S.B. Part 1: Amsterdam

Amsterdam

March 30- April 2

Since blogging is a long tedious task, I am going to slowly post about my spring break trip city by city. I just woke up from a mini-coma since traveling for a little more than two weeks is truly exhausting. Amsterdam was first on my itinerary, thus making it a good place to start.

March 30

Friday consisted of frantic packing since I did little to none the whole entire week. Also, I was forced to do some last minute shopping. I realized that I needed a lock, eyeshades, and earplugs for the hostels. I am a light sleeper, so going into it I knew this was going to be a ‘little-sleep’ trip.

I flew out of Heathrow in the evening. The flight was no more than an hour, so nothing was accomplished on the flight. A 50-minute flight always just consists of taking off, drinks, and landing. I was exploring Amsterdam with a Haverford friend (who previously visited me in London), Susannah. Since I was flying into Amsterdam late and was a little nervous about the public transportation at that time of night, I asked her to wait for me in the airport even though she landed way before me. She (thankfully) agreed to, which meant I had a lovely welcoming party at the airport.

It took us around 20 minutes to find the correct train and get the ticket since we speak zero Dutch and the signs were of little help. For some reason though, once we got on the train, it sat in the station for a good 25 minutes. We were surrounded by [already] drunk Scotsmen that were signing. To ease the annoyance, we befriended this guy from  Cornwall, in which I got to use my English knowledge and talk to him about cornish clotted cream. We also learned he works for the premier league, so he gets free tickets to really good soccer games all the times. Lucky guy.

Finally the train took off and we made the correct transfer onto our next tram. In the process, we got directions by real nice Dutch people who helped us out. Throughout the trip, I would be impressed by how nice Dutch people were. Seriously, a lot of them spoke English and would go out of their way to help you out.

Around 11:30 PM Susannah and I arrived to Joost’s house and met his mother Madeliene. Joost is a good friend from Haverford that lives in Amsterdam. His moms allowed Susannah and I to crash at their house, which saved us a lot of money and gave us the ability to find cute/embarrassing baby pictures of our friend Joost. His house is only a block away from the first canal in the city, so he is pretty central.

Once we arrived, Madeliene gave us a map, directions to all the sights, and a mini history lesson on the city. One thing I remember is how Amsterdam got its name. The river Amstel runs through the city (Amstel...like the beer). Back in the day they built a dam through the river and it was the Amsteldam, which eventually evolved into Amsterdam. Tired and overwhelmed with things to do the following day, Susannah and I went to bed.

March 31

In the morning, the two of us woke up, grabbed some breakfast, and got us some coffee to start the day off. The first thing on our schedule was the Van Gogh museum. We walked from Joost’s house to the museum district, which holds the Van Gogh Museum, the Rijksmuseum Museum, and the famous ‘I amsterdam’ sign. The two of us made our way to the Van Gogh museum. We had bought tickets ahead of time, which saved us a lot of time in line. The museum was wonderful. It started from Van Gogh’s original work, which is not as famous, and worked us all the way to his final pieces. The museum showed the evolution of the artist. Ironically, some of his more famous pieces that the museum usually holds…is at the PHILLY ART MUSEUM! I come halfway across the world from home and I find out that there is actually where all his work is! Instead of buying the audio guide, I used Rick Steves tour that I downloaded on my iPhone. My dad was right with Rick Steves…that guy came in so much help over my two weeks.

In front of the Rijksmuseum 

Rijksmuseum

The museum section 

View from Van Gogh Museum 

Van Gogh Museum

After the museum, Susannah and I wandered around the city. We hit up the Town Hall and flower market. We then made our way to the Amsterdam History Museum. It was an informative museum about the city, but it was a little unorganized and too high tech. It was relatively cheap though, so I couldn’t really complain. One fact that I did learn was that out of the 20 or some trams that run through the city, Tram 8 is no longer in service since it was the ‘Jewish tram’ and ran through the ghetto. In memory of the deceased, they stopped running it.

Flower Market

Flower Market

Town hall on the left. The town hall
turned into the palace once conquered by the French.

Susannah and I at the Amsterdam History Museum 

Madeleine told us about this place near the museum named the Begijnhof Community. Basically, this community was a hidden neighborhood that housed single catholic women, who sought solace years ago during the protestant revolution. It was smack in the middle of the city, but since it was basically hidden, it was quiet and serene. 

Begijnhof Community 

Begijnhof Community

Later in the day, we finally met up with Susannah’s boyfriend, who flew in from the U.S. to visit her over her spring break. Her boyfriend is a Haverford alum and a friend, so I was also excited to see him too. Joost’s mom took the three of us out to dinner at an Indonesian restaurant she likes in the flower market. Supposedly, Indonesian food is somewhat a Dutch cuisine since with all the trading back in the day, the sailors brought back that style and it has stuck since. Madeliene treated us to a mini-feast that was seriously delicious. This would be the start of many Asians cuisines I ate over my two-week trip. You can take the girl out of London’s Indian food, but you can’t take the Indian food out of the girl.

