(If you want to see larger images
for detail,
all of the pictures in the trip log can be enlarged by clicking on
them.)
Friday
May 22
We
packed and moved to the B&B this morning - we
just left
the luggage for now until the
room is
ready later on. Katie and Tyler took the train to Schiphol
and
are now in Reykjavik for the weekend. We took laundry up to
the
Clean Brothers (a few blocks away) and passed a very skilled dulcimer
street musician outside the Jumbo grocery near by. We were
going
to sit there and spend the morning doing wash, but the lady who runs it
said she'd do it all for 2 extra Euros. What a
deal! I'm on
vacation and didn't need to spend time in a laundromat.
So we
walked down to Westerkerk and gawked at the long, long line waiting for
the Anne
Frank House. We had a great
lunch
sitting outside at the Noordwest Restaurant near the Norderkerk (where
Farmer's Market is on Saturdays - it turns into outdoor seating
for
nearby restaurants
during the week, including the Noordwest and Winkle 43) where we saw
this fun
plaque on the building next to the restaurant (at left) - there must be
a translation for it but I don't know
what it is: "crab eating fox tail?" 
We
stopped and looked at the sculpture outside Norderkerk recognizing
woman's solidarity during the July 1934 riots: "The Strongest Chain is
Unity." (shown at right) Then
we walked up to Haarlemmerstraat just to see the neighborhood – it is
an interesting area: lots of head shops, mostly younger folks
and
an Eastern (India, Pakistan) feel. Below are a few more
pictures from the area: The Posthoornkerk, which is not used
as a
church anymore, seems to function as a community gathering place, a
typical canal scene and a big chestnut tree at a playground.
We
picked up the laundry then went back to Maes and unpacked. We
have a very nice bedroom with more space than in the apartment;
shelves, dressers, night tables. (You
can see the stairs going up in the mirror in the left picture.) A
toilet is off of the
bedroom and a full, luxurious bathroom (with
jacuzzi) upstairs - I am reflected in the bathroom mirror as I took the
second
picture
from the huge shower. The third
picture
below is a view of the backyard - very nice for such a dense area of
town! We enjoyed the very nice
common
living room (on the right below) and well-equipped kitchen available
for guests to use after breakfast is cleaned up.
We
crashed for the afternoon – I did email, caught up on news, John
napped. We had moussaka for supper at the Two
Greeks
restaurant
just down the street. The people were very nice and service
was
fast, the food was quite reasonably priced (31€) but somewhat mediocre.
After
supper we walked down to De 9 Straatjes (9 little streets)
shopping
area. I wasn't impressed as I am not a shopper - it was
mostly
boutiques. On
Friday evening and around 7 – 7:30 PM, the bar crowds were
pouring out
into the streets: presumably happy hour. But we passed some
interesting scenes: a very odd little house (left) and the mobile bar
where each seat includes a bicycle (on the right)!
We read and relaxed tonight and hope for a nice day tomorrow for
another full day including time in the Botanical Garden.
Saturday
May 23
Oh
my, the breakfast! What a spread! There are 7 of us
in
residence right now and enough was served up for about a dozen at
least:
ham, cheese, several kinds of rolls, eggs, cereals, two fruit platters,
yogurt, sweet bread. The picture doesn't do it justice but
gives
you a hint: it's pretty impressive. There is a couple from
Portland OR who came in late and we haven't had a chance to talk to
yet and another couple from Austria with a teen daughter are
here for the
weekend. They are very nice – daughter is at a special school
learning fashion design and construction and goes to school about 12
hours a day to learn the "regular" curriculum as well as the fashion
part. Monday is a holiday so they grabbed the chance for a
getaway.
It
was raining until about 10 AM which was perfect for us since that's
about when we left. We
walked
to the Hermitage
– it was cloudy but no more rain. The
Hermitage features a Napoleon, Josephine and Alexander special exhibit
in addition
to their regular "portrait gallery." No
photos permitted inside but we enjoyed the exhibits very much.
