Amsterdam Day 2

Monday, August 22, 2016

Today our flight home didn't leave until 5:50 pm, which basically gave us over a half day in Amsterdam.  Oh drat that KLM, delayed until 7:15.  Delayed BOTH directions makes it unlikely that we will fly with them again.

We decided to start our day with the Rijksmuseum (The State Museum), open since 1800.  The architect of the current building was Pierre Cuypers, who received much criticism because his design "wasn't Dutch enough."  I think he took his revenge when he incorporated a stone statue of himself as part of the building.

 

Imagecredit:https://pufflesandhoneyadventures.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/pierre-cuypers-around-the-corner.png

The museum is full of Dutch national treasures as well as paintings by Vermeer, van Dyck, and Jan Steen.  A very famous painting is The Milkmaid by Johannes Vermeer, painted in 1660.

 

Imagecredit:http://www.iamsterdam.com/media/locations-ndtrc/museums/rijksmuseum-milkmaid-vermeer-nc.jpg?h=397&w=700&la=en

The most famous piece in the museum is Rembrandt's "Night Watch".  Apparently he was the first to paint group portraits with animated figures.  For centuries, people believed the events in the painting were happening at night time because it was so dark.  In the 1940's, however, layers of dirt and varnish were removed to reveal that it was a daytime setting!

 

Imagecredit:http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/130411133954-rijksmuseum-2---rembrandt-nightwatch-horizontal-large-gallery.jpg

During WWII, the painting was rolled into a cylinder and moved out of Amsterdam for protection.  Since then, it has sadly been vandalized twice: once by a butter knife in 1975, and once with acid in 1990.  One of the knife marks is still visible above the dog:

 

Imagecredit:http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2013/images/04/10/rembrandt_nightwatch_vandalism.jpg

Rembrandt was an interesting character. He and his wife Saskia had 4 children, but only one of them lived longer than 2 months old.  Saskia died in 1642 and was buried in the floor of the Oude Kerk.  This is Rembrandt's painting of Saskia:

 

Imagecredit:https://arthistoriesroom.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/saskia.jpg?w=560

While she was ill, Geertje Dircx was hired to care for their son Titus, and she became Rembrandt's lover.  They quarrelled, and Geertje charged Rembrandt with breach of promise and was awarded 200 guilders (over €2000) a year, provided that she name Rembrandt's son as her heir.  He then had her committed to an asylum.

 

Imagecredit:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Queensland_State_Archives_2425_View_of_Benevolent_Asylum_Dunwich_North_Stradbroke_Island_10_June_1937.png

Probably one of the reasons they had quarrelled was because of his new relationship with Hendrickje Stoffels.  She became his long time lover, but he never married her because then he would have lost access to a trust fund set up for Titus.  In 1654, Rembrandt and Hendrickje had a daughter, Cornelia.  Hendrickje was summoned before the church and accused that "she had committed the acts of a whore with Rembrandt the painter."  For her deviance, she was banned from receiving communion.  Could this painting have been of Rembrandt's daughter?

 

Imagecredit:http://img.youtube.com/vi/xSixUm1cXSw/0.jpg

Rembrandt achieved some success as a painter, but lived above his means, so he had to declare bankruptcy in 1656.  Hendrickje died in 1663, and Rembrandt sold his wife's Saskia's grave in order to pay for Hendrickje's grave.  Rembrandt died penniless in 1669 at the age of 63;  he was buried in an unknown grave and after 20 years his remains were destroyed along with the remains of other poor people at the time.  Now he is considered the greatest painter of the Dutch Golden Age (1588-1702). This is his self-portrait:

 

Imagecredit:https://www.pubhist.com/works/00/large/58.jpg

The Rijksmuseum also houses one of Vincent Van Gogh's Self-Portraits:

As we all know, Van Gogh did not have a great life either.  He was born in south Netherlands in 1853, and throughout his life he lived in more than 30 different homes (in 37 years).  He struggled with anxiety and mental illness.  Even his own father wanted him committed to an asylum.  Perhaps Van Gogh's bout with gonorrhoea didn't help his mental state????  However, all of us Dr Who fans know that the true reason for Van Gogh's insanity was that he was the only one who could see the invisible, nomadic, interplanetary monster known as the Krafayis.

