The Tram

Sometimes it takes longer to get places on the tram than it does at other times. For instance, this evening on Erin's way to work the tram driver stopped at the next to the last stop for an extremely long time. Erin looked up from her book to see what was happening. There's no need to wait for a traffic light at this particular stop. What was happening?

Erin looked up to the front of the tram to see the tram driver with the driver door open, sitting sideways in her seat with one boot off while rearranging her sock. She must have had something in her boot or her sock was just uncomfortably messed up and the problem had to be dealt with immediately. The last stop was only about 1 minute down the road so Erin couldn't figure out why it was necessary to prolong the journey just for this, but nevertheless the tram was stopped while the driver was fixing her sock.

Trams can be delayed for other reasons as well, as several of Erin's coworkers attested last week. One coworker described how she was once talking on her mobile phone (not prohibited on the tram) when the tram driver stopped dead on the tracks, turned around in his seat and announced for the entire tram to hear that she was talking entirely too loud and needed to quiet down. Needless to say, she was a bit embarrassed and the tram driver would not proceed until she had promised him that she would be quieter.

Another coworker witnessed his tram driver stop at a tram stop, actually get off the tram, go into a store across the street, return to the tram with ice cream in hand, and then continue on his way.

Maybe these are just some of the reasons that the amount of time it takes Erin to get to work can vary greatly.

Oh, for those interested in the weather in Amsterdam: it has been windy! In fact, Erin saw an older lady get blown over the other day while standing too near the edge of the sidewalk by the curb. It's not fun riding a bike in the wind...unless you happen to be going with the wind (which inevitably does happen either on your way to or from wherever you're going), in which case you just hop on and don't even have to pedal!