Dam Good Time (Part 3)

Our last day in The Dam dawned and we packed our bags, said a tearful farewell to the roof terrace and made our final climb down the stairs of terror.  We walked the short distance to the Rijksmuseum, one of Amsterdam’s jewels.  Even if museums aren’t your ‘thing’ the building and gardens are worth a walk by.  And while you are walking around you just might stumble across some massive letters.  Lots of cities have slogans that they use for branding and marketing.  Some are successful like “I <3 NY” or “What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas”.  Others maybe not so successful.  Baltimore’s “The

City That Reads” is routinely edited to “The City That Breeds”.  Some cities aren’t even trying.  Lafayette, Oregon bigs itself up as “Third Oldest City in Oregon”…informative but dull.  Then there’s Cleveland, Ohio’s positive “Mistake on the Lake”.  Anyway, I could go on but I’ll stop there and try to get back to my point.  Amsterdam came up with the slogan “iamsterdam”.  A little bit word play, a little bit social inclusion; nicely done.  In an effort to promote the slogan, iamsterdam is spelled out in massive letters and we stumbled upon them over near the Rijksmuseum (not literally thankfully!).  Apparently these letters travel around the city so you might want to double check where they are before heading out but they are well worth a visit and a photo op.

After being a tourist, we headed back to the museum.  Rijksmuseum simply means national museum and it was founded in 1800.  It was relocated to Amsterdam, from The Hague, eight years later and the current building was purpose built in 1885.  The museum has a collection of over a million objects and almost 8,000 of them are on display.  Much of the artwork on display is from the Dutch Golden Age of painting by artists like Rembrandt and Vermeer.  Just like a visit to the Louvre wouldn’t be complete without a glimpse at the Mona Lisa, a visit to the Rijksmuseum wouldn’t be complete without a glimpse at Rembrandt’s The Night Watch.  Thankfully, unlike the crush of humanity that usually surrounds the tiny portrait of Mona Lisa, The Night Watch is massive so even if there is a crowd, you’ll see a good portion of it.  I can’t say I had strong feelings towards the painting before I arrived.  I knew generally what it looked like but to be honest, it was more about ticking a box and saying “saw it”.  But being able to stand inches away from it and see the brush strokes and his use of light (now I’m sounding all artsy!) definitely made me appreciate its beauty.  The other two massive paintings that flank The Night Watch are some of my favourite.  Militiamen of the Company of Captain Roelof Bicker and Lieutenant Jan Michielsz Blaeuw by Bartholomeus van der Helst (a mouthful isn’t it!) and The Meagre Company by Frans Hals and Pieter Codde are amazing in their detail.  Again you can stand close to the painting (but not TOO close) and see the details of the lace collars or fancy buttons.  I also loved the attitude the guys were giving off, working their angles and looking like they would be at home on a catwalk…all it needed was a few to pull the arm triangle pose and it could have been a group going off to a high school dance!  (I’m a born art critic aren’t I?  Iamsterdam!) 

After getting our fill of art, we headed to Centraal Station to drop off our bags.  

 On our canal trip the night before, we had floated by the Sea Palace, a pagoda style Chinese restaurant that is apparently the first floating restaurant in Europe.  If you like Chinese food, this place is amazing.  Just wandering in the main door is a feast for the eyes with the ornate decor and views onto the water.  And if they were a feast for the eyes, the food was just a feast for the stomach.  You can get a bit complacent about Chinese food when the majority of what you eat is take away but have some good dim sum and it makes you appreciate it all over again.  

 With our stomachs full, we headed off to our next museum.  This museum was a bit different than the illustrious Rijksmuseum we had just visited but as museum people it was our duty to traverse all museums; large or small, renowned or rude.  So off to the Sex Museum we went.  Perhaps we took a too academic approach to the ‘museum’ but it seemed rather conflicted as to whether it would be an informative museum that explored the history of and humanity’s relationship with sex or whether it was going to be a crude and jokey flesh parade.  Not to say one style is better than the other but it needed to commit to its mission statement!  (It’s official…this masters has ruined my mindless enjoyment of museums forever!)  While they had legitimate museum pieces like Ancient Greek pottery they also had an animatronic flasher.  A visit is worth it for a laugh but it really could do with a reimagining…now that sounds like an interesting work placement!

