Personal essays
Just the right amount of magic
No Boarding pass
While I was standing in line at Chicago O’Hare waiting to board the plane to Amsterdam, the guy working the gate looked at me and said, “you won’t need that.”
I was surprised. They always check passports on international flights. I don’t remember being allowed to board without one.
I shrugged and put my passport back in my pocket.
“That either,” he said pointing to my boarding pass.
“Really?” I asked. It was a stupid question but it was more of an “I don’t understand” than an “I don’t believe you.”
“Yep,” he said. “No boarding pass. No passport. Just look into the camera when it’s your turn.”
Now I was really confused.
When I return to the country I use Global Entry. We used to have to scan our passports and have our fingerprints read but at some point they replaced it with a visual identification. But that was the government and I’d signed up for that program and given them permission.
When our group boarded I stepped up to the camera and a green light came on. I saw my name and seat number and the man waved me on.
Freaking magic.
But too much magic.
A disturbing amount of magic.
The magic that makes me worried about our future.
Morning rush
The Netherlands has two distinct capitols.
You could probably make an argument that in the US, Washington D.C. and New York are the respective centers of government and business, but in the Netherlands it’s official.
For over two hundred years the capitol of the Netherlands has been Amsterdam while the center of government has been in The Hague for more than four hundred years.
Last Thursday morning I walked along the water from the hotel I was staying in to the back end of the Amsterdam Centraal station to catch a train to The Hague.
I love starting my morning walking along the water like this. Canals, rivers, lakes - it’s a peaceful start to the day.
I was hoping to catch a train that left just after 8:30 to give me time to get to The Hague and take a trolley to the first of three museums I was hoping to visit.
There were little delays along the way.
My favorite was when one of the ferries docked and hundreds of people on bicycles rode off the boat and crossed the path ahead of me as people headed off to work.
What a cool morning commute.
It was the morning rush hour and yet I encountered almost no cars.
Missing my train
I put on my mask and walked into the station and found a ticket machine and bought a roundtrip ticket to The Hague.
There were three possible stations and I wasn’t really sure which to buy for. I was probably going to one of them and coming back from another one. I chose one and hoped it would be ok.
I checked the app and, because I’m compulsive about these things, checked the train schedule on the overhead monitor.
The train I wanted to take would be leaving from track 2b in six minutes.
I hurried to the other end of the station and found my way to the correct platform.
I glanced up at the monitor and saw that the train was still on schedule to leave from 2b in three minutes.
I missed the announcement that the train would be leaving from 2a instead.
Well I didn’t miss it so much as that it was in Dutch and I didn’t understand it. By the time I noticed that the monitor had changed the track from 2b to 2a, the train was pulling away.
Another one comes along
Sunday I’d gone to the botanical gardens with Marga and Diederick and Marga had told the story of being in Seattle and just missing a bus.
She figured it wasn’t worth running for the bus as there’d be another one soon, but when she looked at the schedule she saw that it would be more than an hour until the next one.
She’d been surprised because that’s not what things are like in the Netherlands.
So as the train pulled away from track 2a, I pulled out the official train app and saw that there was another train leaving in five minutes. It wasn’t going to The Hague, but it was going to the airport where I could switch to a train going to The Hague.
It was leaving from track 14b all the way at the other side of the station, but if I hurried…
I caught the train and got off at Schipol and waited six minutes for a train going to The Hague - not the same station the earlier train was going to, but there were trolleys every twelve minutes heading for the Kunstmuseum so I figured it would be fine.
In fact, despite missing the first train, I would arrive at the museum within ten minutes of when the earlier train would have gotten me there.
This is a comforting sort of magic.
As a contrast, Saturday morning when I worried about missing my plane back to the US, the agent assured me that there was an afternoon flight they could put me on to San Francisco and that they could get me home some time the following day.
Now what
I got off the second train at Den Haag HS and swiped my ticket, not sure if it would work since I’d bought a round trip ticket for Den Haag Centraal. It worked fine and I headed out to find trolley 12 heading in the right direction.
There were no machines to buy tickets for the trolley. I hoped I could buy a ticket on the train.
After my visit to the botanical gardens on Sunday I’d ended up in Almere and had to take the train back. Marga and Diederick told me I could use ApplePay when I get on and off the train and I would be charged the correct amount.
It worked.
Maybe it would work on the trolley as well.
When the number 12 came, there were sensors that people used to swipe their passes in and out. I held up my watch and used ApplePay to present one of my credit cards and the sensor told me I had successfully checked in (at least that’s what I think the Dutch meant).
I sat down and three guys in uniforms boarded the trolley.
The transit police.
They went from seat to seat checking that each passenger had paid.
I held up my Apple Watch and presented the same credit card. The guard pointed his device at my watch and a green light came on verifying that I had paid.
Freaking magic.
The right amount of magic.
Essay from Dim Sum Thinking Newsletter 164. Read the rest of the Newsletter or subscribe