 

Imagecredit:http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/tardis/images/c/cd/Krafayis.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20110222134940

Van Gogh began to drink heavily, which probably didn't help.  He moved to the south of France and was influenced by the French Impressionists such as Monet, Degas, and Cezanne.  He begged Gauguin to visit, but they had a difficult relationship.  During one evening there was an altercation between the two, and Van Gogh severed his own left ear with a razor.  He bled severely, bandaged his head, and apparently wrapped up the ear and delivered it to a prostitute.  He likely would have bled to death if he had not been found by police the next morning and taken to the hospital.  

Imagecredit:http://www.vangoghgallery.com/catalog/image/0527/Self-Portrait-with-Bandaged-Ear.jpg

On July 27, 1890, at the age of 37, Van Gogh went into a wheat field and used a revolver to shoot himself in the chest.  No internal organs were damaged, and he was able to walk back to his home and receive medical treatment.  The bullet was not removed because there was no surgeon available.  The doctors tended to him and left him alone in his room smoking his pipe (a healthy thing to do after being shot in the chest).  The next morning, he was in surprisingly good health, but he developed an infection from the wound and died that evening.

 

Imagecredit:http://i.imgur.com/4ylhXzC.jpg

During the last 10 years of his life, Van Gogh created over 2100 pieces of art, 860 of which were oil paintings.  Of course everyone knows the famous Starry Night:

 

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Outside the Rijksmuseum, we found a covered area and some steps to have our lunch, yes - bananas and snickers.  There was a group of 3 guys playing classical music and they were fantastic, we listened to them for quite awhile, and then bought their CD!

We intended to visit the Van Gogh Museum next, but it was an hour in line even with the Amsterdam card.  Since we were already on Museum Row, so to speak, we went to the Stedelijik Museum instead.  This is the Modern Arts museum.  I think we both much prefer the classics.  I wonder how much they paid for this one?

We made a quick stop at the Diamond Museum.  You learn about the history and cutting of diamonds, which was actually interesting.  They had lots of "famous" diamonds on display, but they were replicas.  FAKE!  The only real diamonds were the ones they wanted you to buy in the several gift shops you had to walk through at the end.

Imagecredit:http://www.inntelhotelsamsterdamcentre.nl/files/inntel-amsterdam-diamonds-blue-507-350.jpg 

We collected our luggage from our bed and breakfast, then took the tram to Centraal Station where we caught an easy 15 minute train to the airport.  Europe sure knows how to do train travel right!

 

Imagecredit:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/Amsterdam_centraal_side.jpg

Schipol Airport is huge and confusing. They have a casino, and an indoor smoking area that you could smell a mile away, right next to the baby changing station, yuck. We found a "library" and that is where we sat to do this last blog.

Signing off till next trip!

Amsterdam Day 1

Sunday, August 21, 2016

Anton's watch told us that we walked 15 kms yesterday.  Today we only walked 11.5 kms. There go all those cruise ship calories!

We started our day in the pouring rain:

The upside to the rain was that there were far fewer bicyclists.  When you cross a street in Amsterdam, first you have to look for vehicles.  Then you look for cyclists, and they seem to pop out of nowhere.  It makes crossing a street very exciting....

Just like Haarlem, it seems that NOTHING opens in Amsterdam until 10 am!  That's why we wanted to go to the Ann Frank House at 9 am today.  Except this year they have a new policy:  between 9 am - 3:30 pm, they only allow admission to people who have pre-purchased a ticket online with a specific time slot.  These online tickets are virtually impossible to get because they are bought up by resellers illegally. There is a definite flaw to their system.  These are the lines if you don't have tickets (about 2 hours):

Lucky for us, on the exact day that tickets went on sale for today, Max woke Anton up at 4 am to go out, and Anton was able to nab 2 tickets!  By 6 am the tickets were all gone. Thank you, Max!

