I AMsterdam

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Monday 4-9
We took the train from Paris to Amsterdam, only 3.5 hours. Man, the U.S. really needs to put some infrastructure into high seed rail. It’s a great way to get around and way more comfortable than a plane! Anyhoo, we got into Amsterdam and it was cold and rainy, so we waited it out in a Starbucks and then strolled down the Damrak to Dam Square. Central Amsterdam is a hub for tourists – everyone ranging from the pothead hippy to the retired couple in their 80s. It’s a wonderfully open and liberal town with an attitude of: “to each their own.” It’s a nice change from some of the hypocrisy and conservative attitudes in the U.S.

We met up with Henny & Andy and it was so great to see them again! Henny & I used to work together at the aquarium in Long Beach. It’s been 2 years since they were last in the U.S. and they are so happy now that they’ve retired in Amsterdam; they really love it here. It’s nice to see them so happy.

Now that we’re staying with Henny & Andy in Amsterdam, it’s so nice not to have to hit the pavement each day to try and see as much of the city as possible before heading to the next town in a couple days. They are great hosts and they have a great apartment just outside the main part of town. (AOP folks, you REALLY need to come out here for a visit!) We’ve been able to sleep in everyday, watch tv, check email, do laundry, buy our own groceries & play with the cat! It’s been a good way to relax now that we’re headed towards the end of the trip.

There’s so much to do here, though; as nice as it is to relax and take it easy, it’s a shame there’s not enough time to see everything! We made sure to visit the Van Gogh Museum, though. It’s a huge collection and they had a special “Picasso in Paris” exhibit. Anne Frank’s house was also a must see. It’s interesting to see all the changes that have been made since I was here last. There are a lot more interpretation tools and a mini-lecture at the beginning of the tour to explain the history behind the house and Anne’s diary. It’s a very sobering experience but a tremendously inspiring story. Henny & Andy were also nice enough to give us their unused tickets to go see Panic at the Disco one night. The concert was at a cool, small venue but holy crap the Dutch are giant people! I know I’m kind of short and am used to having to stand on my tiptoes at shows, but this time I was surrounded by nothing but 6+ foot men on all sides – I never had a chance to see the stage!

Sadly, we never got a chance to bike around town – Amsterdam is built for cycling! – because the weather was mostly cold and rainy. But we did have one nice, sunny day when some friends of Henny & Andy took us out in their boat to get a personal tour of the canals. It was great to have local ex-pats take us around. We bought some fresh bread, strolled around the flower market and checked out the new city library which was gorgeous! The most beautiful and user friendly library I’ve ever seen; if I lived here, I would be there every weekend. And if that wasn’t enough, we got to join Henny on his Red Light District Tour that night. We were in a group of all Americans (apparently very rare for Henny), mostly in their 30s & 40s, with one older couple in their 70s/80s. You could tell that the experience of seeing scantily clad women behind glass doors was a little unnerving for some of the tourists but the older couple was hysterical – they seemed to be having the best time. Henny, of course, was a superb tour guide! Not only did we stroll through the Red Light district, we learned about the history of the city (I had no idea the concept of XXX – for porn – came from the city symbol for Amsterdam, first country to allow porn through the mail) and ended the evening at an historic pub (first gay bar in Amsterdam), where we got to sit and talk with our fellow tourists and had a great evening with Henny :o)

We took a couple day trips outside of Amsterdam, as well. We visited Keukenhof, which is famous for its flower gardens. I can’t count the number of tulip species we saw in bloom and they had one of the few remaining working windmills in the region. Plus, there was a small zip line in the children’s playground that Nick couldn’t get enough of ;o) We also visited The Hague to see a sand sculpture contest, which sadly was underwhelming with only 3 sculptures, and we visited Delft, which is known for its blue painted ceramics. Delft was a cute little town, but Amsterdam is a much more interesting city than any other place we visited in the Netherlands.

Hanging out with Henny and Andy, either at home or at the bars, was by far the highlight of Amsterdam. One night we were treated to a home made spaghetti dinner; we strolled through the Saturday Market; we even bummed around and watched old movies and Eurovision, which was a very strange European experience in and of itself!

Sunday was a day that Nick had planned well before we arrived in Amsterdam ;o) This was the day of the Ajax vs. Twente soccer game. One of Nick’s former hometown players from Costa Rica, Bryan Ruiz, now plays for Twente and Andy is a huge Ajax fan, so we headed out to a pub to experience a game in Amsterdam. Sadly for Nick, Twente didn’t win , but it was quite a sight to see all the Amsterdam fans going crazy after Ajax’s win. The guys in the pub were jumping up and down so much you could feel the bar shaking and the streets were filled with colored smoke bombs after the game.

On our way home, we stopped by “Our Lord in the Attic Chapel.” This is one of the Netherlands’ last remaining hidden cathedrals. In the late 16th Century after the Protestant Reformation, when Catholicism in the Netherlands was outlawed, wealthy Catholic families built small churches in their attics as a place for their community to worship away from prying eyes. Fortunately, there are a lot of old buildings, some dating back to the 16th century, that were spared from German bombs in WWII. The old buildings are pretty cool, as Amsterdam used to charge higher taxes based on how wide the house was facing the canal. So, the people got smart and made very narrow houses at the canal-facing facade that extend pretty far back off of the street – they’re like towering mazes on the inside! And many of them are leaning this way and that – some on purpose to help lift furniture through high windows, others look like they’re about to sink into the canals if it weren’t for the neighboring buildings holding them up. Just another feature of Amsterdam that makes it a really unique city.

Our last day in Amsterdam was a hard one – I didn’t want to say goodbye. I’m sure Henny & Andy are glad to have their place back all to themselves, but we had such a nice time with them, it was hard to say goodbye. So I said goodbye the only way I know how, with food. We made them a big taco dinner with all the trimmings (mmm, tacos!) and it was good. Thanks for a great week guys! Can’t wait to see you again and, hopefully, see more of this great city!

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