Weekend
8: October 4th – October 5th 2014
Saturday, October 4th
We
got an early train and made our way to Amsterdam! Once we got in, we stored our
luggage and got a map, woo! Amsterdam is pretty small actually, so it was
really easy to just walk around the city with the canals as your guide.
Our first stop off
the train was a quick stroll through the center of town and then over to the
Anne Frank House. MAJOR TIP NUMBER 1 FOR AMSTERDAM TRAVEL: Don’t go to the Anne
Frank House on the very day of Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for
Judaism. So, as it was the holiest day of the year for Jews, the Anne Frank
House was closed. This was pretty much the only day of the year that the house
was closed, and we picked this weekend to go to Amsterdam….
After a failed
attempt at the museum we wandered around the city and got a nice little Dutch
lunch of half a sausage and mini pancakes (poffertjes).
We sat through a free organ concert (<this was somewhat of a struggle for
us) at the Westerkerk church (one of the first purposefully built Protestant
churches in the Netherlands and is still the largest Protestant church there).
Rembrandt was buried there.
After that it was
time to stroll the canals en route to the Bloemenmarkt – the world’s only
floating flower market, founded in 1862- or so Wiki tells us. It was pretty
neat, but mostly sold tulip bulbs – go figure. We decided to head down to the
huge street market on Albert Cuypstraat. On our way to the market we saw the Heineken
brewery. At the market we bought some nice fresh smoothies and waffles while
perusing the unique and not so unique goods along the street. Too bad we were
all full on chocolate covered waffles to get the traditional Dutch raw/pickled herring
sandwich.
After the market
it was time to head to the museum area of town. We saw the newly renovated Rijksmuseum
as well as the Van Gogh museum. The “I Amsterdam” letters were outside of the
museums as well as a nice park to have a picnic. We saw some interesting street
performing break dancers around the “I Amsterdam” letters.
After taking a
small break outside the museums we walked around the large Vondelpark (similar
to a Central Park) and did some people watching. There was a wedding reception,
some girls barbecuing shrimp in a bucket, and a whole bunch of other people
smoking who knows what (but really I think we all know what they were smoking….).
We took a nice little
canal tour back to the central train station and saw the Anne Frank House and
some other neat canal tour-y things. There were a lot of cute little house
boats docked along the canals and we even got into a little traffic jam at a “4
way stop” in a canal.
After getting off
at the central station we walked around that area of town. We saw the sailor café
inside the tower of Schreierstoren or “Weeper’s Tower” where women would say
goodbye to their sailors back in the good ole 1500s. It is said that Henry
Hudson set sail from this tower. The café inside the tower is called the VOC café
or Dutch for East India Company because sailors went to the “East Indies” from
here. Unfortunately the café was closed for a private event when we wanted to
get some real sailor’s genever (gin).
After our
wanderings we finally found a quaint little restaurant for dinner. In order to
digest, we took a very interesting stroll through the Red Light District. There
is definitely a NIGHT and DAY difference in this part of town. Being right in
the CENTER of old town Amsterdam, the Red Light District was super crowded and
literally glowing red from the red tube lights lining the windows of the
brothels (<that’s probably not a politically correct term anymore). To be
quite honest, we were a little surprised at first to see women standing in
their lingerie in the windows waiting for their next customers. The Red Light
District also has “coffee shops” that are very clearly marked that they sell
more than coffee (ex. Reefer Café, Green Day Café, High Time Café, The Grass
Hopper Coffee Shop). Sorry, no pictures from experience, you’ll have to see it
for yourself. We didn’t feel comfortable at all really in this historic neighborhood
of Amsterdam after dark. We were done after a quick stroll through the center
of town, so then it was off to the hotel.
Saturday, October 5th
Sunday morning we
got up for mass and headed to the Basilica of St. Nicholas. Unfortunately we
didn’t get any pictures because it was mass time, but it was a dark church
inside (painted stone) with the story of St. Nicholas just under the stained
glass windows lining the main corridor of the church.
After mass, it
really was time to see the Anne Frank House. Due to Yom Kippur, there were
twice as many people in line. We waited for 2 and a half hours as the house is
small and the museum filters people through it. We waited in the (freezing)
line outside and around the corner. As we waiting we chatted with the older Australian
couple behind us. The museum was pretty worth it though. Although the secret
back house (annex) was kept barren due to Anne’s father, Otto’s request, the
walk through the back house was very humbling. 8 people had lived in secrecy in
the back house of Anne’s father’s company’s warehouse for almost two years.
After walking through the house, the museum had a lot of Anne’s diaries on
display and quotes and pictures along the walls. Unfortunately the front of the
house was getting renovated, but we got a picture from the back. I don’t think
it was the “back house” or annex, but it gives you the feel of what the front
of the jam warehouse would look like.
After the museum
we got some huge pancakes and Dutch pea and sausage soup then made our way to
the “Cheese Museum”. The museum was really just a cheese store that had a lot
of free samples, but it was pretty good. Amsterdam cheese is a lot less pungent
then French cheese. The museum had a lot of gouda on display.
After our little
cheese tour we wandered away the last couple hours of the day by walking to the
NEMO Science Center museum as well as the “Scheepvaartmuseum” or Shipyard
museum. That was pretty cool because they had a replica three masted “Amsterdam”
ship of a Dutch East India Company ship from 1749. We also saw a nice windmill
from the Shipyard museum area. That about wraps it up for our weekend in
Amsterdam.
The agenda for next weekend: Stuttgart Germany with Ed and Carol for
Mercedes and Octoberfest (Cannstatter Volksfest – the world’s second largest
beer festival).
A très bientôt (see you very
soon),
Stevie and Stuart
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