Around the World – Amsterdam, Netherlands
My goal on this leg of the trip is to visit the electric boat workshop of Anne Kloppenborg and do some touring around the city I last visited back in the 90s.
I woke up at 7 AM in Copenhagen and packed up. Rikke and Hermann walked me to the train station, in the rain of course. It was a beautiful German ICE train and we pulled out of the station right on time. Surprisingly the train doesn’t have Wifi or power. Jeez, even Greyhound buses in America have that now. I’m mildly disappointed in this lack of normally up-to-date German technology. First World Problems.
The train actually crosses a 10 mile stretch of water between Denmark and Germany by ferry. The train drove right into the ferry and as we were all walking upstairs the ferry pulled out. Using up my last Danish Kroner, I bought a giant Toblerone chocolate bar and a small tube of Body Shop Eye Cream becase I cannot shake this “chapped eyelid” thing I’ve had since I got pinkeye in Sydney.
The train continued to the Hamburg Hauptbahnhof (Main Railway Station for you non-German speakers), a short layover then I jumped on the train to Osnabruck. For some reason, the train left on time but we lost 30 minutes by the time we arrived. I had an 18 minute layover for the next train, so I thought I was screwed. I was running through the scenarios for another train later tonight, train in the morning and Deutsche Bahn buying me a hotel tonight… I have a fixed ticket for this route and didn’t know if they were responsible when we missed a connection or it’s all on me. I packed up my stuff early and was waiting at the door, jumped out as soon as we stopped. A helpful DB lady pointed me to Platform 12, I raced down and my train pulled in 2 minutes later…! My luck, the whole system must be running late. I had an uneventful and almost empty train to Amsterdam.
We arrived at the Amsterdam Centraal station and I got a 4 day ticket on the public transport system – trains, trams and buses. With no local SIM card in my phone for data, I logged into the train station Wifi long enough to get Google directions to my Airbnb. I got on the #53 train to the closest station, about 20 minutes south. Got out of the station and followed a very fuzzy Google maps path through a densely packed and twisty neighbourhood. Came upon a helpful man who brought up the directions on his phone and then let me take a picture of it. I finally arrived 13 hours after I left Copenhagen…
The Airbnb lady Ruthline is really nice, she’s from Curaçao but her family came to the Netherlands about 40 years ago, easy because it’s a Dutch (former?) territory. The room is small but comfy at the top of a set of stairs that would never meet building code in America!
In the morning I woke up and made an interesting discovery. Now I have seen many, many toilets around the world but this one had a very strange feature. It has a bit of a shelf built in which proudly displays your efforts before being flushed away. I really don’t want to know that much, thanks anyway. I went downstairs for breakfast, had bread, nutella, cheese and orange juice.
I got directions from Google to Anne’s workshop and walked out the other end of the neighbourhood to the #9 tram. The next tram time came and went, the following tram time was almost up when a lady came up and told us all “tram is kaput.” Ugh. I walked north about 2 miles and jumped on the #65 bus that I was originally supposed to transfer to. Oh and a #9 tram passed me just as I came up to the bus, so they must have got it working… Damn.
I walked from the bus stop to Anne’s workshop which is tucked in behind some industrial buildings. Following the signs, I walked through somebody else’s workshop, and was pointed out the back. I walked into the right shop and saw Ray and Celso Menaia (who I know from EVCCON) and Anne. A customer Volvo was up on the hoist being converted for the CEO of an electric car charger station company. The Delta boat that didn’t finish the English Channel crossing was in pieces, apparently the contactor failed from heat thrown off by the fuse that was running near its limit. 3/4 of the way across the English Channel is a tough place to have an electrical glitch! A simple redesign of that part of the circuit should avoid concentrating the heat, with a next try scheduled for December. The 818 car project is in process but delayed by paying customer work (which is always good to have!) There was a small cabin boat out the back in the canal being converted. Trying to help out a bit, I built up a parallel pack of 10 CALB CA100 batteries and Celso initiated the bottom balancing process. I was careful not to drop the wrench across the battery terminals… Anne had a meeting with an electric boat motor company at a trade show in town so we went in. I got a visitor badge and we found the booth. While Anne talked with them, I explored the next few aisles of products. I love trade shows, there’s so much cool stuff, in any industry. We came back to the shop and I said my goodbyes until Thursday and got the bus into the central city. It was raining of course so I walked around looking for a suitable restaurant. I picked one but most everything was onions or meat so I settled for a crostini (open crusty bread with tomatoes, cheese and pesto) and a real Trappist Monk beer.
