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Wednesday, July 31, 2002 13:08 Dutch Authority X2 Last Sunday when I came out of Centraal Station I looked for my bike but my bike was gone. The whole station area has now a much stricter bike-parking policy. Hm. A nearby note from the Reinigingspolitie (police in charge of keeping the streets clean) informed the address and hours when one could retrieve a removed bicycle. My next chance would be on Wednesday from 8:00 to 15:00, and I should take bus 37. I found out later that bus 37 doesn't pass by the Centraal Station area, so I had to take a metro to Amstel station and then a bus to Amsterdam Noord. At the right stop the bus driver shouted 'Fiets Ophalen!' and I got off the bus (along with a few other people). We were in a highway near the entrance of a tunnel that takes you under the IJ lake and back into the East side of Amsterdam. The bike deposit was a big vacant lot with a fiberglass cabin on one corner and several hundred bikes rusting in the open air (well, they were rusting in the open air in front of the station already, as they do all over the city). Three friendly guys in uniform work in the fiberglass cabin, which has air conditioning but a very squeaky door that seems to be driving them crazy. The older of the three guys said hello and I said I had a bike and he laughed and gestured to the whole lot with his arm. He then asked if my bike had a stand (all bikes with stands are standing in long messy rows in the middle of the terrain. The others are piled up, all tangled, on the sides). I said yes and explained that it's a cobalt-blue bike with a red elastic thing in the back. He said 'oh, that should be easy' and actually helped me search for the bike, and after a minute or two he actually found it for me. Each removed bike had an orange sticker with a long number printed in black. He removed the sticker and asked me to produce keys to the locks (to my surprise they destroyed only one of them). We then went into the cabin where the sticker from the bike was placed on a form and the form were signed by me. A lot of thankyous and don'tmentions and I left them dealing with the problem of the squeaky door. So I am back on my bike in the middle of a highway crossing and I have no idea which direction to go. At the crossing there's signs pointing to several directions I don't need and only one reading Centrum. That's the one pointing to the tunnel. I wonder if I'm supposed to cross a tunnel with a bike, think probably not, look for a sign to tell me so, find none. I look at the tunnel entrance, there is a narrow space to the right, is that a bike lane? I decide to give it a go, and as I enter the tunnel I realize the lane is far too narrow to be meant for bikes or even pedestrians. The cars drive by really fast and I think, hm, mistake, and I also think that turning back might be even worse. There's two car lanes in the tunnel and along each of them, stuck to the ceiling, a series of luminous signs with green arrows. It's a matter of seconds until a car with flashing orange lights (Tunnelpolitie) drives next to me and the driver shouts, in Dutch, 'what are you trying to do?'. I answer, in English that I thought I could cross the tunnel with the bike, he shouts 'no, absolutely not, it's very dangerous' but that I should go on and he would escort me to the other side. The luminous signs above the right lane now have a red cross instead of a green arrow, a long line of red crosses all the way to the end of the tunnel. When we get there he tells me 'This time I'll let you off the hook, but next time there will be a fine'. Thank you, sorry, no problem, bye-bye. I found myself in the Amsterdam eastern islands – surprise – and had a quick coffee with my friend André who lives in the neighbourhood. I now learn that the Piet Hein Tunnel seems to be the eleventh of the longest immersed transportation tunnels with a length of 1265m, 2 tracks, 4 lanes, 0 footways, and a depth of 17m. link | |
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Monday, July 29, 2002 20:39 Vals Therme / notes • It's a real shame there's no hours/days for nude bathing. Enjoying the combination of nature, the building and the naked body would have been excellent. I added this to my suggestion form and hoped others would do the same.Not done / to do next time • Join the visit to bath machinery/catacombs (daily at 17:00, guests must sign up before 11:00) link | |