Ann Frank was actually born in Frankfurt, Germany, but her father Otto moved the family to Amsterdam in 1934 when Hitler came into power in 1933.  In 1940, Germany invaded the Netherlands.  Jewish families now had to register, could not own businesses, and had their rights severely restricted.  The Franks tried to live normally, and Ann received a red diary for her 13th birthday which she named "Kitty".

 

Imagecredit:http://www.fusfoo.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/A1qmj2Cp_1jSUZUyJUfsFNJ0K4k.jpg

One day the order came that Ann's older sister Margot would have to go to a labour camp.  Otto took his family to a hiding place that he had been preparing next to his place of work.  This hiding place has been turned into the museum that we visited today.  It is the tall house in the middle:

 

Imagecredit:http://www.annefrank.org/ImageVault/Images/id_1211/height_357/width_580/aspectRatio_1.6246/compressionQuality_80/scope_0/ImageVaultHandler.aspx

The entryway was small and hidden behind a movable bookcase.  There were 2 floors and an attic, the rooms were incredibly small and the furniture was removed or else all the tourists would not have fit.

 

Imagecredit:https://mholloway63.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/amsterdam-anne-frank-house-interior-view-diagram-368637623.jpg

The area was already cramped for their family of 4, but soon the Van Pels family (with 15 year old Peter), and another gentleman, Mr Pfeffer, moved in.

 

They hid for almost 2 years, having to remain extremely quiet while workers were below them during the day.  They were brought food and news by some of the office workers who knew they were there.  They were eventually betrayed, and on August 4, 1944, were discovered by the Nazis.  All 8 were separated and sent to concentration camps.  Only Otto survived.  Ann and Margot both died of typhus in March 1945, only a month before Allies reached the camp.

 

Ann Frank's diary was rescued by the workers and given to Otto.  It was published in 1947 and has been translated into 65 languages.  Otto Frank remained involved with the Ann Frank House until his death in 1980.

 

Imagecredit:http://img.theepochtimes.com/n3/eet-content/uploads/2015/06/03/AP710614191.jpg

The tour lasted about an hour and a half.  The gift shop was selling copies of the book for ridiculous prices.

We popped into the Nieuwe Kerk.  This is the church that is used to inaugurate (and bury) Dutch monarchs.  The Nieuwe Kerk was built around 1400 because there was a shortage of churches in the city.  The church survived both of Amsterdam's Great Fires in 1421 and 1452, but was burnt down when plumbers were doing work in 1645.

 

Imagecredit:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/The_fire_in_the_Nieuwe_Kerk,_Amsterdam,_in_1645_by_Egbert_Lievensz_van_der_Poel.jpg

We had actually been here before, in 2010, but it has completely changed.  It is no longer a church, but a museum.  The audio tour is a mobile device that you carry with you and tap on a stand in each location.  Frankie had fun seeing how far away she could get it to work.  Five feet!

We really dawdled through the church because it was still pouring rain, and sat in their cafe for awhile.  We ordered tea to make it legit that we were eating our banana and snickers lunch there.  Then we went back into the church at noon for an organ concert. Frankie sat with her eyes closed and absorbed the beautiful music.  Anton sat with his eyes closed and fell asleep, although he won't admit it....

Right next to the Nieuwe Kerk is the Amsterdam Royal Palace.  It was built from 1648 to 1655 and originally meant to be the Town Hall.  Because Amsterdam is so sandy, it is built on almost 14,000 wooden piles.

 

imagecredit:http://www.aviewoncities.com/img/amsterdam/kvenl0127s.jpg

In 1808 it became an Imperial Palace (for 5 whole years) when Napoleon's brother Louis lived here as king.  When Napoleon's empire fell, Louis fled Amsterdam and left most of his opulent furnishings behind.  William I became king, and offered to return the palace for use as a town hall, but they decided to let him use it as his palace (mainly because it would cost too much to build him a new one).

 

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However, the palace was used so little as an actual residence that it came under criticism in the early 1900s.  The city sold the palace to the State of the Netherlands for 10 million guilders (only about €95 today). The state just ended up giving the palace back to the royal family anyways.

