Our Travel Blog: 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.