FIRST IMPRESSIONS WHILE COMING BACK
We were up early yesterday, cleaned the Airbnb, met Henny at the parking garage right next to us since we had all of our luggage, but still not much. It didn’t occur to me until now that this out of sight, multi level parking lot underneath our grocery store, Albert Heijn, was a partial answer to why Haarlem has so few parking places. This parking garage is out of sight and doesn’t disturb the compact downtown, just as the large parking lots under the dunes at the seaside on our day of driving down the coast were out of sight. It is simply using space most efficiently. I have no idea how many underground, out of sight, parking garages there are in Haarlem, but I do know that there is a charge for public parking everywhere we went in the Netherlands, which again encourages bicycle riding and parking for which there is no charge.
Schiphol Airport was only twenty minutes away. We were three hours early which gave us time to walk around before our noon flight.
My one observation on this very long day, up at 6:30 Haarlem time, to bed at 3 a.m. Swannanoa time (only 9 p.m. here because of the time change, after a change of flights in Chicago) was the dramatic difference in cultures as we moved from the Netherlands to the United States.
On this point I admit to prejudice probably caused by my down mood with the trip finally being over and my exhaustion as the day went on.
Schiphol Airport, built on reclaimed land and under sea level is a beautiful, clean, efficient, very modern feeling airport with beautiful shops, charging stations for digital devices everywhere, passengers from all over the world in elegant clothes, very courteous airport and security workers speaking both English and Dutch. It is an up to date high class operation, although expensive.
Even the flight was that way on United, an American airline, with the flight personell speaking Dutch and English with wide seats and decent food.
And then in Chicago everything changed. Huge O’Hare Airport seemed rundown and grubby and outdated, worn down. It felt like a huge bus station filled with Americans in shorts and T-shirts. These were just normal middle class Americans on their way somewhere but they looked sloppy to me after Haarlem (and with my exhaustion and reluctance to come back). The airport personnel seemed bossy and loud and unfriendly, just doing their job of herding crowds of people along. And the airport, which must have been new and shiny 30 years ago showed signs of wear everywhere with only minor maintenance. All of this irritated me. And when we got into our small commuter plane to Asheville the seats were cramped and the service without effort or politeness. Of course, this was all as I was completely exhausted.
But after several days as I write this with a little perspective after fitting back in somewhat and after not feeling like writing for awhile, I can be a little more accepting. Part of the difference is that Schiphol is relatively new and O’Hare is old and wearing out. I have noticed this with expressways in the United States. The first built near the big Eastern cities were very modern and impressive at the time when cities like Asheville had none. But now the early large city expressways seem cramped and decaying while expressways around Asheville seem more up to date. The same is true of planes. They have such a long lifespan that the early planes like our commuter flight to Asheville seem rundown while the new plane from Schiphol seems clean and comfortable. So part of the difference in my impressions is because the United States got there first and is now being left behind with a decaying infrastructure, a decay that Europeans insist on avoiding.
But part of it is culture. The United States middle class culture is much more casual than European culture. When I was a kid, flying was luxurious and people treated it that way, dressing up and being dazzled, even clapping in the early days when the plane landed safely. No more. Now we are more like bus passengers, casual and relaxed, making ourselves comfortable, being free of cultural constraints. We’re almost to the point of wearing hair curlers under a scarf on the flight and brushing our hair out just before we arrive.
We are informal everywhere, downtown, in church, on flights. And the airport personnel are the same way. No reason to go out of their way to be friendly, they are just doing their job and are underpaid at that.
So these are my impressions as I reinterred the United States.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 