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September 22, 2007
Over the zee and far away
There were no posters for ROBODOCK in Amsterdam, which seemed a bit strange, though we knew that the DOCK in ROBODOCK was the NORTH DOCK. But Amsterdam, being the busy seafaring port that it is, has a lot of docks and most of them appeared to be to the north.
So we had some apple pie in a café, the way you do and it happened that the people on the next table were talking loudly (in Double Dutch naturally) and every now and then we heard “ hoojp dee maar robodock de groön” or similar and figured they might know where it was. Which they did and they were very helpful and, like almost everyone in Amsterdam, spoke excellent English.
They said go to the Centraal Station and catch a ferry, and shlooozooom… it was driven by Michael Schumacher, and, Amsterdam being the busy seafaring port that it is, it was a very exciting trip. We dodged huge barges sunk deep into the sea, water washing their gunwales, small open boats with men, in dark jackets, collars turned against the wind, standing up with serious expressions on their faces and hands dug into warm pockets, sailing boats, rowing boats, police boats, other ferries and a rubber dingy, somewhat out of place, bobbing precariously amidst the chop and chase of the sea-lanes, a worried man gripping a sputtering outboard motor.
We landed in a desolate spot just as it was getting dark and starting to rain. Most people on the ferry rushed ashore on foot, on bike or on scooter and disappeared, obviously going home for tea not heading for a Rusty Robot Festival, but we were confident. The 15 foot high red metal arrow with the word ROBODOCK welded to it helped, it has to be said.
Posted by john at September 22, 2007 07:00 PM