阿姆斯特丹, 荷兰Amsterdam, the Netherlands
我觉得阿姆斯特丹还是要从船上看I still say Amsterdam is best seen from a boat
在阿姆斯特丹醒来的第一个早晨，天是灰的。旅馆的窗分成两页：左页是一排挤在一起的老房子，右页是远处一座钟楼。这些房子高矮胖瘦各不相同，帽子也一人一顶，凑在一起，倒像一张全家福。
下午钻进九小街：九条小街在运河中间织成一小片网，店一家挨着一家。拐进一家咖啡馆歇脚，店不大，人不少。门开着，门楣上嵌一排彩色玻璃，白格子里点着橙的和蓝的小方块。到了荷兰才反应过来：蒙德里安那些格子，说不定就是从这种门楣上学来的。
傍晚上了运河游船。阿姆斯特丹还是适合从水上逛。船拐进老城，一座塔从窗框和倒影中间探出来。它叫 Montelbaanstoren，四百年前塔顶刚装上钟的时候，它半夜也响，阿姆斯特丹人给它起了个外号：疯雅普。我们路过的时候它一声没吭，大概是响累了。
在阿姆斯特丹我一直在琢磨一件事：这里的窗户怎么都这么大。房子的窗大，船的窗大，咖啡馆干脆把临街的一面全让给玻璃，跟美国那些把窗户开得小心翼翼的房子完全是两个路数。可荷兰人偏偏又出了名的有边界感，话说得直，规矩摆在明处。算了，可能这就是荷兰吧。
On our first morning in Amsterdam the sky was gray. The hotel window came in two pages: on the left, a row of old houses packed shoulder to shoulder; on the right, a clock tower in the distance. No two houses were the same height, and each wore a different hat. Together they looked like a family portrait.
In the afternoon we slipped into the Nine Streets, a little net of lanes woven between the canals, shops standing one against the next. We turned into a café to rest our feet, small and busy. The door stood open, and over it ran a band of stained glass, orange and blue squares set in a white grid. It took coming to the Netherlands for it to click: Mondrian may have learned his grids from doorways like this one.
In the evening we boarded a canal boat. Amsterdam really is best toured from the water. The boat turned into the old town, and a tower leaned out from between the window frame and its reflections. It is called the Montelbaanstoren. Four hundred years ago, when the clock on top was new, it rang even at midnight, and the people of Amsterdam nicknamed it Malle Jaap, Crazy Jaap. It did not make a sound as we passed. Probably tired.
All through Amsterdam I kept turning one thing over: why are the windows here so big? Houses have big windows, boats have big windows, the café gave its whole street-facing wall to glass, nothing like American houses with their small, careful windows. And yet the Dutch are famous for their boundaries: they say what they mean and keep the rules in plain sight. Oh well. Maybe that’s just the Netherlands.
Comments