Here
are a couple pictures from outside: a magpie holding still
(unusual) on
the front lawn (left), and the back courtyard
(right).
We
had dim sum for lunch at Happy
Corner restaurant nearby, then spent
an enjoyable few hours at the
Hortus Botanical Garden which
was
very nice. The Botanical Garden was linked to the
Hermitage
exhibit with a Josephine theme, including many of her favorite plants
and others that were featured around that time period. I
loved
the butterfly greenhouse, some of the unusual plants, particularly the
tropical houses. There was a wedding reception there around 4
PM
and the garden doesn't close until 5 PM, so we saw the wedding party
and the fancy
setup. What a great place for a reception!
Here
are some of my favorite pictures - remember there are lots more in the
"pictures only" section! At the left:
Showy Lanterns, aka Enkianthus campanulatus; in the center is a Wollemi
Pine, thought to be extinct until it was found in Australia in 1994;
and finally a sample of plants in the cactus building.
Next
row: a bougainvillea in the tropical building; the Dove Tree, aka the
"handkerchief tree;" inside the palm house and an "insect house."
We saw several of these structures around Amsterdam in
various gardens -
they provide habitat for beneficial insects.
Finally,
a small waterfall, shown in a typical environment in the "three
seasons" greenhouse, a long-winged zebra butterfly in the butterfly
house and a honey locust from the desert house.
We
took our
time walking back, stopped to read some of the boards explaining sites
in the Plantage area along Muiderstraat, passed Zuiderkerk
(left), had french fries at Waterlooplein (bought from a guy
from Surinam who has had the same food cart in the same place for 40
years. He proudly showed us his original license – from
1974). Walking through the Old Town area we passed
the Canabis Seed Bank (right) - one of the stark reminders that
"we aren't in Iowa any more!" We picked up some falafel wrap
to go at Ten Have
snackbar
on Lijnbaansstraat (which is near one of our favorite street signs: The
Old NewStreet - lower right); then came back to the B&B and
shared it for our
first course; next we went to the Pancake
Bakery and shared a
giant
cheese pancake for course two and finally picked up some gelato at our
favorite stop (Osteria Assaggio) on the way back! 
When
we went out to the
Pancake
Bakery, we managed to set off the alarm somehow. Vlad says
it can be delicate and if you even touch the latch, it sometimes sets
it
off. We will be VERY careful in the future!
Sunday
May 24 -
The
weather today was just as gorgeous as promised and so we set off
for Vondelpark – the large city park
near Museumplein, a
concept
somewhat like Central Park in New York City. It includes
several
ponds and fountains, numerous sculptures, a kids' pool and playground,
several food places, some performance venues and wildife. A
few
representative pictures are below. In the top row, a blue
heron
and a parakeet (there is a whole flock that lives in the park but they
are hard to photograph since they look like leaves on the trees); the
bronze monument of poet Joost von den Vondel for whom the park is
named and "The Fish" by Picasso.
We
had lunch at one of the snack places
there
(it was crowded but there were places to sit), we inadvertently came
upon the "find" of the day: a stork's nest in a protected area of one
of the ponds; after I took dozens of pictures of the parents and youth
(I counted 4), we settled near another pond for an afternoon rest - you
can tell from the picture we weren't the only ones with that idea.
Then
we walked over to the Stedelijk and saw
the Matisse exhibit, which was one of
the best curated exhibits I have
ever seen - works of Matisse were interspersed, logically and with
explanations and comparisons, with works of his
mentors, friends, and students. It
also included a great video interview with Sr. Marie
Jacques who
was his nurse after surgery then collaborated with him on the chapel in
Verges. No photos were permitted in the Matisse area but here
are
a couple from the permanent design collection, which was also
interesting. The one to the right is a woven hanging - I
mostly
took the picture because I thought Bekah, who does a lot of weaving
would be interesting in it. (She was pretty impressed with
the
color and perspective effects.)
