The Piano

I enjoy watching The Piano on Channel 4 (missed it this week, so don’t tell me - I’ll have to get it on catch-up) - so it was a pleasure to hear the sounds of someone playing a piano when we came off the train tonight into Almere station. There was this young man playing the piano in the middle of a huge empty space, but with several onlookers listening appreciatively at a distance. It does seem to be an official initiative on behalf of Dutch Railways - see the notice on the piano in the first extra. He played very well, and I loved his “seasonal” jumper!

Before that, we had been in Amsterdam for the afternoon again, wandering around, people-watching.  Amongst other things, I loved the bike-sharing I spotted (second extra). After a late afternoon coffee we were making our way back to the station and the wind got up and the sky turned blacker and blacker. Sure enough, quite suddenly the heavens opened and threw everything they had at us. We dashed for a tram to the station - third extra is me standing at the tram stop, dripping with water. We got a tram, but unfortunately Chris misunderstood the stop and we got off one stop too early, so had to wait for the next one to go the extra bit. Then it was a race through the flood into the station; we got through the barriers, up the stairs and onto the (thankfully) correct train just as the doors were closing and then some kind people gave us two oldies their seats. Twenty minutes later we were back in Almere, rather damp and a bit chilled but cheered by the pianist and at least it had stopped raining. We went to a nearby Mexican restaurant and had a bite to eat. Just our luck to leave there and immediately the skies opened again, so we retreated back to the restaurant for five minutes until it went off more or less and came back to the hotel. The dramas weren’t over yet though, as when we got into our room, the lights flickered and all the power went off! However, a quick call to reception and the lights went on again ten minutes later.

Let’s hope there’s no more drama today!