August 17 –
It’s our first full day in Amsterdam. So I felt that it is my duty to set a few things straight. First, Holland is still flat but it admits to being flat – and mostly below sea level. Second, I was wrong that no one visits Holland – there are lots of visitors but none of them *drive* here! I saw one German plate, one French plate, and one Spanish plate – all of them parked outside hotels – but there were lots of languages and accents all around us. I’m especially intrigued by the number of Spanish and Italian speakers I hear as well as the number of southern hemisphere types: Australian, South African, Chilean, Argentinean, etc. Duncan is having a great time trying to translate the Spanish conversations he “overhears” ;-)! Also, the stereotype of everyone biking around Amsterdam is actually true: I’ve seen women in business suits and heels riding bikes around town.
After breakfast, we headed out to the Anne Frank house – totally unprepared! We walked the whole way which was no minor stroll and got in line only to notice that the skies had clouded over and the wind picked up and that we were the only ones around shivering during what could be an hour plus wait. We decided to fix our original mistake by returning to the hotel to get warmer clothes and rain gear and shift our visit until first thing tomorrow instead of retrying today.
So we decided to start with the cathedrals. There’s the Neuw Kierk which was built in the 15th century when the town outgrew the Ould Kierk which dates from the 13th century. Unfortunately, the Neuw Kierk is also an exhibition hall instead of a working church and with a charge of 10 Euros to get in, we decided to pass. We wandered instead to the Ould Kierk which is, unfortunately, in the Red Light district. I hate to admit that my kids are getting familiar with the smell of pot but that’s how it goes. We also had to wander past a few windows with working women in them which gave us another “teaching opportunity” – the ones that so many parents wish for…. 😉
The Ould Kierk was very cool and very different from so many of the other churches we’ve been in. First as a Protestant church, there were no candles (sorry Mom!) but there were interesting burial places, stained glass widows and paintings on the wooden ceilings. We saw where Rembrandt’s wife was buried as well. Very interesting!
Then it was time for lunch – we headed to another restaurant recommended by our almost-redeemed guidebook for a typical Dutch treat – pancakes! Very crepe like but not really, we had some interesting main-dish crepes: ham, cheese and onion, chicken, chilian (spicy beef, beans, and veggies) and veggies and cheese. Most interesting! We gave in on dessert as well with a apple and raisin pancake, with Dutch stroop, and some mini-pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream – yum!
Then it was time to walk some of it off with… shopping! As some folks will know, I have been on a quest for the last two years for a particular type of boots and today I found them on the Leidesplein in Amsterdam! Yes Julie, they do exist for less than $800 a pair and I bought them today – yeah! And we picked up a couple of other things. I’m starting to have nightmares about filling out our customs form on Sunday!
We dropped the booty off at the hotel and picked up some tickets to the Van Gogh museum (pronounced to rhyme with Van Loch with the Scottish noise in the back of the throat) because it’s open late on Fridays. It was very cool to visit again after 25 years as I haven’t been here since I was in college. I’m a huge Van Gogh fan and I appreciated the exhibit which was arranged to show the development over his career as well as point out how he was affected by his contemporaries.
Then it was finally time for the evening repast. We took the tram to Dam Square and wandered back to a place I noticed last night and boy was it worth it. From the pea soup with sausage to start all the way to Frank’s advocaat “liqueur” at the end of the meal, it was fantastic! We go the tram back to the hotel to avoid the Friday night weerdies and are preparing for an early morning to try to beat some of the crowd at the Anne Frank house tomorrow!
/san/
[Pedometer: 29, 062 or about 14.5 miles – and it would have been higher if we hadn’t wimped out and used trams!]