GWAPA: Articles: Sean's Cryptocoryne Odyssey

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

The day has arrived, the long flight to the Netherlands. I knew I had to be on the Metro to the airport around noon, I found myself leaping out of bed to go out and get a few last items for my trip. Visit to Best Buy and Kohls, batteries and other stuff. Then it was off to the Metro to get to DCA for my 3:45 flight. Getting to the airport and through security took longer than the actual flight to Philadelphia (25 minutes) where the transatlantic flight leaves at 6:00 PM. With the flight and the time changes I'll be arriving in Amsterdam at 7:45 local time on Thursday.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

It really still seems like Wednesday to me, the flight lasted about 8 hours. Oddly I didn't sleep so I'm walking around in a daze in Schiphol Airport, through a very quiet customs check to my bags and out to look for Jan.

I don't see a face I recognize so I sort of move to the side of the "greet the flights" crowd with my obvious fish box to wait for Jan to notice me. That only takes a few moments, Jan spots me and asks "SEEN?"
"Nice to see you again Jan....Sean."

It's been two years since the AGA convention, hard to remember each others face. Time for a quick cup of coffee, European espresso is so much better than Starbucks. Plans for the day, see a little bit of Amsterdam, go to the Herbarium in Leiden, and then maybe some sightseeing on the way back to Emmen. I'm dead tired but eager to go.

Amsterdam

Canals, 30 to 50 feet wide, "fresh" water, no flow through them however. I'm not sure what they are like in the summer. Right now the water is brown, occasionally there are lily pads, cattails or rushes growing. Ducks here and there. We turn off the asphalt onto a bricked or modern cobble stone street. Traffic can be one or two way here, I'm about to get my first bit of culture shock.

OK if you have never driven in Amsterdam, don't try it your first time there. There are canals everywhere, cars everywhere, bicycles everywhere, people walking everywhere, it must be how tired I am but I can't process the amount of information coming in. To my eyes at intersections I don't know who has the right of way, everyone else does, it looks like it's the one who takes it. I never actually set foot in Amsterdam, the tour is completely by car.

We leave Amsterdam behind and head down a highway (Autobahn.) Jan takes me to see the North Sea. The little beach resort town we are in is quaint, Noordwijk I believe was the name. I'm enjoying the sea air. Looking out over the sand dunes and beach grass, the light house at the other end of the beach. People bundled up against the wind and wet, odd leafed plants on the dunes that I just don't recognize. Jan says that these places are boring, "nothing to do but lay on the beach with nothing to do." Somehow the opportunity to read a book, rest, relax, recover, and recharge sounds like what I need at the moment.

After taking a look at the dunes and beach we head off to Leiden which is a small city south of Amsterdam.

Leiden

At the University of Leiden there is an herbarium, which is a place where they store collected plant specimens. There are several crypt specimens there that Jan wants me to see. When we get to Leiden we go up and visit with Willem de Wilde and Brigitta de Wilde-Duijfjes, a botanist couple that are retired, but not really. They are working on the Flora of Thailand, from whence they have just recently returned. We spend some time chatting with this nice couple in the Building's galley, coffee for me. They are very interested in this odd, tired, American who would come all the way to Holland for crypts. They accuse Jan of giving me the disease, but Jan tells them I had it before he ever met me. Knowing eyes of fellow collectors smile at me as I tell them my background, "no, not a botanist, fish and wetlands ecologist. I'm better looking at the whole picture than just the individual plant." Did I mention they speak English, they seem to enjoy practicing with me.

After coffee, Jan and I are led down to the Herbarium, rows and rows of high shelves with boxes and boxes of herbarium sheets holding pressed plants. Over 4.1 million plant specimens is what I am told. They have to cycle the specimens through a freezer to kill bugs, it's more effective and less toxic than pesticides. We are led back to the Aroid section where the crypts are kept. Jan shows me the existing old sheets that have survived colleting in the swamps of SE Asia and wars on the European continent. He points out mistakes and corrections people have made analyzing the genus. Type materials, holotype, isotype, I'm tired and can't remember the differences. Time for lunch.

We leave the herbarium and wander in to Leiden proper. There is a central section of the city that has been closed off to auto traffic, just bikes and pedestrians. Shops and eateries, line the ways. Jan points out some streets that are backfilled canals or canals that were "roofed" creating semi flooded tunnels. I notice that the canals do not have guard rails, "do many people park their cars in the canals?"
"No, that never happens, but"when it does,"., it is VERY funny."

Jan shows me the house where he and Cora lived while he was in school here. Then he shows me the building where his Physics lab was, about 3 blocks away. Nice commute. After walking around a bit more, seeing the sites, we grab a bite to eat at a "bagel" shop, I have something that has capers on it. Interesting. Back to the herbarium building.

After saying good bye to the Herbarium couple we head off to Emmen via the Hague. I tell Jan to take the quickest route, skip Rotterdam, I can't stay awake for the ride. He is amused as I play yo-yo with my head in the car.

Emmen

We arrive in Emmen after dark and I get to meet Cora, a beautiful lady with bright smiling eyes. Jan was a heck of a salesman when he was younger". A few minutes and I can tell that they are very well matched. Cora has dinner ready for us, "a simple meal" it's called. In my traveler weary state, a minor feast see I. (I am so tired I had to write in Yoda Speak.) It is a continental European meal, exactly what one should expect, and I was glad for it. After dinner I helped dry the dishes, Jan thought it was because I knew the story about the Japanese visitors, honestly I just wanted to spend a few more minutes with them both. There were a few minutes for a tour, I got to see Jan's new green house/laboratory. I'm jealous already. Kidding.

Bedtime was not far behind the meal, I don't think I lasted until the 8 PM evening news, and since we had to be on the road to Switzerland the next morning by 6 AM it was probably for the best. Jan bustled about getting his stuff ready for the trip, packing crypts to take with him, etc. I got my stuff repacked into a smaller case for the trip south. (A smaller version of my stuff. Thanks George Carlin)

Thud!

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