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Sunday, July 28, 2002 23:00  Route (IV) 10:20 Leaving Lausanne, 1648 Km. 11:20 Bern, 1760 Km. 12:15 Basel, 1850 Km. 12:20 Border Switzerland-France, 1860 Km. 13:55 Strasbourg, 2006 Km. 15:30 Metz, 2160 Km. 16:00 Border France-Luxembourg, 2209 Km. 16:15 Border Luxembourg- Belgium, 2242 Km. 17:30 Liège, 2400 Km. 17:45 Border Belgium-Netherlands, 2457 Km. 18:50 Eindhoven, 2525 Km. (Rich continues by car, Rog by train) 19:10 Train Eindhoven-Amsterdam 19:50 Antwerp, 2615 Km. 20:40 Amsterdam 21:00 Brussels, 2675 Km. 21:00 Home link | |
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Friday, July 26, 2002 22:40 Route (III) 12:45 Leaving Vals, 1204 Km. 13:40 End narrow winding road / beginning highway, 1241 Km. 13:45 Chur, 1254 Km. 18:30 Yverdon-les-Bains (Expo 02) 22:15 Lausanne Jeunotel, 1630 Km. link | |
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10:16    The baths of Peter Zumthor in Vals are much nicer during the day. The complex has six pools and two saunas, just like the ancient Turkish baths of Budapest: a central pool or tepidarium of mild temperature (32ºC) where people sort of do nothing, relax or socialize, surrounded by several small pool of various temperatures (14ºC to 42ºC) and a few recovery/resting areas. The main difference here is design: it's everywhere, it's beautiful and consistent, it includes scents and sounds and it gets too be a bit much. What is good is that most of the building and facilities have that timeless, temple-like quality that fits bathing so well, and that the landscape embraces, penetrates the baths from every corner. There are huge windows and terraces facing the mountainside, daylight seeps in, languid, though narrow gaps in the ceiling and mineral water fills basins made of stone from the same mountains. This relationship between the surrounding nature and the buiding is what makes the main bathing areas of the Vals Therme so enjoyable and tranquil. This changes quite a bit in the sections where the landscape and daylight cannot be seen (the two saunas, dressing rooms, access areas), where the same design principles and materials take a heavier, almost sinister tone. There's wet, heavy black curtains dividing sauna areas; glossy, dark red locker rooms; lacquered counters; darkish corridors pinpointed with sharp spots of light. At first all these details seemed artificial, decorative, even perverse and annoyed me a lot. Later I came to think that the contrast beween the lighter and darker areas was in fact very interesting, that the innards of a mountain imply this somber perverseness and that as a bather it was very interesting to be able to move from one mood to another. This contrast starts to disappear as the sun goes down. It gets pitch dark out there (not a light on the mountains), the spectacular views are gone from the big windows, the slices of daylight no longer seeping from above and the building is on its own. That's when all that design effort becomes a bit too visible. We stayed until closing time last night, and as the last bathers laft we saw the underwater spots being turned off and the work lights flooding the place. It's a nice surprise. I went around once again and entered some of the pools, now dark and unpretentious, and wondered if it's at all possible, today, to draw the line between natural and artificial, between design and too much design. Would people come all the way to Vals if Zumthor had kept things simpler? Why is it that the baths of Budapest feel so much more natural and understated? It could well be a matter of light. The darkening of the water at closing time brought the Vals baths much closer to the ones in Hungary, where light is mostly cast from above, as it is in churches and temples. As expected, the light in Vals has more to do with theater (it would surely fit a Beckett play). It's spectacular, knowledgeable and without any tinge of innocence. link | |
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01:27  Route (II) 12:00 Leaving Lausanne, 770 Km. 12:55 Bern, 873 Km. 14:20 Zurich, 992 Km. 15:45 Chur, 1116 Km. 17:30 Arrival Vals Therme, 1204 Km..     Several impressive pools were tried tonight for the first time link | |
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Thursday, July 25, 2002 11:08  Route (I) 8:30 Leaving Brussels, 0 Km. 11:05 border Belgium-Luxembourg, 247 Km. 11:45 border Luxembourg-France, 281 Km. 12:35 Nancy, 378 Km. 13:15 Epinal, 450 Km. 14:30 Vesoul, 542 Km. 15:20 Besançon, 596 Km. 16:15 Pontarlier, 666 Km. 16:30 Piscine des Forges, unexpected, abandoned by the roadside (photos, video) 17:10 Douane L’Auberdon (Border France-Switzerland). Stopped and searched extensively by the police. Whole car and luggage put apart, a young labrador brought in from a nearby village to sniff everything. Very polite and friendly nonetheless, the guards waved us bye-bye after about one hour. 19:00 Yverdon-les-Bains (Expo). Cloud building far better than expected, heavenly, smelled delicious. Photos, video, very wet, camera and I. 22:00 Lausanne, Youth Hostel. Cable, fridge, private shower+toilet. Phone has jacks for all main european standard plugs.   link | |