Keeping on the theme of the afternoon, we wandered over to the Red Light District.  I’m sure it’s much different at night, but to be honest you can hardly tell you are there.  For the most part it looks like any other Amsterdam street with cobblestones and canal houses.  Every now and then instead of a standard door, there was a glass door with a scantily clad woman waiting there.  Some stood and posed but others sat looking bored or ate their dinner, it was weird but I guess that’s the reality of legalised prostitution.  Just like office work, sometimes you have your slow days and some days you’ve gotta eat at your desk.

Getting back on the culture track, I popped in to see the Oude Kerk (old church) which is the oldest building in Amsterdam.  Opened in 1306, it started life as a Roman Catholic church and after the Reformation, changed to a Calvinist Dutch Reformed church.  It’s still an active church today but it is also used for non-religious purposes.  The day we were there it was acting as an art gallery with large art installations in the aisles.  The inside is pretty stark and empty, which is probably why they can host a wide range of events there.  The organ, which dates back to the 1650s, dominates the centre of the church and I bet that would be amazing to hear.

With our flight hour approaching, we boarded the train to Schnipple Airport and bid a fond farewell to The Dam.  It had been a whirlwind tour of The Venice of the North with amazing weather, lots of laughs and, of course, that stunning roof terrace!  Until next time  :)  

Dam Good Time (Part 2)

A new day dawned and it was time to see all that Amsterdam had to offer…well maybe not ALL that it had to offer!  My travel philosophy tends to be the ‘road less travelled’ but I also understand that some places are attractions for a reason and it’s a mix between the expected and unusual that makes for the best trip.  The first thing on our list was the Anne Frank House.  While it’s not going to be laugh-a-minute kind of location it’s one of those places that people really should visit.  I’m a big proponent of museums and heritage sites that make people think (gasp, I know).  The most practical thing to remember when going to a place like the Anne Frank House is that you aren’t going to be the only people with that on their itinerary.  They do sell a limited amount of tickets ahead of time but when we checked the whole month of April was already sold out- I tend to think that tour operators are the ones snatching them up.  So the only real option for people visiting on their own is to wait in line.  It’s a reality of tourist sites and something that you can’t avoid so the best way to deal with it is to just suck it up and put some comfy shoes on.  Thankfully if you go with a group you can take turns rehydrating and sitting (if someone wants a million euro idea, they should rent chairs to people in line). 

One of the nice things about Amsterdam is that it’s a very walkable city.  It’s about as flat as geographically possible except for the occasional hump of a bridge and provided you can avoid the bike messengers of death, it’s not too hard to navigate.  The city is basically a half circle, with canals creating lines between streets.  Kind of like half of a tree ring…or perhaps a quartered jaw breaker (I’m floundering for examples if you can’t tell).  Anyway, that’s an extremely convoluted way of saying it’s a pretty easy city to walk around.  It’s a little trickier to figure out the tram system.  But we gave it a whirl and caught the one outside of our flat and headed around the curve to the Anne Frank House.  Using public transport in a foreign land can sometimes be tricky but even though the map was a bit confusing, the practicalities of the tram were easier.  You just climb on at the back, buy a ticket (they are sold in chunks of time…1 hr, 24 hrs, stuff like that) and then just validate it on one of the machines.  I would just caution you to make sure that you hang on for dear life, especially if your tram looks like an older model.  There’s nothing like being hurled down the aisle when the tram driver buries the accelerator to announce ‘Hi, I’m not from around here!’.  At least on the Underground you can plant your feet at a good distance to be able to work your centre of gravity…not on a Dam tram!  (hehe)

We arrived to the area around Anne Frank about 30 minutes after the doors opened and the line was already wound around various buildings.  I am beyond useless in understanding distance; I mean I know what 500 miles is but if you told me something was 500 feet away I wouldn’t have much of a clue except that it wasn’t a massive distance.  Keeping that in mind, and thanks in part to Google Maps, I can say that the line was about 300 metres when we first entered.  Yeah, that means absolutely nothing to me.  Almost 1,000 feet?  Not helpful either.  That’s a bit less than a ¼ of a mile which I actually somewhat understand.  And for any distance nerds out there, it’s 1.5 furlongs.  The more useful measurement for the line was that it was a four hour wait; what a way to spend the day!  But if you are lucky enough to have a buddy with you there are things to see in the immediate vicinity. 

