Alpacas

Of all the window displays in Amsterdam this spring there was just one that stopped me in my tracks. I had come for tulips, canals, the tremendous Van Gogh and Japan exhibition, but the unexpected highlight of my trip was the sight of
a dozen alpacas beaming through the glass of a shop front off the Herengracht.

Nothing could have made me forget the rain like this jubilant herd. I have long had a passion for alpacas but had never seen faux ones quite so lifelike. These were made from real alpaca fur — brown, white, chocolatey caramel — and were proportionally perfect, as though a craftsman had scaled a real one down in size and taken into consideration just how absurdly high its coat to body ratio is. Needless to say I bought one at once.

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