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Blogs from Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands, Europe - page 6
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More Amsterdam!
Published: September 5th 2012Europe » Netherlands » North Holland » Amsterdam » Amsterdam Zuidoost
August 8th 2012
August 8 Today was a day exploring. We began the day with a tour of the Anne Frankhuis. Our trip has been an amazing journey through Europe and we discovered many fantastic details and histories of Europe. The Anne Frankhuis was a sober reminder of the many terrible things that have occurred throughout our history. It is important to remember these events because from these tales of pain and suffering we see the unbreakable human spirit which has an affinity for perseverance and strength. The Anne Frankhuis left us in a bit of a reflective mood and we took some time to sit quietly by the canal for some coffee and traditional apple cake. After our snack we weaved our way through the Old and New City. Eventually we found ourselves in the infamous Red Light ... read more
August 7th 2012
August 7 This marked the end of our stay in Heidelberg, the end of driving through German, and the last day in Germany. We dropped the car off and hoofed it to the train station, transfered in Mannheim and Frankfurt, eventually arriving in Amsterdam. When we left the bustling Amsterdam Centraal Station, we were amazed by the amount of bikes parked in a multi-level bike parkade next to the train station. Once we got our directions sorted, we hoofed it to our wonderful hotel. We were so happy to have a spacious, modern, artsy hotel complete with bath robes! We refreshed ourselves and headed out for a walk around the Jordaan area, enjoying a late lunch and a traditional Mexican dinner (complete with a margarita that came with its own mini pitcher refill...see picture!).... read more
A Time Traveller's Trip Around Amsterdam's Brown Cafes.
Published: September 2nd 2012Europe » Netherlands » North Holland » Amsterdam
August 1st 2012
Amsterdam's Brown Cafe's are said to be timeless, so I set out to discover how good a 1969 guide book would be in the present day city. Stepping into my friend John's apartment is like falling down the rabbit hole into Wonderland. Walls lined with books waiting to transport the unsuspecting to worlds of fantasy and the realms of imagination. At the very least to a step back into the past. In this case, the Amsterdam of 1969. The 'Fun Lovers Guide to Surprising Amsterdam'* beckoned from the shelf. I was immediately hooked. More than a restaurant/pub guide, the quirky little book provides snippets of history, personal stories about owners and is a veritable wealth of information. It got me thinking - could a 1969 guide have any value in modern-day Amsterdam? Did these places still ... read more
August 1st 2012
Om 6 uur 's octends werd ik afgehaald door mijn vader om vervolgens te vertrekken naar Schiphol. Ik was nogal zenuwachtig omdat ik bang was dat ik vertraging zou hebben en mijn volgende vlucht zou missen en dat gebeurde ook vervolgens. Mijn angst is uitgekomen. Amsterdam-Zurich had 25 minuten vertraging, mijn vlucht in Zurich zou om 13.10 vertrekken maar vertrok vervolgens om 17u. Ondertussen heb ik de grondstewardess gevraagd wat ik het beste kon doen omdat ik mijn binnenlandse vlucht in Beijing zou missen. Zou konden helaas niks doen omdat het met een andere vliegmaatschappij geboekt was. Dus heb ik mijn gids PB (Peter Bartels) gemaild om de vlucht om te boeken. Dat was gelukkig gelukt en ook nog eens gratis. Om 17u vertrok ik naar Beijing en ik had een relaxte zitplaats aan het raam ... read more
July 25th 2012
Apple pie goes back a long way. The first Dutch recipes appeared in the late 1400's. That's way before Rembrandt van Rijn and all those old masters. In Amsterdam, Dam Square and the Singel existed, but none of the other main canals had even been thought of. Apple pie beat them all to it. Of course it was a little different then. The case or 'coffyn' as it was charmingly was no more than a casing – a container of whatever was within; a way of carrying it around. Because there were no baking pans, the crust was probably – well, crusty and horrible. It's said that baking time was measured by the number of prayers a person had to say until a pie was ready. But gradually, with changes to cooking methods and ingredients, pastry ... read more
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July 19th 2012
After several weeks on the continent, this evening is our last OF THIS TRIP as we relax before checking out tomorrow and flying back home to Calgary via KLM. First a word about KLM. We thoroughly enjoyed using them especially not having to change planes in Toronto. Our flight in the morning takes us directly to Calgary. We had a full final day today. We visited the Church of Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of seafarers then took a canal cruise which was wonderful because the weather cleared up beautifully, the day having started with a little rain and wind. Amsterdam was most impressive and comprises ninety islands joined by canals, bridges and roads. It is actually nearly twenty feet below sea level and water levels are controlled. It reminded us of Venice in many respects ... read more
July 18th 2012
We are quickly coming to the end of a great and varied vacation and we chose Amsterdam for our final leg before heading back to Calgary. So today, after a wonderful breakfast here at the hotel we took the tram down to Amsterdam Central rail station and boarded the train to visit our friends in The Hague. We had purchased our tickets the day before but reached too late to catch the 9.19 am but since our friend told us to take the 15A we jumped on the 9.27 from that platform. Once we were underway an announcement came on to say that everyone must purchase a supplementary ticket on board as that train was a high speed one. We were somewhat confused as there did not appear to be anyone to collect so we relaxed ... read more
July 17th 2012
Here we are in Amsterdam this evening. Schiphol Airport is a beehive of commercial activity. The more one walks it the more one runs across shops and restaurants of all kinds. Having picked up our tour tickets for Thursday's events and the shuttle tickets to get to our hotel, we headed off to get settled in. Our hotel is modest, was well recommended and ideally suited (we thoroughly check all reviews before deciding on any accommodation). We learnt that it is owned by a Turkish family and we were greeted with Cappucino then found our room on the second floor overlooking a garden at the back. With wifi set up we telephoned a friend in The Hague to confirm that we will be visiting herself and husband in the morning which we will do by train. ... read more
July 17th 2012
We arrived in Amsterdam early on Sunday morning. Our google map walking directions lead us to believe that our hotel was only about a half hour walk from Amsterdam Centraal Station so we hoped that we would be able to check in early or drop our bags and come back to check in later. After getting lost about 10 times, 2 hours later, we arrived at our hotel completely spent from lugging around our big backpacks on the less than 3 hours of sleep that we had got on the plane. Our hotel is in a cute old canal house but with that comes classic old steep narrow staircases, and of course our hotel room was on the top floor! So after several flights of stairs up to our room I was more than happy to ... read more
July 15th 2012
Not even 48 hours after arriving back home from Moscow, I left for another conference in Amsterdam, the 8th Conference of the International Test Commission. I arrived in the city in the late morning, which gave me just enough time to get into town from Schiphol Airport and check into my hotel. From there, it was not even a ten minute walk to the conference venue, the wonderful “Koninklijk Instituut van de Tropen”, the Royal Tropical Institute, a beautifully decorated building. The pre-conference workshop I attended in the afternoon was pretty nerdy stuff, so I won’t bother you with the details. After the workshop, I walked to the Niewmarkt, a nice square with lots of cafés, bars and restaurants, to have dinner. After dinner, I simply sat on the square for a while, amazed by how ... read more