Homomonument

For the majority of any line-waiting, you will be in the shadow of the Westerkerk.  The Westerkerk was built between 1620 and 1631 and is the biggest Protestant church in Amsterdam.  While the majority of the building is fairly non-descript, the tower, or Westertoren, is beautiful.  It's the city's highest church tower and is decorated with colourful crowns and orbs.  The famous artist Rembrandt is buried in the church and Dutch Princess Beatrix was married there in 1966.  Stretching from the Keizersgracht canal to the square in front of the Westerkerk is the Homomonument.  The monument was dedicated in 1987 to all those who were persecuted for being homosexual during and since World War II.  To be honest, the monument is really easy to miss.  I only noticed it because when I went over to take a picture of tulips, I saw a bundle of flowers placed on a triangle that jutted out into the canal.  The monument is made up of three triangles of pink granite that form a larger triangle.  The two other triangles are raised plinths and a popular place for the queuing masses to rest their feet.  It wasn't until I actually Googled it that I realised the benches were part of the monument!  

Four hours later, we were finally at the entrance.  The first thing to say about the house is that it is small!  This might seem like a dumb thing to point out but when you consider that you and four hours’ worth of people will be cramming into the same space, it’s important to be warned that you most

model of the house

likely won’t be able to have a visit where you can wander and reflect.  Instead it kind of seems like an assembly line of tourists climbing the stairs and following the human snake around the perimeters of the walls.   The second thing is that, all in all, there isn’t a lot to actually see.  While some museums are object focused, museums like the Anne Frank House are atmosphere focused.  Feeling the tight spaces, climbing the steep stairs and seeing the faded wallpaper is what visitors remember.  But I think it’s actually because of the normal and mundane surroundings that the greatest impact is felt.  In Anne’s room she has pictures of celebrities taped on to her wall, even a picture of the young Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret.  Though it’s over 60 years old and celebrities have changed, it’s the room of any other normal teenage girl, this one just happens to be trying to survive a horrible event from history.  Empathy is a powerful thing and it seems impossible to not walk the same floors as the Franks, van Pels and others and not feel compassion for their plight and the plight of millions more.

Prinsengracht canal

After our long queue and tour of the museum, we were in need of some food.  Turns out that one of the things the Dutch are famous for are their pancakes.  I have to be honest, I would have never guessed.  But as you walk closer and closer towards the city centre, pancake places do start to crop up.  And I’m not talking about an IHOP pancake.  Pancakes on this side of the pond are a much thinner production, basically crepes.  They also tend to be the size of a pizza and like pizza, you can have a variety of toppings.  We stopped off at Sara’s Pancakehouse, the holder of some kind of Pancakehouse award in 2013 according to their website.  While the customer service wasn’t glowing; there was a bit of a standoff between our waitress and someone who came in to ask a question…(oh why didn’t I learn Dutch?!), the food was delicious.  Our table was a tour around the world: Canadian pancake, Indian pancake and Norwegian pancake.  I can only vouch for the Indian one but it certainly had me thinking, 'why haven't I put tikka masala on my pancakes before?!'  After having our fill of flattened dough, we continued on in a casual meander, taking in the royal palace and Dam Square.  The palace kind of lacks the grandeur that you expect of a royal address.  It could be any other large building bordering a square.  This is probably because it’s not a royal residence, like Buckingham Palace is, so there aren’t guards with big hats playing statue.  There is a royal collection that you can tour and it is used for the occasional official event.  Dam Square, on the other hand, seems like THE place to hang out.  Thanks to the amazing weather, people lounged on the benches and along the steps of the war memorial.  I’m not saying that spending 48 hours in a city will make you an expert but I do have to say I was nicely impressed with Amsterdam.  As with any city, there are going to be the areas that you don’t want to visit but, for the most part, if you didn’t actively search out the seedier things that Amsterdam has on offer, you weren’t inundated with them.  Well…except for the rude postcards…those were a bit in your face.  Lovely shot of the canal (twirl), cheeky cartoon about pot (twirl)…is that, oh dear god, my eyes!  Heads up, don’t let your kids entertain themselves at the postcard rack.  You can’t unsee some things!