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Tuesday, July 23, 2002 12:48  It's tiny. It's been a good productive beginning of the week and now I'm off to Brussels: Richard and I will tomorrow drive to Switzerland for the last leg of that pool/bath tour I started some weeks ago. At that time I chose to skip the Switzerland bit thanks to the lousy grumpy mood of the friend who was supposed to accompany me. I figured it would be a bad idea for both of us and proposed we'd skip that last bit of the trip. We were both relieved after the cancellation and the friendship remained intact. Goed zo. It was January 2001 when I first heard of the Therme Vals and since then I have wanted to be there in the flesh.The new date is actually better since it's a Thursday and there's night bathing until midnight. And if this wasn't good enough we'll also have the chance to check the cloud building at the Swiss Expo in Yverdon-les-Bains. link | |
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Friday, July 19, 2002 21:54 Who was that guy who said that concentration is the ultimate form of piety? Did I tell you that my reading life was never the same after having sex for the first time? That I read English slower than I read Portuguese? That I read Dutch even slower than I read English? I wish I would read faster and/or with more concentration, and would welcome any advice on this matter. link | |
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21:06 Reading, trying to read, hoping to read soon: Bucky Works, J. Baldwin (received today). Hmmm, it has all the Fly's Eyes, Dymaxion Maps, and Geodesic Domes I've been obsessing about. Sonetos Luxuriosos, Aretino, ca. 1525 (Portuguese translation by José Paulo Paes). The biographical notes on Aretino are the real good surprise of the book. Paes calls him the first 'literary chantagiste', and attributes to him having freed the whole oppressed class of writers from living off the charity and leftovers of the powerful: "... I have shown them the way of independence. May they march with resolution on the paths I have opened with my powerful arms". The Swimming Pool Library, Alan Hollinghurst (thanks to Janet Abrams' tip). Filled with unapologetic gay sex, great architectural descriptions, the diaries of an octogenarian and the ruins of a roman bath found in a London basement. Buddhism Without Beliefs, Stephen Batchelor. A Estética da Ginga, Paola Berenstein Jacques. The architecture of Brazilian favelas through the work of Hélio Oiticica. The Corpse in the Waxworks, John Dickson Carr. Oei, didn't start it yet. Design of the Turkish Bath, J. J. Cosgrove. Planning to order (expensive!). link | |
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Tuesday, July 16, 2002 15:58 Workpile updated: it's all there. link | |
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06:53 Hmmm Blogger Pro has some very cool features. I can upload images directly from it. I can post via e-mail (that's what I'm trying right now). Titles, future posts, drafts! I'm glad I finally switched, and I'm also glad Blogger offered me years of great services for virtually nothing. Thankyouthankyou. The one thing I still miss is a way to categorize posts, something similar to the category function present throughout Palm OS (but hopefully allowing multi-categories per post). That would make it really easy to create a topical index, something the late night pool really needs. If anyone knows of an efficient way to do that, please let me know. link | |
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Monday, July 15, 2002 20:07 I spent part of the afternoon with Renée Kool discussing her work. We share a few interests (data banks, notebooks) and fascinations, if only method-wise (we both plan our travels around them, she the panoramas and merry-go-rounds , I the pools and baths). At one point Renée mentioned her image bank as 'my bank' – something I might adopt (hereby the credit). link | |
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19:53 Upgraded to Blogger Pro. Posting was getting quite difficult, errors all the time. It's ultra-fast now. link | |
