Saturday, April 26th
Once again I got us somewhat lost. Of course I know this is to be expected being in a different city and not knowing the transit system in detail. I try to make traveling as painless as possible; it just sometimes doesn’t go the way I plan.
So we get into the airport and end up in a line at the tourist information desk as we didn’t have any information about the types of transportation tickets available. The line was long and most people were inquiring about the availability of hotel rooms. The info desk also makes hotel reservations. Jack got a little impatient to say the least. So we (I) made a quick decision on the type of ticket to purchase.
The instructions from our hotel people said to take a train and then a tram. They gave the name of the stop for both the train and the tram. We found where to catch the train without problem, but between the info desk and the train I dropped the email copy that gave the specific instructions to the hotel. I’m digging through my pockets and backpack. Finally, I figured it is lost and got the map out because I remembered the name of the stops for both the train and the tram. By this time the train had stopped at its first stop and started again. A very nice gentleman says “Which stop did you say”. I told him “WTC Zuid”. He casually says with a smile “We just left there”. We got off at the next stop and waited for the next train back.
Yes, I did the same thing on the tram. We had to stand as it was late in the afternoon and crowded. I had just told Jack that according to my map that the next stop should be ours when I caught sight of the sign as to what stop we were just pulling away from. We should have gotten off at that stop. . .my mapped didn’t mark every stop. Once more we had to get off at the next stop and hop the next tram back. By this time Jack’s comment was “It took us 1-1/2 hours to fly from Praha to Amsterdam and it is taking us 2-1/2 hours to get from the airport to the hotel!” For some reason he saw no humor in this. We did make light of it the next day in that it still was better than when we arrived in London.
We lucked out again. The hotel was/is in very nice and very quiet residential neighborhood. The room was probably the former living room of a second floor apartment before it was converted into a hotel. It was quite large. A younger couple runs the hotel (possibly own it, we didn’t ask). They live in the apartment next door. The houses are all very narrow and butt up to one another and the street (no front yards) so it is just like the down town of any big city, except, you can look in windows of all the ground floor apartments. They use only the sheer curtains or don’t have the drapes drawn. All the apartments have large picture windows and generally the apartments have windows on the other side opening up into a garden area in the back. You can look right through the living room and dining room of their home as they are all pretty much built alike.
And bicycles. We have never seen so many bikes. The vast majority are single speed, never anything fancy. In fact , many were just plain old. I guess as long as it works, why replace it. The country is very flat and therefore very conducive to biking, and walking for that matter. The wider streets have bike paths painted on both sides of the street. On the major streets the sidewalks are exceptionally wide. Generally the bikers area is about 2/3’s the width of the sidewalk. Having an area painted off for bikes is very wise. They clip right along so a person knows to enter at their own risk. Most bikes also have the little bell on the handle that the bicyclist can ring when approaching someone who is in their territory or if passing another bike. There are rows of bikes at the Central Stations. It didn’t seem possible that there would be that many people commuting out of Amsterdam. Why else would they be there?
We kept an article about bikes. And no I did not get permission to use this article, so sue me. . .
‘ Here is the best advise in this paper: Rent a bike (fiets). It is cheaper and more fun than the trams. Head to one of Amsterdam’s numerous bike rental places and pay about 12.50fl ($6.25) a day. Of course you could always buy a bike from a junkie on the black market for 20fl ($10). Many young people buy at least one this way, which of course is why there is an incredible bike theft problem. And you will need a good lock (much more expensive than the bike), or you’ll be buying the same bike back in an hour. If you see a shady-looking type peddling slowly by with no particular place to go, it’s a good bet he’s trying to unload his bike. And, if he asks you “Fiets?” and points to his bike, you can be sure he’s not proposing an ecologically friendly solution to Amsterdam’s traffic problem.’
Tulips were all but gone. There were a some in the few areas of homes where there was enough room to have a small front yard. We did take a bus out of town and there were some tulip fields still in bloom.
Anyway, back to Saturday. Having arrived late we went to the first restaurant we came to once we had checked into the hotel. It was a trendy Italian cafe. We both ordered a beer and our meal. The menu indicated beer was about 3fl (Dutch money system is guilders, but the abbreviation for it is F or FL. Go figure.), which is about $1.50. What was delivered was a little quarter liter glass with an inch of foam. This amounts to three or four swallows! Now coming from Praha we are used to a half liter for 50 cents. We assumed it was because this was just an overpriced restaurant. We discovered the next day this is the norm. It didn’t take us long to ask for the half liter. On average the price was $2.25 out towards our hotel and $3.50 in the more tourist areas.