We
walked through museumplein where there were hundreds of folks taking
advantage of the lovely weather. (Compare the picture below
to
the one from last week in the rain!) We stopped for dinner
on the way home at Los Amigos Argentinian Grill -
there seem to be dozens
of "Argentinian Grills" so we decided we had to try one out.
It
was amazing. We ordered the "5 meat grill for 2" that
included
about 3
meals'
worth of meat! It was great - besides the meat, a very nice
salad
and
fries for 40€ for both of us. Finally, on our walk back we
passed
this little memorial to the Johnny Jordaan Band along
Prinsengracht at Elanzgracht. There are many of these little
commemorative "parks" all over the city - it was interesting to learn
about some of them and get a feel for the culture.
Monday
May 25 –
The
day after Pentecost is a holiday here, so the Monday market was closed.
I walked over to the "7 bridges" viewpoint and took some
pictures, but couldn't get all seven no matter what I tried - it looks
like it would have to be taken from under
the bridge
(photo
at left - if you enlarge it you can count about 4 bridges).
We
had leftovers for lunch and then I went and climbed the Westerkerk
tower while John rested. You can only go up
as part of a
tour,
but it was quite interesting to see the mechanics of the bells and some
of the old things that are still there. Below our guide is
showing us an old campanile that is "usable" but not "in use." In the
center
is one of the currently-used large bells. You can see the
hammer at the left - we got to take turns "donging" it (softly).
The picture on the right looks down along
Prinsengracht.
We
relaxed in
the afternoon and had some of our leftover Argentinian meat in a nice
salad that John fixed here in the B&B kitchen. Later
we took
a walk and grabbed some dessert (apple cake/tart and chocolate
cake/tart) from the 42 Snackbar up on Haarlemmerstraat and we ventured
out again after dark to take some nighttime canal pictures.
At the left is looking northward along Herengracht and on the
right is Keizergracht. Not great pictures but you get the
idea of the night views.
Tomorrow
is planned to be a full day so it was good we took a day "off."
Tuesday
May 26 –
After
the usual scrumptuous breakfast, we went to NEMO
– the kids' science
museum. (I love the Museumkaart - we get into all of these
interesting
places
at no additional charge!) It was great fun even without
bringing kids.
On the left is a view of the bridge over to the NEMO taken from the
library terrace; on the right is part of the collection of locks left
all along the bridge - as mentioned in Week 1, these are symbols
somewhat like couples' "carved initials."
There
were loads of things
for kids of all ages – making
electricity, watching water patterns, inertia and mechanics, genetics,
shadows, sound waves. Not to miss a
teaching moment, the sign at the right was in a stall in the restroom!
We
enjoyed watching groups in a special "Teens only" corner labelled
"Let's
talk about sex." It included a French kiss station where they
put
their hands into (huge) puppet-like rubber tongues and practiced!
(Pictured below left.) The center picture below is
from the
electricity exhibit and the one on the right is playing with
perspective. Not surprisingly, there were loads of
kids
on field trips but they were well behaved and having a great
time.
After
watching activities for a while, we climbed up on NEMO's roof for a
variety of views, including the one at the left of
a replica of the VOC Amsterdam
(original built in 1748) in front of
the Scheepvaartmuseum (Maritime
Museum).
The view on the right, across the Oosterdoc,
includes: the first dome at the left is the Dam, the Ould
Kerk
tower is the tallest one, the Scheepvaarthuis (the building
with
pennants - a former shipping house, now a hotel), St. Nicolaaskerk
(with a dome and two somewhat shorter spires) and the "floating" Sea
Palace restaurant on the right.
On
the way over to the Maritime Museum we had a good view of the De Gooyer
Windmill. It's located out at the edge of Plantage and there
is a
microbrewery right next door - Brouwerij
't IJ - but we never made it out far
enough in
that direction to visit. We explored the VOC Amsterdam which
was
quite interesting, then
went
through parts of the very 
well-done
museum (but no photos allowed inside). There were lots of
multi-media
exhibits about whale hunting, and the Golden Age of Dutch
supremacy on the seas and in the trade.