From the Dam Square we headed back towards our neighbourhood.  As mentioned before, Amsterdam is a pretty good city for walking.  Not only is it flat (bonus!) but most of the buildings are beautiful.  I love the thin canal houses that seem crammed together.  In some places they even lean into each other.  I’m not sure how stable the land is in Amsterdam…if it’s like Venice that is sinking, and if I was a homeowner I probably wouldn’t find the leaning endearing but I’m not, so keep leaning!  We stopped at the Bloemenmarkt.  Take a guess at what that is…you can almost figure it out by the name.  Yup it’s the flower market, makes sense doesn’t it?  I will admit that I was expecting stall after stall of tulips in full bloom.  It was moreso stall after stall of tulip bulbs.  But having said that, it’s still an enjoyable meander and if you don’t want to risk travelling with bulbs as a souvenir, you can stock up on wooden tulips.  Even better, there are multiple opportunities to put on a pair of hilariously large wooden clogs.  Yeah it’s touristy but you CAN’T pass up that photo op!     

After traversing the city, we headed back to our flat in the clouds, with a quick stop to pick up some wine, and retired to our terrace (if you’ve got it, use it!) to soak up the Dutch sun and cheers to a wonderful day.  As the sun started to set, we headed back out and trammed our way to the Centraal Station (thankfully this tram was not from two centuries ago and the driver was a lot kinder on the breaking and accelerating).  In Amsterdam you can’t avoid the canals…well you can avoid them in the sense of not falling into them but not in the ‘they are literally around every corner’ sense.  So why not fully embrace the waterway and take an evening cruise.  It definitely provides a different view of the city and everyone has been nice enough to leave their fairy lights on!  There are a variety of canal trips you can take (even a pancake one…they love their pancakes!) but we couldn’t pass up the offer of the Cocktail Canal Cruise…whenever possible, I plan my outings based on alliterations!  As we took our seats we regaled each other with our previous boating experience.  It was only then that one of my travel buddies admitted she was a full blown landlubber!  Well, this could go pear shaped really quickly!  The funny thing was, when we first talked about going to Amsterdam we had discussed taking the ferry (which conveniently leaves from Newcastle) and in that discussion it never came up that we had an aquatic first timer on our hands.  Thank goodness we didn’t opt for the ferry because the North Sea can be notoriously treacherous to the stomachs of ferry passengers.  If you’re new to water then a canal boat is probably the best place to start.

Seven Bridges

The cruise was lovely, not surprisingly.  I always think that if the city has a water travel option, to go for it!  Now that I think about it, I’ve done quite a few urban water-based activities.  Allow me to location-drop: illumination cruise along the Seine, boat tour on the Thames, paddleboat rides along the Mississippi in the Quad Cities and New Orleans, canal trip in north Wales, boat tour around Manhattan, swamp tours in Florida and Louisiana, gondola ride at the Venetian in Las Vegas (I know, that was a stretch).  Turns out water tours are kind of my thing…who knew.  But honestly, the reason they are so nice is that you really get a chance to sit back and just soak in the area.  You aren’t trying to navigate around other people or, gods forbid, cyclists; it’s all about looking.  It doesn’t take long on an Amsterdam cruise to realise that the locals aren’t too concerned with peeping toms.  Most of the canal houses have massive windows and especially at night, they are lit up like beacons.  The boat narrator summed it up like so, the only people who close the curtains in Amsterdam are those with something to hide.  It’s a good sentiment but you can’t help feeling like a bit of a voyeur as you spy people watching television or eating dinner.  The highlight of the cruise had to be the Seven Bridges.  It’s a fleeting look but if you are able to catch it, it’s a lovely site.  Basically, from one of the main canals you look down one of the offshoots and you are able to see seven arched bridges in a perfect line.  Everywhere else on the canal systems, there are turns and curves that don’t enable a similar view.  We had planned on stopping there while out walking but having seen it from water level, I’m not sure you’d be able to see it as nicely and it really helps that at night each arch has lights on it.  

