Teak Hoagie

The Amsterdam office

These ridiculous little cars were everywhere in Amsterdam Zuid. Seeing two people tooling down the street in one was hilarious, and I was filled with questions: how fast are they? Are they legal for highway driving? Why drive one of these instead of biking when the weather’s nice? (And I have nothing against ridiculous little cars. Big cars are another matter entirely.)

Fun favorites old and new from the Rijksmuseum: an illustrated 18c condom made of sheep intestine, Willem Bartel van der Kooi’s “Piano Practice Interrupted,” and two incredibly intricate paper cut works.

The view from my room, September 7, 2025. Never been to Amsterdam Zuid before. Enjoying the quiet, marveling at the apparent prosperity

If I had to spend most of my birthday at an airport and on a plane, I’m grateful at least that I had a two-seat row where the other seat was empty.

What a surprise as I sat drinking my coffee in B and Erin’s lovely kitchen

Finally visited the interior of Glasgow’s cathedral, “by far” the oldest building in town (begun before 1200, finished about 250 years later). Beautiful wooden ceiling, vast interior. Loved the mural en route of St Mungo, Glasgow’s founder, as a modern-day homeless man talking to a robin.

lol fuck yeah

Huzzah, back in Glasgow on Thursday, August 28! There’s food that does not come with a side of chips here

Last full day in Portpatrick, Wednesday, Aug 27. I walked up the steps to the big Portpatrick Hotel and snapped a couple of photos of the harbor. Mike wasn’t about to do more stair-climbing (or especially stair-descending) so I was on my own. Kind of over the seaside resort vibe and seaside resort food by that point. Anyway, this is officially part of the Southern Upland Way, which starts on the rock in the harbor and continues for another 200+ miles across what is supposed to be fairly unforgiving terrain. I think this was enough of it for me.

Double rainbow in Portpatrick

This toad was sitting in the middle of the street. I went up and nudged him with my foot but no response. He moved some to get out of my shadow, though, so I encouraged him over to the side where I hoped he would not be squished by a passing car. (Or she! No idea of the gender of the toad.)

Another bright day in Portpatrick, so bright in fact that I got sunburned. We went to see the ruins of Dunskey Castle, which we reached via a walk through the nearby caravan park (what we would call a trailer park in the US, and we did in fact see a trailer-trash couple sound asleep in lawn chairs after what appeared to be a lunchtime drinks party). The path out to the castle was a little muddy and rocky, and Mike was feeling dizzy, as he frequently does. He slipped and fell once on the path to enter the castle (not, fortunately, over the cliff) and several more times as we navigated stairs without a railing along the Coastal Way down to the harbor on the return loop. The castle itself was intriguing but it was a rather harrowing day.

Snapped a photo of the huge quantities of berries along the footpath to the Portpatrick harbor and consulted with the woman at the post office/general store about whether they were indeed blackberries. She called them brambles but confirmed they were not only edible but tasty. I picked a liter on an un-Scottishly sunny afternoon.