For lunch, we headed to
the library, across the street from NEMO, which is a very cool building
- the picture at the right is the children's area. Up
on
the 7th floor is a large cafeteria (La Place) with a
terrace with a view! The food was great, very healthful and
reasonably priced. We got a variety of items and then sat out
on
the
terrace and enjoyed the view.
We made one more stop - at the 11th
floor Sky Lounge in the Doubletree Hilton - for a few more
pictures. At left is one of those views - if you enlarge it,
you
can see a plane either taking off or landing at Schiphol. I
think the spire in the center is Zuiderkerk. On
our
way back to the 
B&B,
we also stopped into the Basilica of St Nicolaas
since
it was open. It's a beautiful old church with some very nice
stained glass.
Then our
feet were tired and we came back to crash before supper. John
stopped at a pub and had some beer and went to the organic food place
to get some potatoes to go with our leftover ribs.
We had planned to go back to Tasca for paella tonight but that
didn't work. Paella takes 30-45 minutes to prepare
and we
didn't leave enough
time. So we had tapas again, which was fine. After
supper,
we met our new neighbors – Barbara and Steve from Iowa
City! Small world.
Wed
May 27 –
As
we left this morning, residents across the street were moving out and
we got to watch some of that process. They had a big,
hydraulic lift with a platform that went up to a window (on the left in
the picture); they then
shoved boxes and other items out the window onto the lift to be lowered
to ground level and packed in a truck (on the right side of the
picture). That section of the
street was blocked for the entire morning.
We
didn't stay to watch the whole thing, however, as we headed
out
to the Amsterdam Museum. 
They
have an
exhibit called Amsterdam DNA that goes through the history of the area;
also some other permanent exhibitions about the building itself, that
was formerly an orphanage, and lots of other area
information. It was very well done, as we have seen with all
of the local museums. They use a variety of
multimedia – lots
of paintings of little-known painters;
videos, a holographic "diorama," interactive things like bicycle
riding; a quiz at various points in the exhibits to see what you
remember. Guide booklets are available in a number
of languages, each with a QR code on it. At each video point,
there is a place to scan your program to determine what
language the audio-video displays use for each visitor. Very
neat.
Just
a couple of examples: the photo-op at the right,
where we each could see what we would have looked like as a Civil
Guardsman
circa 1600's. And the display at the left that includes the
original trowel
used to lay the first stone of the Heineken Brewery on Stadhouderskade
in 1867.
I
came back for lunch (used up my last 2 eggs in a wrap); John went out
and got some local fast food. Then we walked to the
laundromat, left off clothes, got some more money from ATM and walked
to Frederik Hendrik Plantsoen – a nice herb garden with some
flowers (left below) and sculpture. Half was recently
plowed/tilled and
replanted. We took a break while John had some mint tea at
Flinders Cafe (they have now sold this location so whatever cafe is on
the corner just across the street from the park is no longer Flinders)
and then we walked up to Westerpark.
At
Nassauplein at the corner with Westerpark is a statue of Ferdinand
Jacobus Domela Nieuwenhuis (center photo above), Netherlands' first
active Socialist (d
1919). We spent a while walking through the large, well-kept
park, enjoying assorted sculptures, lots of birds (goose family shown
at right above), kids having fun, and
a variety of flowers. We walked through, but didn't
investigate very far, what is known as Westergasfabriek or
Cultuurpark. This is supposed to be a new "cutting edge"
theater and art area. Photos below include "Gold in your
mind, Gold in your feet" cast by Miriam Janse in 2004; the headless
lady in the pond
and a family of Egyptian Geese.
We
hurried back to the laundromat with just 10 min to spare to pick up our
clothes; John fixed supper tonight – leftover ribs, salad with some
potatoes and yogurt. Very good. We finished it off
by walking
down to our favorite gelato place for dessert.
