Amsterdam and the Start
of Our Post Trip 4-5 December 2019
Our ship arrived in Amsterdam in the early
morning hours. As we were staying in
Amsterdam after the cruise, we had to be off the ship by 8 AM. After breakfast, the Stevens and we gathered
our luggage and walked to the Luxor Hotel which was about ¼ mile away from the ship. It was cold and a light drizzle was falling
as we trooped our way to the hotel.
Dragging two suitcases over the cobblestone sidewalks and tram tracks in
the road was not an easy task. One of
the things to remember when walking around Amsterdam is to watch out for the
bikes. It doesn’t matter if you have the
green light, the cyclists believe they have the right of way and will not
stop. If you are in their way, they will
ring their little (annoying!) bell to warn you and you had better jump out of
the way!!!
 |
| St. Nicolas Basilica |
As we walked, we passed by St. Nicolas
Basilica, Amsterdam’s main Catholic Church.
It was built in 1884-87 as the harbor church. It wasn’t until 1850 (over 300 years after
the Protestant Reformation) that Catholics were once again given the right to
build their own churches in Amsterdam.
When we got to the hotel, we knew our rooms
would not be ready, but the hotel receptionist was very friendly and
helpful. He got us checked in and stored
our luggage. Our hotel is located along
the edge of the “Red Light District” of Amsterdam. While it has beautiful canals and historic
buildings, it is best known for its “ladies of the night.” As you walk along this district you can see
these ladies in the rose-lit windows of quaint buildings, usually braiding
their hair, doing their nails, working on crossword puzzles, or reading books
while waiting for their next customer.
These businesswomen (and some men) are registered, regulated, taxed, and
have been represented by a union since 1984.
It is not allowed to take any photographs of the people in the windows.
 |
| Oudezijids Kolk Canal Homes |
 |
| No Problem Parking This Car |
We then went out to explore Amsterdam. We had a walking tour that took us around the
Red Light District and other close by points of interest. We walked along the narrow streets by the
canals admiring the old homes that were built right next to the canals. This
area is called Oudezijids Kolk, one of only three locations in Amsterdam where
there are no streets alongside the canals.
In the Middle Ages, Amsterdam looked more like Venice with homes built
literally in the water next to the canals.
Boats were the main source of transportation. It wasn’t until much later that the narrow
streets that run along the canals were built to accommodate horse-drawn
carriages and, of course, cars and bicycles today. In some of the canals, the
homes were riverboats parked along the canal.
 |
| Da Waag |
 |
| White Clothes Hanging from a Canal boat |
We walked past the Da Waag, the old Weigh
House, that is now a very famous, up scale restaurant. Built in 1488, this is Amsterdam’s oldest,
non-religious building. On one canal
there were several houseboats where people had strung a clothesline across the
top of the boat and hung white pieces of clothing. The garments are from different parts of the
world (e.g., Jewish dress, Moroccan dejellaba, western underwear) to represent
the cultural and ethnic mix of the people of Amsterdam and a statement by the
artist (Sergey Kim) that we should not fear foreigners. By now we were a little cold, so we stopped
at Mr. Tom’s restaurant for a cup of delicious hot chocolate. That was what we needed to keep us going
forward.
 |
| Houseboats Along the Canal |
 |
| Comes with a Lawn Roof and a Porch |
 |
| Zuiderkerk |
We then came to a building that looked like a
church, but it had no name on it. After
much searching on the internet, I believe that this was the old Zuiderkerk, the
first Protestant Church in Amsterdam. It
was built in the early 1600s but stopped being a church in 1929. During WWII, it was used as a morgue and
today serves as a municipal information center.