That night back at the Airbnb, I started thinking about getting a Eurail pass. I studied the web site but to get one they have to print and mail it to you a week later. The benefit of the “Global 2 Month” pass is one fixed price, unlimited flexible walk-on travel, first class seating and first class lounges. I’ve got to be in Istanbul in 2 months and I love trains so I think this is the best option for me. I don’t know where I’ll be in a week so I’ll check to see if they sell them directly at the Centraal station tomorrow.
The next morning I went to the Centraal station and the International ticket desk. Yay, they do sell Eurail passes here! Boo, there’s no off-peak-season discount like on the web site and the price is higher than the web site, plus a credit card fee plus a booking fee and insurance for a lost ticket is not available. Well, that’s my stupidity tax for not getting it sooner. At least now I’m ridin’ the rails around Europe for 2 months, just hop on whatever train I want (well mostly, there is quite a bit of fine print…) Also, the ticket has a hologram and is like cash, if you lose it, it’s gone so I will staple it into my passport which I already guard with my life.
I walked to the Tesla showroom, of course. It’s in a tiny storefront in an upscale part of town. The young man working there said electric cars are really coming in the Netherlands, nearly every street has at least one charging station so the infrastructure is there and ready for more cars.
I then got into a hop-on-hop-off canal sightseeing boat. I cruised around and got off at the Heineken Experience – it’s like Disneyland For Beer. I learned about the history of the company and the brewing process and saw some of the old huge vats. I walked through several rooms where they patted themselves on the back for good advertising and sports sponsorships and really bad music. I reached the tasting room and watched as one employee taught us how to properly pour from a tap, then let people have a go. One guy got up and did it “wrong” because he didn’t waste any at the start or the end. He explained “In Canada, we don’t waste beer!” I had a nice chat with him and his wife, they’re here then to Venice for a cruise through the Adriatic, then back to near Bayfield, just north of where I was in school at Western.
Back on the canal boat, barely able to stay awake due a short night’s sleep and several of Heineken’s best. I got off back near the city center and found a tiny italian restaurant where I had spaghetti quattro formaggi and garlic bread, ah.
The next morning is my try at getting to the Tesla factory in nearby Tilburg. Nearby meaning 3 hours away. I tried to call the number listed on the web site but it was a touch-tone system in Dutch, so I decided just to go down and bluff my way into whatever I could, hoping for a tour.
I took a quick tram to the major train station next to the famous Ajax football stadium, and bought my return ticket. At this point I must say how amazed I am at Google Maps. It knows everything. I asked it to take me from my Airbnb location to the factory. It told me to walk to the tram station, guiding me through the twisty streets of the neighbourhood. It knew when the next tram would come. It told me which two trains to take to get to Tilburg, with their departure and arrival times, and that they were currently on schedule. It told me how to walk out of the Tilburg station to the bus to the factory, and the bus was on time. It guided me on the bus route and told me where to get off and then guided me to walk right up to the front gates of the Tesla building. The mind boggles. It’s just magic. For you non-computer-geeks, what’s going on behind the helpful trip planner is a tour-de-force in data harvesting, real-time data updates and multi-modal trip optimization. This is the stuff PhDs are made of. I can’t say how much I love this and how I’ve grown to trust and depend on it. It’s never let me down. I suppose there’s a first time but in the meantime it has made my trip so easy.
Anyway, I walk into the Visitor center at the factory to find that it’s not the factory anymore! It’s now a showroom, service center and warehouse since September. The very helpful man there explained everything and pointed me towards the new factory just down the road.
