Indeed I
found Amsterdam's hotels exceedingly unsatisfactory; so much so that
the next time I go, when the electric railway to Haarlem is open,
I am proposing to invert completely the usual process, and, staying
at Haarlem, study Amsterdam from there.
For the time being, however, we must consider ourselves at Amsterdam,
branching out north or south, east or west, every morning.
A very interesting excursion may be made to Hilversum, returning by
the steam-tram through Laren, Naarden and Muiden. The rail runs at
first through flat and very verdant meadows, where thousands of cows
that supply Amsterdam with milk are grazing; and one notices again
the suddenness with which the Dutch city ends and the Dutch country
begins. Our English towns have straggling outposts: new houses,
scaffold poles, cottages, allotments, all break the transition from
city to country; the urban gives place to suburban, and suburban to
rural, gradually, every inch being contested. But the Dutch towns--even
the great cities--end suddenly; the country begins suddenly.
In England for the most part the cow comes to the milker; but in
Holland the milker goes to the cow. His first duty is to bind the
animal's hind legs together, and then he sets his stool at his side
and begins.
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