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Saturday, July 13, 2002 11:46 Last night we watched Terence Davies' The House of Mirth. Gillian Anderson plays Lilly Bart, a single woman – this is early 20th century New York – with uncompromising moral standards that cause her gradual expulsion from the higher social circles she grew up in. She does all the wrong moves, is very frank about it, learns the lesson very fast and goes down all the way in spite of knowing that a simple gesture would bring her social rehabilitation. It's a gesture she can't make: It would mean betraying someone she cares for, and, perhaps worse, behaving like all the others who are causing her downfall. It's impossible not to think that this could happen now, a century later, in the same New York (actually, Sex and the City had an an episode with a similar sub-plot, just more spicy and cynical). IMDB has the records of two previous versions of The House of Mirth, one from 1918 and the other (a TV movie) from 1981. I would be curious to compare them all. The story of is a concrete example for something that came up long ago during a discussion at the Sandberg Instituut (the day I got to know Paul, actually). We were discussing idealism when the notion of humility came up. We talked about a 'humility gene' and its improbable chances of survival (think of Tibet). link | |
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Wednesday, July 10, 2002 13:21 I Nuria, the wise (and energetic) Spanish coffee muse once had some Brazilian music playing at the coffee place where she works. When I commented on it, she said she liked it because it 'gave her energy'. She went on: 'that's good because nothing else gives you energy in this place [Holland]: not the weather, not the food, not the people'. II A good two thirds of the people I met the last week complained about feeling drained, sick, tired or irritable: the remarks often included 'I have no energy'. Many considered the thick blanket of clouds permanently hovering above as a possible cause. III Dutch chain Etos (cosmetics/pharmaceutics, similar to UK's Boots) carried their advertising throughout last winter under the slogan 'Waar haal je de energie vandaan?' ('Where do you get the energy from?'). IV That's the irony of nature in The Netherlands: having to obey the strict rules the Dutch imposed on the ground, it took itself to the skies and counter-attacks us mercilessly from above – the one place beyond any control. That is also why the Dutch horizon is such a tense line, the harsh place where these two forces press against each other, without the soft tender compromises of in- or evaginations or curious zones mixing heaven and earth. V [Two weeks ago] I woke up well before 6:00 after my first night in Budapest. I felt sharp and well-disposed, stepped out to the balcony and saw the sun rising over Liberty Bridge. I then sat down in the orange/red light and drew a surprisingly clear map including most of the things I have been occupied with and the relationships between each of them. I then went for a swim and later had breakfast with my travel companions. I continued waking up very early the remaining days, going from thermal bath to pool to yet another bath and enjoying the bits of the city between them. I also noticed that my cock and balls looked different, no, familiar again – that's how they used to look (or feel) a long while ago. How odd, how sweet. I am really glad I noticed. link | |
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Wednesday, July 03, 2002 08:31 Dear friend, Oh sorry for my lack of communication these last few weeks... everything is essentially fine. I am, however, in one of those moods you know so well – seeing days pass by and managing to get very little done. I do see myself slowly getting back to a more productive mode now; I guess this strange period has been necessary to readjust myself after the Budapest/Vienna days. The trip was excellent and my exploration of the baths/pools was far better than expected. It was my first time in a real Hammam, dome and all (I visited two of those, actually, from the 1500's and still in use - Rudás and Király...) (place here one of your pppffffffs). There I was, bobbing lightly in the water, while lots of things started clicking into place. Thanks to that, upon my return some other things have shifted out - my whole life in Holland, actually [isn't this the true function of traveling?]. So ja, it's all a bit of a (subtle, quiet) mess in here right now. The week after my return was still full of semi-unexpected gatherings and mini-trips: Dan B.'s b-day party, a sailing day with Submarine, a short borrel with Oskar+Melanie in Maastricht (tons of children tugging me from all sides, delicious), followed by a night in Aachen with Bill (driving-a-car-on-fire-Bill), and a very impressive Matthew Barney exhibition in your home town Köln. It's all sinking, sinking, sinking now.  link | |
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