Amsterdam

The capital of The Netherlands is Amsterdam, and it’s a fascinating place to explore. We took the train from our home base in Haarlem into Amsterdam Central Station twice. It’s an easy 15-20 minute ride depending on whether you catch a Sprinter (oddly the slower ride as it makes all stops) or the Intercity. Trains run every ten minutes or so.

Based on the weather forecast, we decided that day one would be spent loosely following the Rick Steves self-guided walks and that the rainier day two would be spent at the Rijksmuseum.

Amsterdam Walking Tour

From the train station we followed Damrakstraat up to Dam Square (half mile). This is the hub of Amsterdam as the city fans out from here in all directions. The royal palace is here along with the new church and the national monument commemorating the casualties of World War II. The term ‘new church’ is a relative term. The church is actually 600 years old but is 100 years newer than the old church. We have seen this elsewhere in Europe as well, most notably in Trier, Germany where the two churches sit side by side.

The Jordaan

From Dam Square we chose to take the Jordaan walk which takes you through a largely residential neighborhood that includes the Anne Frank House. This route crosses several canals. Sidewalks are narrow or nearly non-existent so you often end up walking in the street or the bike path. You really need to be aware of the bikes because they own these roads! We often heard the brrring of a bike bell telling us to cede the path to them. You will see many gabled buildings. Older buildings are narrow, tall, and deep as back in the day your taxes were based on your canal frontage. Almost all buildings have a hook near the top where people can rig up a pulley system to get large items delivered to upper floors. The Jordaan lived up to its scenic reputation.

We went by the Anne Frank House but did not go in. You can only buy tickets online and, even with that, you have to wait in a long line to get in. Since we don’t like being tied to any sort of schedule, we had not bought tickets. We thought that if the line was short enough when we got there, we would buy tickets at the nearby tourist ticket office and just go. While the Jordaan as a whole was quiet, there were mobs of people at Anne Frank House so we skipped it.

Along our walk through the Jordaan we also came across some of Amsterdam’s quirkier museums/shops. The Duck Store dedicated to rubber ducks contained many celebrity ducks including Donald Trump (“Make America Quack Again.”), Marilyn Monroe and others. The Cow Museum celebrated the worldwide phenomenon that was ‘Cows on Parade’. The Tulip Museum had a nice gift shop and provided a history of the tulip industry in Holland. Did you know that the trading of tulip futures in the 1600s led to the development of the modern stock exchange?

Having completed our tour of the Jordaan, we stopped for lunch at a cute little place, Prins van Oranje, for some traditional Dutch favorites – raw herring sandwich with pickles and onions, pea soup, and frites – washed down by Texels beer. It was the perfect refuel for us to now connect the Jordaan walk to the Amsterdam city walk outlined by Rick Steves (although we would now be doing it backward).

The City Walk

We connected the two routes by walking along the Prinsengracht canal down to Leidesplein, a lively square with lots of outdoor cafes great for people watching. The square is bordered by the city’s main theater, which was wrapped with red ribbon for an aids awareness concert attended by the Dutch king and queen.

From there we made our way to the flower market where you could find souvenir tulip bulbs, wooden shoes and more. There were surprisingly few actual flowers to be found here (maybe because we’re out of season?).

Once we made our way around the flower market, we wandered down Kalverstraat, one of the main shopping streets. This took us past the Amsterdam Museum and Amsterdam Gallery, both of which were closed by this time. The museum gives the history of the city while the gallery contains portraits of citizens from Amsterdam’s golden age (the 1600s). This took us back to Dam Square.

Along our various routes, we found a number of interesting food shops. Some were what you would expect – i.e., cheese and stroopwafels, but the U.S. and British Food Store was an unexpected find!

Red Light District

How do you visit Amsterdam and not visit the infamous red light district? You don’t. We went.

The Dutch are very tolerant people and believe in regulating vices rather than criminalizing them. Marijuana is legal as is prostitution. But both are regulated for the safety of those who partake.

The red light district is a study in contrast. The old church sits in the middle of it with the side alleys with prostitutes posing in their red windows (no photos allowed) right next door. In fact, just outside the church is a statue dedicated to the unknown prostitute. Near her, embedded in the pavement is a bronze breast being groped by bronze hands.

Rijksmuseum

As an artist, I drag Dave into art museums and galleries everywhere we go. Ten years ago we had spent an afternoon in Amsterdam on our five countries in ten days adventure. At that time, the Rijksmuseum was closed for renovation so we went to the Van Gogh Museum which is excellent. Now was my chance to get to the biggie, home of the Dutch Masters. It did not disappoint! Rembrandt, Steen, Vermeer, Hals, and others fill the halls of this impressive building. I’ll let the art speak for itself.

Next, it’s on to Delft. http://europeyourway.net/delft