AIM: Our Time in Amsterdam

AIM: Our Trip to Amsterdam, Iceland and Munich
Iberia Business Class Between Chicago and Munich
The Kimpton DeWitt, Amsterdam
AIM: Our Time in Amsterdam
The Sheraton Amsterdam Airport Hotel and Conference Center
The Radisson Blu 1919, Reykjavik
The Center Hotel Plaza, Reykjavik
AIM: Our Time in Iceland, Part I
AIM: Our Time in Iceland, Part II
AIM: Our Time in Iceland, Part III
The aloft Munich
AIM: Our Time at Dachau
AIM: Our Time in Munich
The Hilton Munich Airport

Amsterdam is known for its "anything goes" attitude and if you've never been there you might think things are a bit wild.  I'm sure that there are parts of the city where that's true but if you're down in the Old Town which is pretty touristy, it's  clean and safe - just watch out for the bicycles and trams!  We had two full days to check things out so this isn't a comprehensive list, it's just the things we managed to see.

St. Nicholas Church

Though we were up early on our first day, ready to see things it appears a lot of the tourist things don't open until later.  But this church was close to our hotel and since it's the Basilica for the city we thought it would likely be very pretty inside and we were right.  This is the primary Catholic church for the city and it dates to 1887.

Centraal Station

This is the main train station and it's the largest one in the country.  It was designed by the same person who designed the Rijksmuseum and you can see the similarities.  From here we took a train to the airport (pro tip: the train is crowded on Saturday evenings).

Canal Cruise

When C and I were here a few years ago to kick off our Rhine cruise, we took a canal cruise that provided narration in three languages, one after the other.  English was the third language so that by the time we could understand what was being said, we were past the site in question.  This time we bought a ticket with the hop-on/hop-off bus company that also included a canal cruise. This was better in that there were headphones provided and you could choose your language so we got a better understanding of what we were seeing.  This is definitely something you want to do if you visit Amsterdam as the canal rings are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

My friend CB, who lives on the Holland-Belgium border, came down to play tour guide for the rest of the day.  She and I had "met" over Twitter as we liked the same TV show and over the years we've swapped emails and such.  She met up with C and me in Brussels a few years ago when we had a long layover so it was nice to see her again.

The Royal Palace of Amsterdam

Just looking at this building I would have assumed it was some sort of government building but I'm not sure I would have realized it was actually a royal palace.  In fact it was built as the town hall but there is no fence around it and, since the royals are not in residence, there were only a very few guards around.  Inside it's a fully-functioning museum most of the year though it's still the official reception palace and it's used for state visits.  King Louis Bonaparte (perhaps you've heard of his brother) converted it from the town hall to a palace in 1808.  The huge collection of Empire-style furniture that he collected is still used today.

The Salon of the English Quarter

The Royal Apartment

The Red Salon

The Orphan's Chamber

The Moses Hall, so named for the painting below

Coats of arms of knights

Why it's called the Moses Hall

Around Town

We did a lot of walking with CB pointing out little things here and there to us.  We did stop at a grocery store for Stroopwaffels (yum!).  If you've never had one of these tasty snacks, you're missing out!  We also walked down to Museum Square where the Van Gogh (or Van Gock as the Dutch pronounce it) museum is located at one end and the Rijksmusem is on the other end.  This is also where the famous "iamsterdam" sign was located at the time though of course there were dozens of people on it.  It's now been removed from Museum Square and will be located at various points around the city for short periods of time.

There's a passageway between the two large wings of the Rijksmuseum and as we passed through we found these musicians playing so we stopped to enjoy them for a few minutes.  We'd never seen these large, triangle-shaped instruments we later learned are called balalaikas.

After a delightful leisurely dinner we bid CB a good night as she made the trip home and we went back to the hotel to rest our very tired feet.

Rijksmuseum

This is the largest and most-visited museum in the Netherlands, and with good reason.  So many classic paintings and national history items that it's hard to see it all in one visit as you kinda get your brain overloaded.  Below are just a few of the famous paintings we saw.

Self-Portrait by Vincent Van Gogh

Rembrandt's Night Watch

The Rape of Europa by Verkojie

The Jewish Bride by Rembrandt

Anne Frank House

We'd planned ahead and reserved tickets for the Anne Frank House online.  That worked out well because we had a guaranteed time and didn't have to spend a lot of time in line.  There are a few different types of tickets and we got one that included about a 20-minute refresher course on the events that took place and all the people involved.  For the tour itself we had headsets to tell us about each room.  No photos are allowed inside and the outside has been modernized so it's not really a good representation of what the building looked like at the time.  To this day it's not known if the Frank family and others were betrayed or if the Nazis happened to stumble upon them but August 2019 is the 75th anniversary of the time they were found. They were shipped to concentration camps and Anne died in Bergen-Belsen.  Her father Otto was the only one of those hiding to survive the war.  The museum is well worth the time and money for a visit.

We enjoyed our whirlwind visit.  We got lucky and had fabulous weather.  It was so warm I ended up with a t-shirt souvenir I had not planned to buy but the clothing I had with me was too warm.  Amsterdam is a lovely place to visit and I'm quite sure there's more to see for future trips.