Three of Rembrandt’s children are buried here.
 |
| Montelbaans Tower |
We then walked down to Montelbaans Tower,
once part of the medieval city wall. It
was built in 1516. Although the city
walls were taken down in 1585 to make room for the expansion of the city, the
tower remained, and in response to citizens’ requests for a public time-keeping
facility, clocks were added to the tower in 1606. However, the clocks were not always accurate
and would start chiming at odd hours, thus earning the Tower the nickname
“Crazy Jack.”
 |
| Food Left for the White Horse |
Walking back to our hotel, we visited the
Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder – the Museum of our Lord in the Attic (also called
Our Lady of the Attic). After the
Reformation, Catholic churches were banned in the city. A Catholic merchant, who lived in a 1640s
Queen Anne-style home only a few houses from the Oude Kerk (Old Church), built
a catholic church in the attic of his house in 1663. The interior of the floors below the attic
are one of the last remaining original 17th
century canal house interiors. Because
of the plain, modest exterior, it was very difficult to locate which building
actually housed the church. Today it is
a museum with the lower interiors and the church exactly as they were in the
1600s. One of the interesting items on
the ground floor were the wooden shoes filled with carrots and hay that were
left in front of the fireplace by children for Sinterklaas’s horse. For Dutch children St. Nicholas Day on 6
December is like our Christmas and Santa Claus.
Sinterklaas is a kindly bishop dressed in red robes and a tall, pointed
hat on his head. He rides a white horse
and has a sack full of gifts for the children.
He arrives by boat from Spain every winter with his horse, and everyone
travels to the Amsterdam harbor to greet him.
There is then a big parade that ends in Dam Square by the Royal Palace
where the Queen welcomes him to Amsterdam.
If a child is well-behaved, he or she will find candy and little
surprises in the wooden shoes the next morning.
 |
| Attic Church |
It was a steep walk up the creaky wooden
stairs to the church in the attic, but it was well-worth it. The church could seat up to 150 people and
the interior is filled with sculptures and paintings. And the organ, as old as the house itself, is
still played today.
 |
| Oude Kerk |
Our last stop was at the Oude Kerk (Old
Church) which is not only the oldest church in Amsterdam, but also the oldest
building. The church was built in 1213
and its bells date back to 1450. Built
originally as a small wooden Catholic Chapel, it was rebuilt of stone in the
Gothic style during the late 1200s. It
served as a welcoming home to sailors and the poor and downtrodden. After the Reformation it became a Reformed
Protestant Church which it still is
today. Over 10,000 Amsterdam residents,
including Rembrandt’s wife Saski, are buried beneath the floors of the
Church. As it was past lunchtime and we were hungry, we
did not go inside.
The Stevens had arranged for another walking
tour, so we said goodbye to them and went to the Dolce Vita, a small restaurant
across from our hotel. Bill was longing
for a good hamburger (which he got) and I ordered a small pizza. We just sat there for a couple of hours
sipping our wine and watching the people on the street. They were very slow in getting us our check –
we think, as they had us seated by the window, that they thought it might
attract more business if people saw patrons inside the restaurant. We then went back to the hotel and checked
into our room. It is not a very large
room, but it was nice. We rested a
little as we were going to walk down the Dam Square to enjoy the Christmas
lights before going to dinner.
 |
| Red Light District at Night |
We met up with the Stevens and started
walking down to the Dam Square (the main square of Amsterdam and the location
of the Royal Palace). This was the site
of the original Amstel Dam which was built in 1270 over the Amstel River. As the city grew and expanded, the area
around the dam was filled in and created what is now the historic center of
Amsterdam. As we walked, we noticed the
holiday lights above the streets. Each
district of Amsterdam had its own light design and display.
 |
| AIDS Awareness Statuee |
In Dam Square we stopped at a pink statue of
a woman that was built for Aids Awareness.
Every 40 seconds the woman cries as every 40 seconds someone dies of
Aids. Next to Dam Square is the National
Monument, built in 1956, as a reminder of the suffering and lives lost during
WWII. The obelisk is surrounded by
sculptured figures of men, dogs and birds.
The front of the monument has two male figures that represent the Dutch
Renaissance Movement while on either side of them are figures that represent
the intellectuals and the working class.
The dogs stand as a symbol of loyalty and doves represent freedom and
liberation. The woman and child
symbolizes victory, peace and new beginnings.
