My parents and I trained to Amsterdam on Monday morning (4/12), only having to suffer a 30-minute delay due to the lovely strikes. Fortunately, Amsterdam was sunny as it was in Paris, and would remain so for our entire stay. I loved this city! The layout resembles a large bullseye of circling canals alternating with the streets. Without a map, you could likely get lost wandering the maze of canals since they all look quite similar! The afternoon we arrived, we took a touristy canal ride to get ourselves acquainted with the city. One of the first things you notice when floating through the canals are the very narrow houses. Apparently, back in the days when houses were being built in Amsterdam, they were taxed on the width, so builders tried to make their houses as narrow as possible. The skinniest home in the city is a little more than 3 feet wide in the front! Along with canals there are many bridges throughout the city to transverse the watery highways. It was quite apparent that the primary mode of transportation throughout the city is bicycles. I have never seen so many bicyclists! Along every canal bridge there would be dozens of bicycles lined up, locked to the iron fencing. What amazed me was that most of the women riding the bikes still looked as chic as ever as well as wearing high heels! Whenever I imagine myself riding a bicycle, it’s in exercise shorts and sneakers, with me sweating! Only the European women can make riding a bicycle look fashionable. But damn, I can look good driving a car if I want to! ☺
The first night we ate a this cool restaurant called, “Five Flies,” which was an old house transformed into a restaurant, therefore there were a few tables in each of the little rooms throughout the building. They had a special 4-course “surprise” menu where you just got what the chef decided to make that night. We weren’t daring enough, however, so we settled with a 3-course set menu. One main difference between the French and the Dutch is that all of the Dutch speak perfect English! They do not seem to mind either, while it is more of a bother to the French. All of the people we encountered in Holland were super nice, and TALL!
Tuesday, (4/13), we spent museum-ing. We first went to the Rikjsmuseum which houses many of the Dutch masters, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Van Hels, Vermeer, et al. Afterward, we headed across the park to the Van Gogh museum, which I really enjoyed. The museum was set up chronologically to show the evolution of the artist’s style and his eventual downfall (he committed suicide). Its amazing how many of the other artists of Van Gogh’s time painted for 30-40 years and produced many masterpieces (Degas, Monet, Gaugin, Cezanne, etc.) when unfortunately his career lasted a mere 10 years—and his style/vision was so unique.
That night we had such a great dinner! Apparently Indonesian food is recommended in Amsterdam so we went to an Indonesian restaurant and ate this traditional meal called a “rice table.” It consists of big bowls of rice and about 15 little bowls of different things you can eat (vegetables, meats, spicy and mild). It was so delicious and unlike anything I have ever had before, although I think we all ate too much! We couldn’t resist dessert however, which I ordered a scoop of coconut ice cream and a scoop of cinnamon ice cream, both on a bed of exotic fruit. Yum.
Wednesday, (4/14), we had a driver, Ray, come pick us up bright and early to take us to see some tulips and to another town called den Haag. We first stopped in this big tulip garden/park with thousands of lovely tulips—pictures could not quite capture the beauty of the scene, however, my dad insisted on taking pictures of almost every individual tulip. My parents ordered 400 tulip bulbs to be sent back home in the fall that they can plant….they’ll sure be busy with those! Along the way to den Haag, we passed beautiful countryside with fields of tulips and the occasional windmill. From a distance, the fields just appeared as long strips of color—red, yellow, purple, but then as you neared, you could see the strips of color were actually huge rows of tulips! Quite pretty!
Den Haag is a little smaller town than Amsterdam, and the political capital of Holland. We walked through the Parliament area as well as went to the Mauritshuis museum. This modest museum houses Vermeer’s famous, Girl with a Pearl Earring masterpiece. As with the Mona Lisa, she is much smaller in person that you would imagine, however, I still loved her all the same. As with any famous painting, you will find a hundred people around it—fortunately, the hundred people surrounding this one were little Japanese women, so my tall parents and I did not really have an issue.
Our last day in Amsterdam was spent wandering around and shopping. There was a long street full of high-end boutiques and such as well as many little streets with arts and antiques. We stopped in the Diamond Museum, as Amsterdam is supposedly famous for diamonds, however, I found it quite boring, and was really only looking forward to perusing the “gift” shop (diamond store) after the tour. As my mom and I emerged from the dull upstairs, our eyes ready to be dazzled by sparkles, we were at a great dismay to realize the gift shop was closed. (Where are we, France??). I think my Dad was OK with it. We also visited the Anne Frank museum, which is in the actual house she and her family hid in during World War II. It was quite surreal to see their hiding quarters and hear quotes from her diary as we walked through. A very sad story, but pretty amazing that this little girl wrote so honestly about her experiences and emotions during that time, and that they found her diary after she was taken. Out of all 8 people that were in hiding at this house, Otto Frank, Anne’s father, was the only one to survive.
Unfortunately, the only chance I had to see the infamous Red Light District in Amsterdam was by day, with my mother. There were a few naked ladies, but not nearly enough to make it a wild experience. I must say, out of the women I saw, their key to success must be the cover of night because they were not so hot. We also did not visit any, “coffee shops,” it was quite a parent-friendly trip to Amsterdam. (although if you ask my mother now, she would probably say it was my dad and I who didn’t want to go…whatever Mom!).
I loved Holland! I will definitely return.
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