Amsterdam for Easter!

Easter is a 4 day weekend in Germany so I took advantage of having an extra day off and headed for Amsterdam in The Netherlands. It’s a city filled with canals (165), bikes (600,000) and tulips (sorry, too many to count).
I arrived in Amsterdam by train on Good Friday a few hours before the tour group I was meeting was due to arrive so I headed for the Van Gogh Museum. The museum has the world’s largest collection of Van Gogh paintings in the world as well as works by other artists. I bought myself a poster in the gift shop. (The Yellow House, 1888)
I figured this would be my Amsterdam souvenir as opposed to tacky wooden shoes or windmills. ;-)
I met with the group just in time for dinner and then we head out to the Red Light District and take in a show at Theatre Casa Rosso. Sorry folks, no pictures allowed in the Red Light District.

On Saturday I visited Keukenhof Gardens just outside the city. The park is filled with tulips and other flowers as well as sculptures. Bulb growers from all over Holland compete to have their flowers displayed here. After lunch it’s a visit to the Anne Frank Museum where you can walk through the house where the Frank family was in hiding during WW2. The day is finished with a booze cruise on the city’s canals.

Sunday was a busy day. The days starts with a visit to a cheese making and clog making farm. Then a bike ride through the beautiful town of Edam. Lunch in the seaside town of Volendam then back to the city for a diamond display at one of the city’s diamond factories. I finish off the afternoon at the Rijks Museum where you’ll find art work by Dutch artists as well as a large collection of Rembrandt’s paintings.

Before catching the train back to Heidelberg on Monday I have time for some shopping and a canal cruise. The canals are lined with “canal house”. These houses where built narrow and deep. Apparently the reason for their narrowness is because at one time home owners along the waterways were taxed based on the width of their homes. Therefore, they were built narrow but long. Also along the canal are many houseboats. At one time there was a housing shortage in Amsterdam and residents were permitted to live in houseboats.

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