Sunday
We were anxious just to walk around the canal area of Jordaan that we had read about. I had assumed being a Sunday it would be easy to access the churches. Wrong. Both churches I wanted to see were locked. Oh well. We started our walk at Westerkerk (West Church). It was built in the 1600’s. Its most notable item is not the interior, but the gleaming yellow and red crown that tops the steeple. And I mean gleaming and huge. From here is was a short walk to the Anne Frank Huis. The building has become a museum with access to the top floor where the Frank family hid during W.W. II. The line was rather long so we continued on with our walk. The narrow streets we randomly took were lined with the typical tall and narrow canal houses. Some had small shops or cafe’s on the ground floor. The canals themselves were lined with boathouses. Many of which looked old and water logged, yet some had large glass windows and sliders with fresh paint and well kept. I had wanted to see the interior of Noorderkerk (North Church), but it too was locked. I had read that the church was built in the shape of a Greek X yet the position of the pews gave it an openness. I wasn’t too sure how this would look inside. I’m still not too sure how this would have looked.
We ended up at the Central Station. This is also the starting point of one of the canal boat companies. The novel little tour lasted about an hour. It made a circle past the docks along the Ij River and the maritime museum and then back into the “residential” canals. We did learn a couple of things. Taxes were paid on the width of their property. Naturally this encouraged the tall narrow houses that are all along the canals. Since a normal staircase would take up too much room staircases were built narrow and steep. Large hooks were built at the top of the building in order to hoist furniture, goods, or whatever up and down through the large windows built on each floor. Houseboats have to be registered and there is limit on how many permits the city allows. Apparently 1200 and some is the maximum that the city will allow. Most houseboats have running water, electricity, and more recently natural gas.
We ended up back at the Central Station. Having seen where the Scheepraart (maritime) Museum was in relation to Central Station we decided to go there. The building, which dates from 1656 , is the old armory and was used to store ammunition. The exhibits are on the history of Dutch shipping and trading since the 16th century and includes model ships. The best part was the Dutch East Indianman Amsterdam that is anchored outside on the jetty. This is a replica of the actual ship of the same name from 1749. It comes complete with crew doing all the things a crew would do in 1749 including cooking meals.
Monday
The Van Gogh Museum houses the world’s largest collection of works by Van Gogh. It has 200 of his paintings and his collection of Japanese prints. It also houses 500 of his drawings but because of their delicate nature they are only exhibited a couple of times a year. The museum also exhibits other artists from relatively the same period (1840-1920). What surprises us was the short period of time he painted, it was only for about ten years. At the age of 37 he committed suicide. This collection is from his brother Theo and several acquisitions after the museum was built. We also discovered Jack isn’t into impressionist paintings. About a third of the way through the building it was “Okay, these are all looking alike” or “They don’t look like pictures of anything”. I must admit I wasn’t thrilled either. I had seen a special exhibition of Monet in Vienna and it was a far better presentation. The Monets were in a chronological order so you could see how he developed (an later went into his dark period). These were displayed randomly. They did display them next to other paintings of that time including Monet and Gouguin. This did make it interesting to see the similarities (and dissimilarities) in styles.
Of course we visited the Red Light District. Now, because these journals are read by minors, you will have to read between the lines so to speak. Everything you have ever heard about the area is true. They really do have window displays of actual “red lights” (if you know what I mean-wink-wink). They display themselves for rent in the windows. There was one antique light, probably 1/2 century old! There were more husbands and wives window shopping than I figured there would be. Of course they were as curious as we were about an area of lights displayed for rent and during the middle of the day. Looking at lights still made me uncomfortable. They are just so . . . bright . . . shall we say. Not that the lights were nude…errrr bare. They had small shades on of different types. Yet, it was weird, looking at bulbs, even shaded bulbs, definitely a guy thing. The same little paper that wrote about bikes also gave some information about the district. The area is really just like any other neighborhood (ya, right). People live in the floors above the shops and go to work each day. Most of the people renting the light bulbs rent the window space that includes a small room for 100fl-150fl ($50-$75) for eight-hours. A simple light bulb costs around 50fl ($25), but it is the throw away type and only lasts 15 minutes. The popular stores take in around 500f-750f ($250-$375) a day. The light bulb person fills out tax returns and many belong to a union, the Red Thread. The article also got into details on shops and shows in the area which we won’t get into as this is a family oriented (somewhat) letter.
