A Weekend to Remember - Amsterdam, Netherlands
Amsterdam, Netherlands
After writing the last post I almost entirely forgot about writing anything down so I'm now sitting in a coffee shop in Highams Park enjoying a coffee, a cake, and recalling the events of the weekend as best I can, I'm sure I'll get all the important stuff. So after I finished the post on Thursday I headed off for a walk around Vondelpark (Central Park in Amsterdam?). It wasn't cold, but the rain did set in a bit making it a little unpleasant. I walked for a while, but on later inspection didn't actually see that much of the park. With the rain not letting up I decided to head back to the hotel for a bit. The early morning caught up with me and I had a bit of a snooze. One thing I've noted since being over here is the heating. I've never been a big fan of radiator heating, but the installations here in the UK and Europe seem to really do the trick. I'm not sure how efficient they are in terms of cost to run, but the heat is definitely nice, and no moving air seems to make it more comfortable. After a snooze it was time for some dinner, nothing flash that night, Burger King, but I did find a local bar just down the road from where I was staying. I walked in and must have had a look on my face that immediately told them I was not local, in any stretch of the word. There were a few tradies sitting at the bar and a seat became available just as I walked in. Taking a seat the bar tender asked what I would like. I couldn't recognise any beers they had on tap so I described what I would normally drink back home as best I could. With some help from the others at the bar we landed on a "Brand" (pronounced Brund) light brown beer. I have to say, not being a fan of dark beers, I thought this was remarkable, so the night was spent drinking Brand and talking all sorts of things (Work and Play) with the others at the bar. As I noted on the Thursday, bikes are everywhere, so I decided, when in rome (or Amsterdam)... I hired a bike for a 24 hour period, received the appropriate instructions on how to lock it up (they use massive chains, and each bike has a key lock permanently attached to the rear wheel) I was on my way. I should point out at this stage, if I haven't already, that in Europe they drive on the right hand side of the road, and therefore, all the bikes and anytime you pass someone walking, is to the right. This was scary, my first experience driving a vehicle on the right hand side of traffic, and I was on a pushbike... Oh, and NO HELMET (sorry Mum, they didn't provide them, and I probably didn't really push the matter that hard either). I headed into the city for a look around and some experience riding on the road. The intersections cater for bikes really well, they have dedicated markings for bikes (mostly) and special little traffic lights just for bikes (They're a picture of a bike in most instances). Left hand turns are the hardest, especially on a bike. Coming from the very right hand side of the road to cross an intersection in front of cars, possibly turning right across your path, in an intersection that isn't marked, or not really square with anywhere between 3 and 6 roads coming into it seems hectic. Add in night time, cold and wet, I was certain I was going to get wiped out at some point during the weekend. Amsterdam is a flat city, pretty much. Only a few very moderate and short inclines over bridges. The hotel, and location I hired the bike from, is only about 3km (oh, everything appears Metric in Europe too, speed, distance) from the city centre. A system of canals, bridges and roads either side, some one way, others 2, some allow bikes, some only allow pedestrians, needless to say, I made a few mistakes, and went down some areas I really shouldn't have. 2 things I should note here: 1. Heading into Amsterdam I had already decided that I wasn't going to get a SIM card for my phone. The EE one that I had wouldn't work in Europe, so I needed to rely on Wifi. Ken also suggested that I get an app that had a downloaded/offline copy of city maps. CityMaps2Go was the one I landed on and it worked really, really well. There were a few locations it didn't have (Businesses/Shops) but most of what I wanted over the weekend was there. 2. The people in Amsterdam are never, or don't appear to be, in a rush. Intersections appear chaotic, people come out form everywhere, bikes, pedestrians, cars and many other types of vehicles alike. Traffic is generally slow, especially at intersections, and even if you don't have right of way, other people seem to stop to let you either continue on your way, or at least get out of theirs. I have to admit, when I planned to head to Amsterdam I had no idea what cultural signfigance I was expecting, or any idea what I would see. Like a lot of people I think, I expected to get to Amsterdam, find some "smoke" and walk through (and perhaps partake in) activities in the Red Light district. This might be the time I point out that I a) Didn't have anything to smoke and b) only passed through the Red Light district as part of a night cruise that I took. I still managed to fill the 2 full days I had with some cultural