The cruise was a success and the newest member of the seafarer club thoroughly enjoyed the aquatic experience.  We trammed it back home and once again found ourselves relaxing on the roof terrace....another good day.    

Dam Good Time (Part 1)

They say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.  Seems a bit harsh…I think it’s more likely that the road to hell A) isn’t paved at all or B) is paved with bad intentions.  But what do I know...I’m not a platitudes writer.  Regardless of the paving situation, good intentions usually don’t end up with a lot of follow through…especially from me!  So the intentions I had for my month long Easter break were pretty much doomed from the start. 

It usually started off with, ‘ooh, I could go down to Kent…but I’d either have a really long train trip or have to fly and hire a car and that is WAY too much effort.’  There was no sense in going north cause winter was still kicking around up there.  I even attempted to go more reasonable and think ‘I’ll just take some day trips’.  But again that requires planning and I was decidedly not in the mood for planning.  Thankfully, though I live the majority of my life as a hermit, I have been able to make some friends while in Newcastle and they wanted to get away with minimal effort and expense just like me.  So with a few clicks of the mouse, we were headed off to Amsterdam for a few days.

One of the nice things about Newcastle is that it has a good variety of flights out of it.  That’s not to say that’s the ONLY thing Newcastle has going for it but everyone can use a change of view every now and then.  And there’s nothing like going to a foreign country with new friends to find out if they’ll be friends for life or not.  Thankfully, my track record is pretty solid and I've only ever had one casualty.  A literal casualty you may ask?  I'll never tell!  It also always helps to be on the same page with what everyone wants to see and since we all were in the same masters programme, it was agreed that the short trip would be heavy on museums…and you know how crazy a weekend museum bender can be! 

Amsterdam wasn’t necessarily on my ‘oh my gosh I HAVE to be there NOW’ list but given that I had only been there once and that was as a small child it hardly counted (though technically when tallying up nations it TOTALLY counted!).  But it would be nice to see Amsterdam as an adult, even if we planned on only seeing the tip of the Amsterdam iceberg.  We arrived at the Newcastle Airport, I’m surprised it doesn’t have a more jazzy name…Sting International Airport, Ant & Dec International Airport, they are really missing a trick there.  The nice thing about European airports is that there are a variety of economy carriers so you can get to foreign lands for domestic prices (at least from the American mind set).  The down side with these connections to foreign lands is that certain said foreign lands like to go on strike a lot and that can play havoc with your flight.  I’m not naming names but it does rhyme with ‘prance’…could be anywhere!  So once we got through security, we found we had a delay.  We killed that hour with cocktails…might as well start the trip off right.  

Flying over Cullercoats and Tynemouth

 

Soon we were on our way across the North Sea.  I got the coveted window seat (sa-weet!) and had a lovely view of the coastal towns as we headed east.  The flight was about an hour and uneventful.  As we came over land again the Dutch sky was a bit murkier than the Northumbrian sky we had left, which is a decidedly rare feat.  As I looked out the window, we flew over field after field of tightly lined crops.  It would have been amazing if they had been tulips in full bloom but I guess you can’t have everything.  Amongst the fields were massive warehouses and sure they may have housed a variety of things, my first thought was perhaps they had to do with the other ‘crop’ that Amsterdam is famous for. 

