I slipped the keycard into a pocket and left the hotel just after sunrise.

I was groggy, having slept fitfully. I was intent on clocking an easy run through a narrow park we’d strolled past the night before, and I’d spent the majority of the evening retracing the steps we had taken back from dinner.

Amsterdam is a beautiful city with its tall, narrow buildings, some of them leaning gently over boat-lined canals.

It looked different in the morning. Red lights surprised me. And I hadn’t noticed the confetti of cigarette ends, until I witnessed shopkeepers sweeping them into grates and the end of the sidewalks.

The plantings looked a little wild and untended but also fierce and fine.

Perfectly matching the blur of this morning commute. A young woman with a messy bun and a tailored coat sits tall on her bike as she glides quickly through........

© The Saratogian