I decided to take some photos (sorry, i'll make something prettier than a directory list soon) of the park across the street, Sarphatipark. Living like most do here, in a flat, you don't have a yard or even a patch of dirt like I did in San Francisco. So parks are very important. I consider this park my backyard, as do most of the people in the neighborhood. I walk or ride through it or along it at least once a day.
It's a cozy little spot of green and brown. You can see people feeding the ducks or children playing in their own sandy playground area. There is a small basketball court and even tables for table tennis (which people actually use). I've seen people jogging on the pebble trails. (Since the park is the size of a city block, it would take quite a few laps just to hit one mile, which is why I ride the 25 minutes on my bike to run in the amsterdamse bos.) There are even sculptures and a tiny waterfall, all looked down upon from all sides by the 4-story brick faces of the surrounding houses.
I take my dog there, and try to keep her from eating the stale bread on the ground left for the birds. Dogs are permitted to run off leash, in the dog half of the park (Dogs can go pretty much anywhere off-leash, but that's another story.) Back home there were only a few places in the city where dogs could run free, and those places became fewer every year. The park is divided in half by a pond running its length, and has bridges that cross over in a few locations. Dogs are not allowed in the north part of the park (where the children's playground resides), and each bridge has a cattle-guard type of grating to keep the dogs from crossing over. The non-dog part of the park is only slightly nicer than the dog part. Its nice if you don't like dogs. Or, if you're a cat:
do you have any further info re Dr Sarphati as we believe my wife is related to him
Leo
leov@optusnet.com.au