Ouderkerkerlaan

Saturday marked my second full day. After a grocery-shopping trip with Ev, I decided to try out the tram, the metro, the public transport. At the other end of that decision was the Apple store (inconveniently called iCenter, so it seemed impossible to find on the mall directory since I was looking for “Apple” or something with the word Apple in it.)

The front desk attendant, Sonia made it sound easy peasy. Just “walk down this street, I dunno da name it is, but find da Ouderkerkerlaan and take da 51 to Amstelveen Center. No problem, yes?” Wait, what? No. If I’ve learned anything it’s that Dutch people are direct, so they prefer if I am, too. My response was something wordy like, “What did you say?”

“Ouderkerkerlaan.”

“Uhhh, can you write that down?”

She did, but to be honest I had no clue what the heck we were even talking about. As it turns out, it was as easy as it seemed to her (with one important additional example of what appears to be the Dutch willingness to help.) At the platform of the 51 tram, labeled “Ouderkerkerlaan” I could tell easily which direction I would need (you try it; it isn’t as easy as it might seem.) But, I could not tell from the signage how to pay. Enter the next person I have asked the most helpful question of all—do you speak English? She did (thank goodness) and her explanation came replete with the admonition that violating the honor system was risking a huge fine if discovered by the authorities that apparently monitor such things. (OK no worries, I intend to play by the rules.)

To any Dutchman reading this, it would all seem so silly. Of course, it is perfectly obvious; but to a guy from Essex it wasn’t. Here’s how the system works. You load a credit card-looking thing called an ov-Chipkaart with money from your bank account. So far so good? The machines used to transfer money are found in many places, especially on platforms where you can engage public transportation. I have an ov-Chipkaart , loaded with plenty of euros. As it turns out there is a post with a device mounted to the top against which you hold your ov-Chipkaart when you want to ride. That’s it. The system then knows that you are starting your trip. When you depart, you find another such post and show your card (in other words, you don’t even swipe it). The system then calculates how far you traveled and deducts the appropriate amount of money from your ov-Chipkaart account.

Did I mention that it's cold?

It is surprisingly easy. Much to my delight, I didn’t travel far either. The Amstelveen Center was the next stop, and after only about forty seconds at fairly high speed, we stopped at the Center. I still had no clue where to go or what to do (other than find one of those posts and record my “ov” destination.) I did what any clever boy would do—I followed the crowd. Hey, it’s a mall, so I figured that’s why everyone else was there.

Once inside, I could not read the directory very well. Like I said, I was looking for the word “Apple” among the store names. Silly me. Two inquiries later, I found it and the part for which I was looking—the Mini-DisplayPort zu HDMI Adapter (Video & Audio*). Why, you ask, go to all this trouble for a Mini-DisplayPort zu HDMI Adapter? Because this is the device I will use to display my computer screen onto my HD television just as soon as the first NFL playoff game begins!

Go Ravens!