Tuesday
Rijksmuseum. Although the building looks a bit like a palace it was always intended to be a museum. I had mailed a quick email to friends and had told them it topped my list of the best museum thus far. I think I wrote too quick. First on the list still is the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. The building is a master piece inside and out not to mention their collections of arts. Yes, I’ve sidetracked. Okay, back to the Rijks. It is most noted for its collection of Dutch paintings of what is called the Golden Age, those artists born between 1600 and 1650. The list of artists on exhibit include Rembrandt (20 paintings including the famous Night Watch), Vermeer (my personal favorite) and Steen.
There were two special exhibits while we were there. One was a showing of prints. Even though they were from artists I wasn’t familiar with it did show and explain the purpose of an artist’s prints. Not only were they used as the ruff draft to a final master piece, but they also served as a practice piece. For example, one series showed a rider on a horse from various angles. The artist was practicing and experimenting with the drawing and painting of the horse. These prints also served as a reminder of various places the artist has been and wants to remember for future use. The other exhibit traced the progression of painting from tempera on wood to oils on canvas.
Yet this is not just an art museum. They have a superb collection of sculptures and decorative art. Their collection of ceramics includes the famous Dutch Blue Delftware and Meissen porcelain. Apparently I have been in the hills as this is the first time I had heard of Meissen porcelain. The room for this collection was the same size as the Delft exhibit so it must be pretty darn famous. It was impressive. Very fine detail. A lot of pinks and reds. I have been using a web site called Infoplease for encyclopedia searches. For the past two evenings I’ve attempted to get in there and look up Meissen, but it is sooooo sloooowwww that I give up each time. Must be a lot of people doing homework when I want to get in there also? ? ? I’ll do that later. Anyway, there is every type of furniture displayed Louis XIV, French, Bavarian. I didn’t find any Grand Rapids Baker furniture though. . . The museum also has a room of doll houses-fully furnished in intricate detail. Furniture, wall paper, carpet, fixtures, working windows, exteriors, absolutely everything in perfect scale.
One guide book we had paged through said to allow 2-1/2 hours for this museum. We were there for 4-1/2 and skipped the entire south wing of Asiatic art and Dutch history (which was closed for renovations). Two hours, no way!
Our second museum for the day was the Museum Willet-Holthuysen. This is a 17th century canal house that demonstrated the luxurious (and I do mean luxurious) life of two wealthy 18th and 19th century families. In 1895 the house and all of its contents were left to the city of Amsterdam in the will of its last occupant. The family had traveled extensively and had furnished the house with only the very best. The rooms themselves are exquisite with much carved wood and marble. Even the garden area has been maintained in the same formal style of that era.
Wednesday
We had platted out a couple of tram routes that would take us to other areas of the city. We had been doing a lot of walking since we arrived and the Koninklijk Paleis didn’t open until noon anyway. After a leisurely breakfast we took a tram to the southeast part of the city. The buildings farther out on this side of the city were more from the 1950’s and 60’s. It appeared that this was the area the people from the middle east and India had migrated to. Although it was clean the buildings were in need of some general maintenance. From here we back tracked straight west of the city center and then to the north. We didn’t go as far as originally planned. The area just started looking like we should head back. Not that it was a slum, it probably could be classified as a slum by Amsterdam standards. What we discovered was just like in London, we lucked out on our hotel location. It is in a residential area and the better side of town. We had notice the cars that were parked along the street (garages are all but nonexistent) were quite nice. Plus, as I said before, you can look in everyone’s windows and there was some magnificent furniture in many. Not that we were window peaking, it’s just you can’t help but notice.
After lunch it was on to the Koninklijk Paleis. This “royal palace” was built in the late 1600’s as the city hall. At that time Amsterdam was an important and wealthy trading center. Its immense Citizens Hall is in the very center and represents a miniature universe. The floor consists of inlaid marble maps of the hemispheres. Symbolic sculptures and reliefs in marble, bronze, and plaster encompass the walls as well as surrounding the vast painted ceiling. In 1808 it was made into a residence for Napoleon’s brother who had been declared King of the Netherlands. The next monarch also used it as a residence. The building again became the property of the State in 1936. It currently houses various administrative offices and large formal functions are still held in the Citizens Hall.
Thursday
The Queen’s birthday is a Dutch national holiday. Hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets and the cities throughout Holland become a gigantic garage sale and beer party. The tradition of the Queen’s birthday dates back to 1948 when the former Queen Jiliana was crowned. Although the birthday of the present Queen Beatrix is in January, the Dutch still celebrate her birthday on April 30th, because of the long tradition, and probably because of the better weather. The royal family comes from the “Family Orange of Orange”. Therefore everything and almost everyone is in orange. The drink of the day is “oranjebitter” It orange juice and some sort of liquor or moonshine combined.