Indonesian Cuisine

Afterwards, we got coffee with Madeliene and then made our way to the Anne Frank house. The house/museum was, as expected, very well done. I was happy/relieved they didn’t turn it into one big Holocaust museum, but stuck with the personal story and family. After all these years of reading about it and seeing pictures of it, it is strange to actually be in it. Otto Frank decided to leave the rooms unfurnished after he came home to the Nazi-raided attic, so the rooms were bare, except for the walls that still were covered with Anne’s pictures. Even on the wall, there were still the pencil markings of where everyone’s height was over the course of their hiding. The part that is the most striking is at the end when you finally get to hear Otto Frank speak. Imagine reading your own daughter’s diary? It was painful to hear him come to terms with the mature thoughts his young daughter was having in such a hard time.

The Canal leading up to the Anne Frank House.

The Anne Frank is far on the right. It is approximately two houses
away from the church. Anne wrote about this church in her diary
since she could hear the bells ringing.

The house is pretty central in the city and we ended up passing it multiple times as we wandered around. And yes, thank the lord we bought tickets in advance because sometimes the line would wind all the way to the back of the house.

After the house, the three of us wandered into the Red Light District. Yes, it was a Saturday night around 10 PM, so it was definitely interesting seeing the place in action. I don’t know what I was picturing in my mind, but I didn’t really expect there to be red lights in the windows. Basically the red light district is centered on a canal and all the houses on it consisted of long glass doors. The doors were surrounded by a red light and behind the doors were girls dressed in basically nothing. I saw some young ones, some old ones, and even transvestites. Supposedly most of the girls that do it are Eastern Europeans that are forced into it, so I guess that takes away from some of the sex appeal. The girls would tap on the doors to get the guys’ attentions and would open their doors to bargain deals. Supposedly its like 30-50 Euros for 15 minutes. Anyway, I also learned that if you try to take pictures of them then they throw urine on you. Do not ask me where they get this urine from. One last fun fact is that 40% of the customers are British business men….niceee.

Red Light District

Red Light District

As we made our way around, Susannah and I realized that were some of the only girls there, which made our experience just that much better.

April 1

In the morning, the three of us went on a canal tour around the city. On the boat we got to see a lot of the houses and canals. We even went out into the main bay, where you can see the main train station. Behind the main station is a parking lot, but not for cars. The place is filled with bikes. Hundreds of bikes! In the city itself, bikes have the right of way. Many a times I was almost hit by a bike. It was seriously a hazard for tourists. On the canal tour we learned that something like 1300 bikes are pulled out of the canals every year since so many fall in.

Susannah and I before the canal tour

Canal Tour

Canal Tour

Bike Lot

Bike Lot

Canal Tour 

Canal Tour

The narrowest house on any canal.

SO MANY BIKES!!

My dad would love this one...
A bicycle built for...four?

After the canal tour, the three of us hit up a famous apple pie place that a Haverford friend recommended to us, called Winkel. It was even in Rick Steves book, so I knew it had to be good. We wandered for a while after that and then made our way to a bar, in which we sat with Dutchmen as they watched their soccer game. Back at the Joost house, we had dinner with Joost’s mom and brother. Joost’s brother than took us out and showed us some of his favorite sights. We had met Joost’s brother last year, so it was a 

happy reunion.

Some good Dutch Apple Pie.

April 2

On our last day, the three of us attempted to find the Jewish Museum, but failed miserably. Instead, we ended up going back to the red-light district during the day, so we can snap picks and see the difference from the night. We hit up a famous pancake house. Pancakes here are more like crepes and are filled with meats, spices, or ice cream if you so desire.

The glass doors during the day.

A house in the red light district.

Red lights- There were actually girls in those
windows. The not so lucky ones get to work
during the day. It is probably cheaper to
rent out the window during the day, so the not so
pretty ones work then. 

The three of us on our last day.

The statue dedicated to the dam.

We found that while we were wandering we accidentally went in a lot of circles, which would make sense since the city is built in a U form. Finally we packed up and made our way to the airport. I said goodbye to Susannah and her boyfriend as they flew off to Prague and I went to my flight to Vienna!

Overall, I found Amsterdam extremely gorgeous. The canals are different from any city I’ve ever been to and since we went in spring, we got to see the trees in the city starting to bloom. It is a relatively small city and extremely walkable. We never really needed transportation other than going to and from the airport. Since it was so small, it was somewhat hard to separate the touristy areas from the residential. The two just mess together, which could be annoying to residents. Lastly, it was amazing to see my Haverford friends and see Joost’s home.