learnings. The first place I visited was the "Anne Frank House" museum. I had no real idea of who Anne Frank was, yes I'm a little sheltered on a few things, but the line was large, the weather was OK (not raining) and I didn't have anywhere else to go (no specific plans anyway). While waiting in line I got to observe some of the other behaviours of locals and tourists, people watching is a favourite past time, more so in a foreign country. They handed out an information booklet on the layout and some insight into what to expect in the museum. After reading through the information it all started to fall into place. I'm sure I've heard some of my more educated and cultural people in my life (Nic) talk about Anne Frank. I'm excited and intrigued. It took about an hour and a half to get through the queue. Entry was extremely reasonable (Euro seems to be a bit easier for me to get a handle on than pound) and it was certainly much warmer in the museum than out. Walking through the museum they have plenty of information about the life of Anne and the 7 other people that were in hiding in the house for 2 years before they were discovered by the Nazi's. The story is told really well, entering the house from the cellar workshop, through the front offices of the shop and then into the hidden annexe that held the Franks and the Pels. All the way through there are displays, excerpts from the diary, videos and insights from different people involved in the whole thing. Details of each of those in hiding and helping and what happened to them after everyone was discovered. It's hard to believe that this was a unique situation. There must be heaps of stories similar to this one. To be able to get such an insight and understanding of the ordeal was certainly something that I will not soon forget... Friday night I headed back into the city for some dinner. I found a place to park (lock up) the bike as close to a location I'd been advised I could find some live music and reasonable food. A bit of a walk and I found the Bulldog Hotel, a place I'd been told you could pick up "Space Cakes". I'll have to keep that in mind. I walked down a little alley to the side, it was lined with restaurants. Each restaurant had it's own spruiker, touting the virtues of their restaurant. It's funny, they start speaking in Dutch, but as soon as you open your mouth (usually to say "Sorry?" or "Excuse me?") they change to English. Obviously a well honed skill for people living here to be able to switch so quickly. I found a place that served a 3 course meal for €16, seemed nice enough, steak house and the spruiker out the front definitely did his job on selling the meals. Unfortunately the reality didn't live up to expectations and I also learned at this restaurant that mixed drinks (Spirits and soft drink) were not sold as a single lot. So when I ordered a JD and Coke, it come out as a double JD in a glass with ice, and a bottle of coke, If I'd have ordered a Lemon, Lime and Bitters I would have expected them to all come out as individual portions and you need to Build Your Own. After dinner I headed back to the Bulldog Hotel, I don't smoke, but I thought surely I could try a Space Cake? I looked around for a while, checked a few menus that were lying around but I couldn't find anything that looked like the right thing. I asked a lady behind the bar who directed me to a coffee shop under the bar. Wow, how obvious, why didn't I think about checking the Coffee Shop for Cakes? A Space Cake later, I needed to find some live music and settle in for some drinks for the night. Unfortunately the live music seen wasn't great, even on a Friday night, I did find a Piano Bar with an Australian singer, so settled in and ordered my first Build Your Own drink. €13, and I had to build it myself... This will be an expensive night if I try and get too drunk here, so 1 drink later I headed out, the weather wasn't great, it was cold, so I headed to the bike, and then back to the hotel. Not a late night, so I watched a movie on Netflix. Saturday was a rest day. I wanted to have a look along the canals, so went into the city to see what was about. I re-hired the bike for another 24 hours on my way. I picked up a ticket to a cruise that left at 8pm that night, it went around some the canals and provided a bit of history. Enough time for me to get some dinner before heading out. I had a look on Yelp and find some good reviews for a French restaurant about 1km form the hotel, Dikke Graaf. The reviews said that the food was beautiful, the ambiance of the place was amazing, but that it was small and hard to find. I have to say, the reviews on Yelp are so much more reliable than the spruikers on the streets in the city. Got it right down to a tea. No tables when I got there, so they let me sit at the bar. Again, Drinks are BYO, but the whisky was well selected. The meal was perfect and the only regret was that I had to leave so soon to make the cruise. I jumped on the bike, only leaving myself 20 minutes to get into the city, find where the cruise left from and get on board. It was cold, but I was on a mission, so it didn't matter that much. I used the offline maps to work out the simplest