A Gull-ible Feeling in Amsterdam

The European herring gull has at least one or two advantages over their American cousins. First, they seem to work in organized gangs. Second, there’s something with their beaks. If you want to know more, find an ornithologist. Or maybe an ornithological orthodontist.

So, back to the gang thing. I was sitting with Michael and Susie, a couple from England. They’d courteously extended an invitation to share their table overlooking one of the many canals streaming throughout Amsterdam.

If it weren’t for the guttural accents of northern Europeans forming the backing track of our conversation, you might have thought we were in Venice.

We sipped our drinks. He had a beer, she had a glass of white wine, and I my 43rd cappuccino of the day. My better 83 percent was inside the Tulip Museum, no doubt a little frustrated she couldn’t bring bulbs back to the United States. As we sat, a pair of gulls were clearly eyeing a couple sitting nearby with croissants and other baked goods on their plates.

Suddenly one of the gulls landed by the couple, standing in front of them while flapping its wings. As the couple looked at the gull, seemingly in distress, the second one swooped in, grabbed a croissant and flew off.

While we don’t know the actual extent of the partnership between the gulls, we assumed they had been working as a team and gone off to share a meal. We raised our cups out of respect for the birds.

The presence of Michael and Susie was a stark reminder that European herring gulls aren’t the only Europeans with advantages over their American counterparts. They had woken up in their house outside of London Friday morning and decided they wanted to go to somewhere for the weekend.

Less than two hours later, they were in Amsterdam. It was about 15 minutes from their home to the airport, a flight of just over one hour and that’s it. When Amy and I left our house to get to the airport last week to fly to Amsterdam, we barely made it to the airport in one hour. That was followed by two flights totaling almost 11 hours including a layover in Reykjavik.

My new friends Michael and Susie have also recently traveled to Spain, Italy and France. None of their trips required a lot of planning; really no planning beyond one of them saying, let’s get away.

They’re going to Dublin in about a month.

As we chatted, a double decker tour bus drove by, leading Susie to comment about how it reminded her of New York. Her sister had moved “across the pond” – something I didn’t realize people actually said in conversation – and had been living in Brooklyn. On one trip, Susie had spent the day traveling around the city, hopping on and off and on again as she went.

Not one to miss a chance to talk about New York, I welcomed the conversation. What barriers may have existed between us, people from different parts of the world, melted away. As the gulls flew around us, it turned out maybe we were all birds of a feather.

Or maybe not.

Later I was at the Van Gogh Museum chatting with one of the many volunteers strategically deployed to let visitors know how much more they know than you. And they are each able to do so in several languages.

The subject, in a surprise to no one, turned to New York City.

“Ah,” he said. “New York City. There would be no New York City without the Dutch.”