot. (I've been warned against renting a bike in the city and getting horribly lost/in the way of the poor Amsterdammers who are just trying to get to or from work. Instead, I'm hoping we can take a train a bit outside the city, rent a bike at the station and cycle round the countryside.)

So, now that I have the carrot firmly fixed in place, let's see if I can get done the work that must be done before I leave!