A day or two prior to Thursday, on the major streets near our hotel, we notice grown adults drawing large rectangles on the side walk with chalk and then writing something within the rectangle. Being a liberal yet refined city we figured it was their version of graffiti or some sort of protest. On Thursday we realized what they were doing was marking their territory for the flea market. Everyone cleans out their house and sells anything and everything. For miles on street after street all over the city people have tables and boxes of stuff they are selling. Many streets closer to the city center are simply closed off to all but foot traffic. Therefore trams run very weird routes. I have a hard time describing this festive day. I’ve never experienced this many people in one place.
All the printed material we had indicated that a particular ferry we to take would still be running on Thursday. The ferry started at the Central Station. We took a tram as far as it would go and then proceeded to walk along various canals in the general direction of the station. It was obvious the party had started the night before. The canals themselves were littered with plastic cups, beer and soda cans. In some places the flattened beer cans and shredded plastic cups formed piles a couple of feet high against buildings like a snow drift. We finally made it over to the main street that goes to the Central Station. Naturally this street was closed to traffic. The weird thing was the number of people walking away from the Central Station. This street has four lanes for motorized traffic, two sets of tram tracks, two good size bike paths, and extra wide sidewalks. It is a very wide street that goes for a dozen blocks. There was this small, almost single file line walking towards the station, the rest of it was people walking away from the station. Droves of people. Where were they all coming from? Where are they all walking to? We started to think everyone was just walking in one big continuous circle. Once we got to the station we could see it was just hundreds of people coming off the subways, trains, and ferries and into the street. Where they all ended up was anyone’s guess. After all of this we discovered the ferry we wanted wasn’t running after all! The strangest thing of all - the streets and canals were relatively clean the next morning. The maintenance and garbage crews had to have worked all night - with shovels.
Friday
The Amsterdam Historish Museum is in the former city orphanage. Naturally it depicts the origins of the city. The museum is famed for its 16th, 17th, and 18th century group portraits of Amsterdam’s Civic Guard. These paintings are so enormous that they have been hung in a narrow alley between two buildings of the old orphanage. A special roof has been constructed over them. Of course this museum, like most museums in Amsterdam, has a painting by Rembrandt. A very unusual painting. It portrays a doctor giving an anatomical lesson to a few students. The unusual part is the cadaver. It is shown in great detail. Apparently they had already discussed the already wide open chest cavity and were intensively examining the brain. My nephew Jonathan had asked what was the funniest and coolest thing we have done or seen so far. This painting would be classified as the grosses. Which to him no doubt would have been “way cool”.
The afternoon was a bus trip to Delft. We had checked into taking the train, but for $7 more we could take a tour bus and also see The Hague and stop off at Scheveningen, a resort city on the sea. We toured one of the two “official” Delft porcelain factories. They told of the process of the special sand that is used and how it is poured into molds and then kiln dried after it is removed from the mold. That part took about 15 minutes. Then they explained the process of the hand painting of the various pieces. What is interesting is the fact that the Dutch Blue is a black paint that the heat from the kiln turns blue. All other colors just darken from the kiln process. The discussion took another 15 minutes. The best part was the showroom and deciding what vase I wanted.
As I mentioned above the tour also took us through The Hague, which is the center of the government for the Netherlands. Problem is it was just that, we drove around past a few of the city highlights. We didn’t get to stop and admire, photograph, or tour any of them.
The group then split. Those who wanted to go to the resort city of Scheveningen were dropped off or you could continue with the group going to Madurodam. Famous and popular places within the Netherlands are reproduced to scale in miniature at Madurodam. We have been to the one in Brussels so we opted for the sea. It was very cold and windy. We walked out to a board walk, took a couple of pictures, then headed for the indoors. On the shore is a very old and very grand hotel (which I have forgotten the name of). It was quite impressive inside and out. After an hour or so the bus returns, picks all of us up, and heads back to Amsterdam.
This was the first time we had taken an organized tour bus trip. It was okay. Hind sight is always easier. Had we realized how interesting The Hague was we would have taken the train to Delft for a quick trip to the porcelain factory and then on the way back gotten off and spent the day at The Hague. Or if we had taken this bus trip a day earlier we would have taken the train the next day to The Hague. As it was, we flew back to Praha on Saturday.
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