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.