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Published: July 15th 2018
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Canal Cruise – Amsterdam
We’d purchased 48 hour Amsterdam Pass, which would allow us to have unlimited journeys on the public transport including the canal cruise and free entry to major museums – Rijkmuseum, Van Gogh Museum and Stedelijk Museum. My parents found Amsterdam is a charming city with mixture of old and modern buildings.
We got on an hour cruise departing from 10 o’clock. Our 48 hour Amsterdam Passes were validated from that time on 19 June. The cruise offered free audio guides in several languages including Japanese. The narrow boat went past a number of authentic historic buildings and museums, charming residential buildings festooned with flowers. We understood that many buildings retain hooks on the top front used to be warehouse in the past. We were also taken to the harbour around the station. The level of the water looked higher while the boat was riding around the harbour – it was a part of the North Sea. We were shown a number of futuristic buildings – Nemo Science Museum and National Maritime Museum. Around the Maritime Museum historic ships which were used for trading and luxurious liners which
have been used as passengers liners.
Strolling through the canal city In contrast to the cold and cloudy climate in the morning, the sun appeared in the afternoon and it became warmer. We decided to stroll through the city centre. We took the tram to Centraal Station and then walked along the canal. Ambling along the canal, it enabled us to see architecture of historic and modern-looking buildings which we saw from the cruise in the morning. Every building had different features – some of them were originally built a long time ago but have been reconstructed equipping with modern facilities – we could easily recognize the difference from one house to the other.
Because of the time – it was around 4.00 and 5.00, many churches were closed, but Oude Kerk (Old Church), surrounded by the Red Light District, was open. We showed our Amsterdam Pass at the entrance and stroll through the church. The Old Church had a temporary exhibition: one of the young artists was commissioned to present his work to
commemorate the transformation of the building from a Roman-Catholic consecrated church (from 1306-1578) to a Protestant Church (from 1587 to present day). He placed an inactinic filter on the windows (with a surface of more than 1600 square metres) the church colours red. The red light shined inside the church and reflected on the 16
th century Lady Chapel, an oak encased Great Organ. The leaflet’s letters were printed in red; we could not read them while looking round.
Afterwards, we headed for the Dam Square, the centre of Amsterdam and found Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) and grand classical façade of Koninklijk Paleis (former Royal Palace). We took the tram back to Leidseplen, the nearest tram terminal to our hotel.
Walk along the canal Like previous day, a blue sky turned up and it turned warmer in the afternoon. There was another interesting museum next to Van Gogh Museum: Moco Museum, which was dedicated to Banksy artworks.
Millions of tourists gathered around the letters of I
amsterdam’ on the back of Rijikmuseum. We took our memorial photos there. Rijikmuseum possessed lovely knot gardens both on front and backyard. Deck chairs were laid out and we found a couple of available chairs for my parents to sit down. In the meantime, we found the fountain in the centre of the garden and children were playing with the water in a sunny warm afternoon.
Afterwards, we headed for Weesperplain with tram No.7 and walked along Amstel, one of the major canals in Amsterdam. There were arrays of charming residential boats at both edge of Amstel. Many narrow boats, small boats and private boats were running on the canal. In the meantime, we saw landmark buildings like Royal Theatre Carré, Skinny Bridge, Hermitage Museum and Prinsegracht canal, which we saw from the cruise the previous day.
My mother said that it would be necessary for us to have three-day travel pass from the next day. We took the tram no.9 and went to the transport office and bought 72-hour passes.
Vondel Park Our hotel stood next to Vondel Park, one of the big parks in Amsterdam. We had a bit of spare time in the morning on 22 June, so we worked around Vondel Park. We found that many people ride bicycles in Amsterdam and other towns in the Netherland. Everywhere we went had the lanes or space for cyclists to go through and park. Vondel Park didn’t allow cars to go in but cyclists used the main paths. We learned that Vondel Park was named after the Dutch’s famous poet and found the statue at the centre of the park. Vondel Park has four large ponds and green space – it was home to a wide variety of waterfowls and seemed to be popular with residents and tourists.
Amsterdam seemed to have numerous restaurants serving a wide range of foreign cuisine – Indonesian, Argentine, Uruguay – and steak restaurants. My parents were not keen on spicy food; we didn’t choose to go Indonesian restaurants. Steak restaurants were quite expensive. We had dinner at Italian restaurants on three nights.
Dutch Restaurant We found a traditional Dutch Cuisine Restaurant near Leidseplein the other day and decided to go there for the final day’s dinner. This restaurant possessed panoramic photos of Amsterdam landmark buildings and served various meat dishes with mashed potatoes and salad in a modern style.
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