Vondelpark

But he ends up, and if you don't mind me launching into a reading after that, just because By Sebaldian coincidence, I'm picking up where Jesse left off.

That evening in Amsterdam, I sat in the peace of the lounge of a private hotel by the Vondelpark, which I knew from earlier visits.

and made notes on the stations of my journey, now almost at an end.

The days I had spent on various inquiries at Bad Kissingen, the panic attack in Baden, the boat excursion on Lake Zurich, my run of good luck at the casino in Lindau.

But a few years ago, we did this incredibly inspiring writer's camp as part of ADE.

The programmers asked me to come and run this incredibly inspiring writer's camp where we set up in that beautiful building in Vondelpark and had multiple rooms with multiple producers and artists working together to write.

And that was a really great experience as part of ADE to run that during the period, during the time.

Other times we've done events, obviously we've played big events there.

Well, it's-- it has been ups and downs, I have to admit, but, no, that's n- not really true, of course, like for everyone in life.

But, uh, yeah, so how did we started? Well, we met each other in the Vondelpark in Amsterdam.

I was 25, and he was a bit older, not too much older, a couple of years.

And then, you know, he just picked me out of many girls.

I didn't experience anything too much further than that.

Outside of maybe, like, the museum area or the Vondelpark, they're more probably, like, 35 minutes, but you could also use public transportation to get over there.

I wanna throw in a quick tip here, especially m- since you mentioned it's very walkable.

If you're in an area not necessarily near the canals where they have the designated biking path, because biking is a big mode of transportation in Amsterdam, do not walk on the bike path.

You know?

And I would've gone, but it didn't open until the evening time, which was still a few hours away, and I was going to be making my way back, so didn't end up going there, but that'll be something for the next time.

Also in this area a little bit farther on is Vondelpark, very big, beautiful park where you can kind of relax and lay out.

It was raining, so I was like, "Eh, I'm not gonna go to an outdoor park and lounge in the rain." Then there's the flower market you could go to and, you know, a lot of other stuff in this area.

down the

river well yeah so yeah because it's a good it's a good course but it's one that I would like to I don't know if everyone has run Amsterdam whatever you think about it it's a great it's well supported it feels good but it is like it's stacked on the the best sites of like when you're not tired so it's at the start so you're running You run through Vondelpark twice.

You go through the Rijksmuseum, which is a cool thing if you run through it.

But you do that after like 6K or something like that.

Yeah.

Like, from my understanding, Amsterdam banned it from Vondelpark?

Yes, from Vondelpark as of May this year.

Right.

And I hadn't even seen the images or the regulatory notices that are in the Vondelpark until last week when I was interviewed by a journalist about it, and it's almost confusing actually.

You know, it's an image with the red circle and the fat bike around it, and if you're not from the Netherlands, you might not know what this means.

[laughs] If you don't speak Dutch, you might not be able to understand the Dutch notice, right, that's on the board saying fat bikes are forbidden from entering the Vondelpark.

I actually haven't seen the sign.

Um, but, but yeah, it, uh, it turns out that it's not wrong 'cause I went to ChatGPT, and I typed into ChatGPT, as one would do, "Can you have sex in the park in Amsterdam? I hear there are rules." And it goes, "Yes, you've heard correctly.

Amsterdam's Vondelpark, [chuckles] Vondelpark, has a history of allowing sex in certain circumstances, but there are important qualifications.

One, you cannot sleep with a little person." It doesn't say that.

I sure...

I guess a little person could kinda sleep wherever they wanted.

Why not? Uh, so it says, "The Vondelpark rules.

In 20- in 2008, Amsterdam made international headlines when officials announced that they would tolerate sex in secluded areas of Vondelpark.

The, this rep- uh, the reported guidelines were only after dark, away from the playground and areas frequented by children, no visible, not visible to other park visitors, no disturbing or harming anyone or harassing anyone, and condoms and other litter must be removed." What is, what is the potential for other litter? What other litter might there be? I don't know.

Like surely, uh, this is not, not a risk." So yeah, ran 27 minutes.

I think it was like 5.5, 5.5 or 5.8K or something like that, just around Vondelpark, the old, uh, hood.

And then, um, uh, yeah, no problems at all.

And then spoke to Josh and he was just like, "Look, you..." I was looking to do a, a bit of a return to running.