Hazy Dutch sky

We arrived at Schiphol Airport, which given that I have no clue how to pronounce Dutch words became Schnipple Airport (a bawdy sense of humour is essential when travelling to Amsterdam), and headed for a taxi to take us to our flat.  A while ago, a friend had suggested I check out Airbnb (thanks, Frannie!) and when I first moved to Newcastle I spent a couple days in an Airbnb house before I moved into my place.  Overall I think it’s a wonderful site.  Obviously, like anything you will have the occasional crap places but having used it multiple times and having had a majority of success stories, I am happy to recommend it to everyone.  If you’re the kind of person that MUST be in the centre of the tourist area then it won’t be for you but what you do get is a more authentic experience of the city you’re in and sometimes you get an amazing place to stay…more on that later.  

Having gotten into what the Europeans would call a ‘people carrier’ (passenger van) we headed off.  While I’m a fan of public transportation, it’s always interesting to see how different nations drive.  The drive along the motorway was like any other but once we got into the outskirts of the city, it became a different beast.  The taxi made no distinction between driving on the road and driving on the tram rail lines.  While I would have thought a tram had the right of way, the taxi weaved in and out of the rail lines with barely a glancing look.  As holder of the address, I was in the front of the taxi and while I hung on to the door handle, I tried not to gasp with fear.  No, instead the gasp came from the back seat and practically gave our taxi driver a heart attack…that’s all we need!  As the poor guy recovered, it turned out that the gasp was not due to the reckless abandon of our driver but the breaking news that the Director of the British Museum was stepping down.  Oh, could this group be MORE museum studies!  I think our taxi driver was more than happy to be rid of us and we were dropped off in the neighbourhood of Helmersbuurt.

Neverending Stairway

The neighbourhood sat to the southwest of the city centre and was a rather typical city neighbourhood, not that I’m an expert on Amsterdam neighbourhoods.  Cafes and shops lined the lower floors of massive and ornate buildings.  That’s the beauty of booking a place through Airbnb; you get to see a more authentic side of a city.  There were no cheesy tourist shops or international chain restaurants, it was a neighbourhood of local places for local people and for the next couple of days, we would be locals too.  We met our host and started the long climb to our top floor flat.  I think it’s safe to say that there can’t be too many out of shape Amsterdamians…Amsterdamers…Amsterdamnations?  (Turns out the correct term is Amsterdammers, learn something new every day.)  Not only was it four flights up but those were the steepest and narrowest steps I have ever experienced!  After catching our collective breaths, which is always a fun first impression to make, we soon lost our breath again when we took in the flat.  It was open plan with massive windows that looked down onto the street below and gave us a hint of the skyline above.  But the real breath-stealing moment came when we once again took to the stairs (dear god, no) and found ourselves on our very own roof terrace.  This had been the selling point for us when we booked the place but no matter how many times you look at a picture, it’s not the same as the real thing.  This was worth every bloody step we had to climb!  Even better was that we had brought a mini-heat wave with us so we couldn’t have better weather for some roof chilling. 

Dam nice view!

After settling in, we decided to head out for dinner.  Back down to the street, we came face to face with the horror that is Amsterdam bike culture.  That might sound a bit harsh and I guess if I was a bike person I’d love the bike culture but as a pedestrian it was harrowing to say the least.  You know how you see those scenes in movies or travel shows of a far flung city where there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the flow of traffic or the traffic etiquette is simply ‘kill or be killed’?  Well that’s what it felt like as we tried to avoid being bike bait.  Trying to survive the walk from our flat to the restaurant made the taxi ride seem like a dream.  I’m sure we were quite the sight for the locals as we practically clung to each other as we dashed across the bike lanes hoping we survived.  But survive we did…at least for now!

Spring forward to blogging

Wipe, wipe (dusting off of cobwebs)

Welcome back!  The much-ignored blog page is finally seeing the light of day after a good six months.  Sun and shine has arrived back in Newcastle and thawed my frozen blogging ability (hopefully they don't refreeze as soon as I post this!).  Winter was full of cold days, crushing assignments and general hibernation vibes.  But with spring here, and maybe even some summer in the future, I feel the need to dust off this poor neglected blog and start typing!

Just to warm you up...here's an adorable picture of Lake District lambs soaking up the sun :)