I Amsterdam!

29/07/11

Canals, hooks, houses, paintings, parks, bagels and ice-cream – 12 hours in Amsterdam.

Another action packed site seeing day – very much like my Top Deck city in a day times. Met up with my second cousin Linda just before 8am and headed off on the train to the nation capital – the city of canals – Amsterdam. Now when someone mentions the Nederlands I think canals, house boats and the very Dutch style of housing – little brown bricks all squished together – welcome to Amsterdam.

Kicked off our whirlwind tour of Amsterdam with a canal cruise to see a bit of the city and orientate ourselves a little. Some great site seeing, learnt why houses have a hook on them at the top – got to see it first hand being used to – to move furniture as the stairs are too small and steep – take a window out and hoist it up or down. Saw some old churches and went down the Amstel and gentleman’s canal, through the large harbur and past the Nemo type  boat shaped building which is the start of the underground tunnel and a floating Asian restaurant.

We then headed to the Dam, home of the old town hall – Royal Palace, new Church and Madam Tussards. For 5 euro entry into the church we decided to go to the old Church instead – only problem was- it is in the red light district, yikes. The oldest monument in Amsterdam this church was build from around 1250. Many tombs lay beneath our feet including a famous Dutch composer and an artist’s wife.

Stopped at bagels and beans for a beat lunch – BLT bagel and a hot chocolate, what I really liked about the hot choccy was that I got to mix the chocolate drops into it and the cream, or just eat the choc melts – yum. Found the huis of Anne Frank and there was a little line up – uh oh. Decided to stay a while and see how the line went, then Linda went to get a museum fast track ticket for both of us whilst I held the fort at Anne Frank’s house. Only I got to the front of the line pretty quickly and couldn’t spot Linda. Eventually I went in. It was a very moving experience, reading diary excerpts on the walls and hearing video interviews with some of the people involved with hiding them. We got to actually go up the annex, through the bookshelf entrance and all through their hide out home for two years. I could feel my eyes well up as I recalled reading through her diary, hearing World War II stories from my dad and imagining the area occupied by the Germans and them tip-toeing through out the house and being imprisoned in the rooms wistfully looking at the outside world. One of Anne’s quotes is something like, “How I long to go outside and run and dance and remember what it is like to be free.” This was a stark reminder to me of how we take so much for granted, the sacrifice so many made for us during the wars, the price they paid for our freedom, I remember one quote, ‘Go back and tell them – for oyur tomorrow we gave  our today.’ The simple pleasure of walking outside, speaking our mind and remembering all the wonderful blessings in my life, what I have and not to dwell on what I don’t have.

After some quiet refelction we continued our site seeing Amsterdam tour. We stopped off at the Begijnhof – Amsterdam’s housing for the pious young ladies. I even got to squeeze in a visit to Hard Rock café and grabbed a shirt and then a crazy canal shirt on the way to Vondel Park. We planned on going to the Reijks Museum next as our map said it open til 8pm – maybe two years ago apparently. On the way we did the touristy thing at the I Amsterdam sign and I went through the E for the picky! Thankfully it was Friday and the Van Gogh museum was open till 10pm – wohoo. Some interesting pieces and I was glad some work by Renoir, Monet, Manet and Toulous-Letrec were there too. My favourites were the courting couples, Irises, Almond Blossom, yellow house and the bedroom. After some souvenir shopping it was time to catch the tram to the train and a 2 hour trip back to the Horst. A fantastic day seeing the sites of Amsterdam with my private tour guide, my second cousin- thanks Linda, you’re a gem.