route to the destination so that I could recall mostly from memory. A quick brisk ride and I got there with about 30 seconds to spare I reckon. I was the last to board the boat before it left. It definitely was a very different view of the city from down on the water. Everything appeared much grander than when riding and walking around on the streets. The lighting on the bridges around the city is also magnificent. The guide for the tour was also something very special. He checked throughout the people on the boat where they were from and which language they preferred to speak, on the boat we had English, French and Spanish speaking people. All the way through the tour he spoke everything in each of the 3 languages. It appeared completely fluent, and it was really amazing to sit there, hear something in English, including jokes, and then hear the same thing in 3 other languages (and as I'm learning a little bit of French I could also pick up a few of those words). Even the little mannerisms of the individual languages he seemed to have nailed really well with facial expressions and body language. He was almost as interesting to listen to as the city was to watch. The boat weaved through the canals, some of which were very very tight and past some destinations that I'd seen on the bike (Rijksmuseum I think). We also heard stories of some of the history around the Red Light district and it's proximity to the Church. The story was something along the lines of sailors heading out on boats for up to 18 months (leaving from the "Wailing Tower", named such because of the women that would scream and cry as their partners left), upon returning would first visit the Red Light district and then on their way back into town, to return to their families, would call past the church, confess their sins and make a donation to the church, and all was forgiven and they could return home guilt free. Sunday... Time to pack my bags to head back home, but the flight didn't leave until 8pm, so I had plenty of time to check out a few more things around the city before heading to the airport. They let me leave my bag at the hotel, I had to go past there on the way back to the airport anyway, and I headed to take the bike back and walked towards the city. I recall riding around that there was a Van Gogh museum on the road into town. Seemed like a nice place to start. Getting to the museum (20 minute walk in the rain and it was about 4°C, not so nice) there was a not so well organised line to buy tickets to head in. It was colour coded Blue, Yellow and Green, but there were no markings on which line you should join depending on your situation, you had to ask someone where to go... Kinda DUMB. The line progressed with relative speed, helped along by some people participating in a Box-Fit class in the shelter of one of the adjacent buildings (The lack of a toilet didn't help the line progress much faster though). I grabbed a ticket and headed straight into the museum, so much warmer, and to the toilet. Defrosted and relieved I looked for the place to start. The museum is organised in levels organised in events from early life and works (1st floor) through to final events/days and works (3rd floor). The layout is very practical, enough space to get a lot of people through without walking over the top of people, and organised in a way that allows you to really appreciate how, as an artist, Van Gogh changed in style. They have works from influencing artists organised with his own and it's possible to see where he learnt or picked up skills from those artists. The most profound of which is Monet. Pieces of art Van Gogh completed prior to meeting Monet all seemed to have a dull, dark colour palette. Pieces completed during and after the time he met Monet all picked up in colour vibrance and palette. It was a perspective on art that I had never appreciated before, possibly because I'd never seen so many pieces laid out in such a fashion before either. The other aspect I really enjoyed was the insight into the life outside his art, the family, his interactions with other artists including letter writing, attempts to setup an artists retreat in the south of France (The Yellow House) with Gaughin. I walked out of the museum with a much greater appreciation for Art, Van Gogh and Amsterdam in general. A little early, but time to head to the airport, grab some dinner and catch the plane. Walking back to pick up my bag a large dark cloud come over the city, it got cold, hail... lovely, not walking back to the hotel in this so I jumped on a tram. Got my bag, got on the 197 bus to the airport and got there in plenty of time. The flight was rather un-eventful, but here is the kicker or learning about travelling from London to anywhere, a flight from Amsterdam was only 45 minutes, I got back into Gatwick airport at 8:45pm... By the time I walked in the door to the house it was just after midnight. It took me over 3 hours on public transport to get from the airport back home, including a 45 minute (express) train ride. On the back of that, and the issues happening in France at the moment, I don't feel a need to do much more travel out of the UK for this holiday.