The palace had the same audio system as the church, but we didn't find it very interesting, all it told us was what the rooms used to be used for.  We didn't stay as long, especially because by this time the rain was clearing. Glimpses of sunshine!

We walked to the Begijnhof, founded in 1307 as a refuge for unmarried women.  They lived like nuns but did not take vows.  The most famous beguine was sister Cornelia.  She died in 1654 but did not wish to be buried in the chapel which she considered desecrated by the Presbyterians.  She wanted to be buried in the gutter instead.  Against her wishes, they buried her in the chapel anyways but the next day found her coffin floating in the gutter.  This happened several more times until they gave up and buried her in the gutter where she had wanted to be in the first place.

Single women still live here, so quiet is expected when you visit. Amsterdam's oldest surviving house is here (1420).

Next we went to the Bloemenmarkt (Flower Market), founded in 1862. We had been here before as well, but who can resist all those flower shops side by side on those floating barges?

Here is Anton trying to hide his identity as he enters a shady shop:

Our next stop was Rembrandtplein (Rembrandt Square), named after the artist of course.  The Rembrandt statue was erected in 1852 and is made of cast iron.  He is standing and holding his painter's tools.  At the base of the statue are 22 bronze sculptures, full-sized replicas of the figures in his "Night Watch" painting.

From there we walked over to Hortus Botanicus, est 1638, which makes it one of the oldest botanical gardens in the world.  It was established as a medical garden for the doctors who were facing a serious plague epidemic with thousands of victims from 1634-1637.  It has over 6000 different kinds of plants; one of them is a 2000 year old cactus.

We liked the butterfly house:

We still had time to spare, so we walked along the canals until we came to a canal cruise that we took for free with our Amsterdam card.  There are over 3000 houseboats on the canals, but the government is no longer issuing mooring permits, so they now come at a premium.  This was the third canal cruise in 3 days.

After changing out of our wet socks back at the B&B, Frankie really wanted to go to a nice French restaurant, but when we got there it was closed.  Sigh.  We turned our noses up at the smoky pubs, and accidentally found a very nice tiny Italian restaurant.

Back at the B&B, we decided we had better repack our suitcases.....

The toilet paper roll is NOT ours, not sure why the owners left it there.  Were they trying to tell us something?

Haarlem, Netherlands

Saturday, August 20, 2016

Well, 2800 other people all had the same thought we did:  get that last meal on the ship while we can!

Our ship landed in Amsterdam at 6 am, and it was bye-bye cruise.  They really wanted us off the ship early.  We were supposed to get off at 6:30 am, forget that!  But after playing "Let'sride up and down in the elevator until we finally figure out what level is disembarkation," we left the ship by 8 am.  It was a 15 minute walk (with luggage) to Amsterdam Central.  We were a bit baffled but finally figured out how to stow our luggage in the lockers at the train station.

We took a 15 minute train ride to Haarlem, a town very close to Amsterdam.  Yes, Harlem in New York was named after this Haarlem.  New York used to be a Dutch colony named New Amsterdam.  Who knew?

 

Imagecredit:https://i.ytimg.com/vi/X8eh3mxyNPc/maxresdefault.jpg

Haarlem was a prosperous and powerful city in the 17th century (called the Golden Age).  Today it is the tulip capital of Holland, and this is what we would have seen if we had come between March and May:

 

Imagecredit:http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/04/24/article-0-0BC2A68F00000578-251_964x565.jpg

We got there at 9 am, and NOTHNG opened until 10, so we found a wonderful outdoor cafe, ordered some earl grey and darjeeling, and watched the town slowly come to life.

Frankie had been wanting to see Corrie ten Boom's house for many years, so that was the first priority.   We had reservations for 11:30, but since we were so early, we went to the 10 am tour, which was completely free and run by a captivating volunteer who was excellent at storytelling.

The ten Boom family lived here in the 1940's.  There has been a book and a movie about this family called The Hiding Place.