Thurs May 28
At
the left is a cute little 3 wheel Vespa pickup type of vehicle we
passed this morning. The kinds of
trucks and cars we are used
to seeing in the US would not be able to get around in such a
crowded space and we enjoyed seeing the alternatives! This
morning we walked up to Central Station and caught a ferry over to
the EYE
Film Institute. The ferries
are free
and leave from behind
Central Station every 5 minutes or so. (Picture at the
right.) The EYE is the big
white modern looking thing that we've seen several times from
viewpoints, from the canalboat and from walking near the IJ.
The current special exhibit, free admission with the
museumkaart, is by William Kentridge a South African
filmmaker.
There were several "shorts" and a long frieze of moving
imagery, titled More
Sweetly Play the Dance,
very interesting techniques (cardboard cutouts and charcoal to make
shadow-like images). According to the blurb, it is "a 
dance of death, a
'danse macabre,' 
but also a dance of hope [that] . . .
represents the
medieval belief that if people only dance furiously enough, they can
keep death at bay." My own take-away is that we
are all on
journeys regardless of who we are and what sort of person we are and
all of those journeys end at death. (No
pictures of the
exhibits were permitted but you can click the
image at the
right for a You Tube video of the experience.)
Downstairs is a permanent exhibit about the history of film (from
flip-books on up to instant videos on smartphones) and a room where you
can watch various film clips to study color, special effects,
etc. There are also "pods" available so that individuals and
small groups can watch films from their collection. At the
left is a view of Central Station from the "back" side, across the IJ.
Next door to the EYE, a new (or rather, a completely renovated
structure) hotel/conference center is going up – it
includes a big, revolving, restaurant on the top floor - the A'DAM
Toren. Below is the EYE as seen from the IJ; a
picture
taken walking towards the EYE showing the A'DAM under construction and
an interior picture of the cafeteria area.
We had lunch at a shoarma shop just
south of Central Station.
Then John went to shop and hang out at a pub to try out some more local
beer. I went to the Jewish Historical Museum (left)
which was
quite
interesting. It included artifacts from the Great Synagogue,
a lot of information about services, traditions, etc. and
some paintings of lesser-known painters reflecting Jewish leaders or
customs. 
An example is
the one at the right titled Sukkot
in a Foreign Land by Hendricus Jacobus Hein-Bergers in
1863, showing an immigrant family on the way to synagogue for the
celebration of sukkot.
The items they carried and the context of the painting was
explained.
Another exhibit was chronological history – it was
interesting
to me that there wasn't an emphasis on the holocaust. It was
treated as just another piece of local Jewish history, beginning about
1600 with the migration of Jews into Amsterdam, how they fit
into the society, developed their own neighborhoods,
etc. Those WWII years were included, but no more or
less time spent on them
than other periods of history. Nice exhibits – each section
from 1900 forward had a video player where one could see interviews,
photos and documents, film clips or objects from each specific time
period.
It
seemed to me there were many more people in town today… that the
population of tourists has gradually gotten larger over the 2 weeks
we've been here. I can't imagine what it's like in July.
This double-decker sightseeing bus I spied from the window
was the only one I saw during our time in Amsterdam.
I packed up this afternoon while John soaked in the tub then we went
for our last (most expensive) dinner at Satatouille about a block and a
half away on Prinsenstraat (this restaurant has since
closed). Described as "Asian fusion" it was basically a satay
"on a stick" place with Indonesian flavors. We splurged and
got the plateau for 2 which included about 5 different starters, 5
skewers each of various meats (chicken, beef, pork, shrimp, sea bass),
bowl of rice with beans and coconut and 4 or 5 types of sauce (peanut
sauce, curry sauce, hot spicy sauce, etc) for 35€ each. More
expensive than we are used to, but our last treat to
ourselves.
We had a nice chat with new guests from Australia this evening before
going to our room for me to catch up on trip log and John to pack since
tomorrow is leaving day. If you want to join us
on the Iceland segment, click the appropriate link below!