I walk in more pouring rain to the new building. This is a massive building, about 200 meters wide and 40 tractor-trailer-loading-bays long. I walked into the first sliding glass door but it looked like an employee entrance, so I went out and then into the next door which led me into a big visitor room with floor-to-ceiling glass walls looking right into the factory. The “factory” is what I would call final assembly, about the size of a basketball court, done this way to reduce the taxes payable for fully assembled cars brought into the country for distribution around Europe. The cars come four to a shipping container, with the wheels bolted onto the hubs so they can roll. The cars enter what is labelled “General Assembly”, riding on a smart cart and they move in an S-shaped work line where the car is grabbed from above with a big claw-like hanger. The wheels come off, the battery pack is installed, the drivetrain(s) are installed and then the wheels go back on again. They fill it with windshield washer fluid and then flash the software at which point the car is driveable. The car is lowered onto another smart cart and makes its way to final inspection for paint and water leakage. It comes off the cart and goes through an indoor test track about 900m long with bumps designed to make squeaky things squeak. They then are driven over into the detailing area then parked waiting for shipment though Europe or for local pickup.
All this time, several people walked through the visitor area and nobody seemed to be worried about me with my nose pressed up against the glass. Finally a young man walked over and introduced himself. He was the Delivery Specialist, handling about 8 – 10 local pickups every day. One customer with a new titanium colored Model S drove past me and out the door with a huge smile on his face. I told my story and we talked for about half an hour. He then told me it was OK to take pictures through the glass, I said I hadn’t up to then because of the no-picture rule in Fremont but he said there are no secrets here, so he took a few pictures of me, then I took a few more. He then went back to his desk and brought out a stainless steel Tesla pen for me, I’m very thankful for his gift. Well that was an awesome visit.
Back on the bus, train, train and into central Amsterdam. Anne and I made plans to meet at a bar called Wijnand Fockink (yes). It’s a 350 year old “tasting room” where they do a couple of kinds of beer but also have shelves full of liquers and a local spirit called Superior. They pour the liquers into tiny glasses, right up to the rim and you have to bend over and sip the top of it out before you can pick up the glass. Anne said the saying is something like “King or poor man, everyone bends.” We also met a local man, Jan Willem, who lit up when I told him I was from Canada. He told a story that when he went on a holiday to Calgary, he found a Veteran’s Hall and went inside and announced that Canadian troops liberated his father from a POW camp in East Germany in WWII and he wanted to come over and thank everyone. Makes our little troubles in life seem unimportant.
From the bar, Anne and his friend Nico and I went to a great Chinese restaurant, starving at this point. From there we walked down to two canal boats that Anne had installed electric motors and batteries into. These are new and he did the installation in conjuntion with the boat manufacturer. The battery packs hold 180 KWH, this is a monster, as much as two Teslas, folks! They have between 2000 and 3000 hours of service in only 8 months and they’re still purring along taking tourists quietly and efficiently around the canals of the city. We did a bit of semi-drunken inspection on the drivetrain and held deep discussions on art, loss, friendship and admiration of other’s worthwhile achievements. Yeah, it got deep. I don’t mean to spoil any surprises, but Anne has been involved with a crew from the Discovery Channel that has been filming their efforts to prepare for the Guiness Book Of Records English Channel crossing attempt. I’ll let everybody know when it’s expected to be aired. He promises it will be heavy on the work and light on the manufactured human drama like a lot of other reality shows…
I jumped on the #9 tram home before they shut down for the night, walked home in the rain. Damn, it just always rains here!
The next morning I started looking at Airbnb places in Luxembourg. I found a couple of cheap ones in the center of town and sent off the first request. Declined. Asked why. Not available. Sent off to the other one. Declined. Asked why. Not available. Dumbasses! Can’t anyone manage their schedule properly? I found a third, a SuperHost. She quickly accepted. Plotted my train ride to Luxembourg through Brussels. I know, I know. But it’s only for 15 minutes in the train station.
I went up to Anne’s workshop to say goodbye, then into the center of Amsterdam. It was raining of course. I went into an Indian restaurant I spotted earlier in the week but they were closed due to getting a new carpet. I had paneer in an orangy sauce and garlic nan and a large mango lassi. They hustled me out because of a huge rush of guests coming in.
I walked around for a while but gave up due to the rain. Back to the Airbnb for a last night’s sleep then off to Luxembourg tomorrow.
Despite the rain I do like Amsterdam. The history, the buildings, the canals, the bicycles, the food and the strangely happy people everywhere all add up to a very enjoyable experience.