They were Danish Christians who built a secret room behind a false wall at the back of Corrie's bedroom (which was tiny) to hide 6-7 Jews or Dutch Underground members at a time; they hid and saved more than 800 people in total.  It was amazing to see how small the hiding spot actually was:  no larger than a small closet. The entrance to the hiding place was a 2' X 2' sliding panel, under the last shelf of a bookcase that covered the wall.  She asked for 6 volunteers to go through the bookcase, Frankie was the first one to go in.  You can see the entrance at the bottom far left in this picture; the hole in the wall has been added for easier access for tourists:

The family was eventually betrayed, and the Nazis arrested Corrie and several members of her family.  However, they never found the hiding place, and the Jews later escaped.  Four members of the family died at the concentration camps, but Corrie survived Ravensbruck (90,000 women died here) and went on to tell her story. In all, the Nazis killed 75% of the Jews of Haarlem. Corrie ten Boom died in 1983 at the age of 91, after spending her life traveling and preaching about forgiveness.  The museum was opened 5 years after her death.

 

Imagecredit:https://mylordkatie.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/corrie-ten-boom.jpg

Next we vsited St Bavo Church where Corrie and her family used to attend.  It was named for some saint from the 600s who lived in a tree.  The church was built from 1390-1540 and was originally Catholic.  In the late 1500's it changed to Protestantism along with the rest of the Netherlands, and changed its name to Grote Kerk which means Great Church.

 

Imagecredit:https://photos.tripomatic.com/photo/600x380/612664395a40232133447d33247d38313232383131.jpg

When the Protestants took over, they whitewashed the beautiful Catholic frescoes.   The organ is from the 1700s, and both Mozart and Handel have played here. Until 1831, people were allowed to be interred in the church; the famous painter Frans Hals is buried here.  The whole floor was covered with grave stones, hundreds and hundreds of them.

We saw the coolest bridge.  When ships needed to pass through, the ENTIRE road rotated to let them through.

There used to be 20,000 working windmills in the Netherlands, now there are 1000. They are not needed with the advent of technology. The Molen De Adriaan Windmill is a wooden windmill that was built in 1778 for milling (grinding grain).  It burned down in 1932 and was rebuilt in 2002, and is now open for tours.  We were lucky to be here on a Saturday, because that is the day the windmill can be seen in use.  We were also lucky because while we were inside touring, there was a HUGE downpour, which was completely gone by the time we were done, and the rest of the day was sunny.  Bizarre.

Though windmills were not invented in the Netherlands, the Dutch added vertical movement and the ability for them to change directions with the wind.  The windmills were also used to communicate messages based on the positions of the blades.  The Dutch Resistance used this system to send military messages right under the noses of the occupying Nazis.

We found the Amsterdamse Poort (Amsterdam Gate), built in 1400, which is the only remaining town gate of Haarlem.  Here you can see some remains of the old city wall.

We were just in time to hop aboard a canal cruise:

We loved Haarlem, it was prettier and less hectic than Amsterdam. When we got back to Amsterdam, we picked up our luggage and an Amsterdam Card, and then grabbed a tram to our B&B.  It's not as big as we expected, and no face cloths or hand towels, hello?  Did we get spoiled on the ship?

We were hungry, but restaurants don't serve supper until after 6 pm (forgot about that). We did find a nice place that served us a "snack":  a big plate of nachos which we shared.

Then to the zoo.  The Artis Zoo was founded in 1838.  There are 700 animal species here.  We really enjoyed their different houses:  the bird house, reptile center, an insect house, a butterfly house, and an aquarium.

On the way back to our B&B, we crossed the Magere Brug (Skinny Bridge), which is the most famous of Amsterdam's 1280 bridges.  It was constructed in 1670 and was so narrow that 2 pedestrians had trouble passing each other.  It was widened in 1871.   It has a double leaf wooden draw bridge (opens in the middle and lifts to both sides) to connect the banks of the Amstel River, and every 20 minutes it opens to lets boats through.

 

Imagecredit:http://images1.fanpop.com/images/image_uploads/Magere-Brug-Bridge-amsterdam-1147395_1024_768.jpg