Behind the monument are urns that hold the soil from WWII cemeteries and
execution sites.
 |
| National Monument |
 |
| Royal Palace in Dam Square |
We walked back to our hotel and had dinner at
the Het Karbeel, a fondue restaurant just across the street from our
hotel. It was very, very good fondue –
even better than the fondue we had in Switzerland. We all had the cheese fondue, although the
Stevens ordered one that had some herbs included. We all thoroughly enjoyed the evening.
 |
| Mint Tower |
The next morning, we continued our walk
around Amsterdam. We walked to the Munt
(Mint) Tower which was once part of the old city walls. It is located where the Amstel River once
entered the city during the Middle Ages.
Built during the 15th century, it survived the fire of 1618 that
destroyed much of the city walls. During
a reconstruction several years later, clock faces and a carillon of bells were
added. While the original bells are now
in the Amsterdam Museum, the replacement set still chimes every 15 minutes with
a live concert on Saturdays from 2-3 PM.
The tower got its name Mint Tower during the Dutch war with England and
France in the 1670s. It was too risky to
move money minted at the established mint, so they turned the Tower into a
temporary mint.
From the Tower we walked to the Begijnhof, a
cluster of charming middle-aged homes in one of Amsterdam’s oldest
courtyards. It was here that older
religious Catholic women (many widows) lived.
One house, built in 1425, is Amsterdam’s oldest and one of only two
timber homes left in the city. After
many destructive fires in Amsterdam, city builders were only permitted to build
brick homes. The Begijnhof was
established in the 14th century, and although these women lived like
nuns, they had more freedom and independence.
They were allowed to own their own homes. After the Reformation, the women were allowed
to keep their homes but they had to give up their church. Like the Museum of our Lord in the Attic,
they created a hidden church behind some of the facades of their homes.
 |
| Begijnhof Chapel |
 |
| Inside the Begijnhof Chapel |
 |
| Begijnhof |
 |
| Oldest Timber Home in Amsterdam |
We continued our walk by the Magna Plaza
which has a large, beautiful 19th century building that
was once the Post Office. Today it is
one of the few shopping malls in Amsterdam.
Across from this building is the Gothic Nieuwe Kerk (New Church). Built between the 15th and 17th centuries, it has been the site of all the
inaugurations of the Kings and Queens of Amsterdam. Since 1815 it has been the National
Church. Today the building is used for
exhibits and is no longer an active church.
 |
| Magna Plaza |
 |
| New Church |
 |
| Pigeons in Dam Square |
As we entered Dam Square from New Church, we
were immediately surrounded by hundreds of pigeons. It was reminiscent of St. Mark’s Square in
Venice. We wandered around and finally
found an Irish bar in the White Tulip Hostel where we had fish and chips for
lunch and then returned to our hotel.
 |
| Amsterdam Train Station |
Tonight we had booked a canal boat ride to
see Amsterdam’s Festival of Lights.
Before going to the canal boat dock, we walked across the street to the
Train Station. Perhaps the most striking
building in Amsterdam is the Central Train Station. Built in the Gothic, Renaissance Revival
style, it opened in 1889. More than
250,000 people travel through the station each day. We will use the station when we travel from
Amsterdam to Bruges tomorrow, so we checked it out when we bought our
tickets. There was a transportation
strike going on in France, so the ticket agent recommended we take a more local
train where we had to change trains in Antwerp as he could not guarantee that
the express train would be operating tomorrow.
He then let us into the main station so we could find the platform that
we would be leaving from. It is always
nice to be prepared.
We then walked across the street to where our
canal boat would depart and boarded our boat.
While the lights along the canal were pretty, the Festival was a big
disappointment. The theme of the show
was “Disrupt,” and at times it was
difficult to assimilate the theme with what we were seeing. International and national artist created 25
light sculptures along the canals. Most
of the time there did not appear to be any connection at all between the display
and the theme. It was a huge
disappointment!
 |
Festival of Lights-Lily Pads
|
 |
| Festival of Lights-Lightning on Tower |
To make up for it, we walked back to our
hotel and pizza and wine at the Dolce Vita.
They do make a very good pizza.
We had planned to go to a restaurant just a short distance from the
hotel that specialized in rijsttafel
(rice table), an Indonesian recipe that consists of many small side
dishes accompanied by rice served in a variety of ways. However, after our large Irish pub lunch, none of us was hungry enough to really enjoy this meal. Then it was back to the hotel to pack for our
early morning train trip to Bruges.
