04-28 Dutch Resistance Museum

This morning we are walking to the Dutch Resistance Museum. It's east of us - a new side of town. After an introductory movie we get our audio guide and at 1:15pm we still aren't finished, so we get some lunch at their cafe next door. Very thin white bread toasted cheese and ham for Karen (it was good, enjoyed it) and Pat had a steak sandwich.

This is another thorough museum. It covers the occupation from several different angles. Jews, resistance people, people who just got along and people who supported the Nazi's. Each group thought what they were doing was right. The audio tour with this was again excellent and in English and so were the picture captions on the wall (although I needed 20 year old eyes to see some of them)

There were so many stories. It gave you a real sense of what happened here after the bombing of Rotterdam. The Queen and her family and cabinet fled to London to lead and encourage the resistance and to support the Allies. From there she did a radio broadcast. When the Germans found out, they made the people turn in their radios. So people made crystal radios, some as small as a matchbox. Examples of these radios were here for you to see.

Children who visited the museum had a separate section that followed four kids. One Jewish child, one whose parent helped with the resistance, one who's parent joined the NSB helping the Nazi's (by turning in their neighbors) and one child’s family just tried to get along. You went into each of their houses and heard and saw what their life was like; how their lives changed. Their hiding places, the games they play to learn what to do during a bombing, hiding family members in the house somewhere because the Germans wanted to send the young men to Germany to work to help their war effort.

This is a very excellent museum. To cover it all you need almost a full day. We spent 5 hours in the museum and a half an hour at lunch.

Next was a walk over by the Anne Frank House to visit the Tulip Museum. It told the story of how tulips came from Turkey in the late 1400's and are named tulips because they looked like turbans. Carolus Clusius wrote the book that made them so popular. They even had a Tulip Crash after speculators ran up the price of tulips. This museum was small with an introductory video in English, then a walk-through area where you read things. Including the gift shop we were there one hour.

Great map of where tulips came from.

Next door to the Anne Frank House is a great pancake place. It was on our to-do list when we visited the Frank House, but that visit got switched to 7pm one day and so we have time to eat there today. Karen had banana, almond, and chocolate sauce. It was delicious. Pat had bacon and almonds and it was delicious as well. This place is very highly rated. There are several more flavor combinations I would love to try. We'll go back.

We walked to the grocery for water and cereal. Then home to enjoy our view. We are really enjoying our view and all the boats, bikes, and walking activity near our place. Tonight three swans flew in and landed in our canal. Today it didn't rain all day. ❤️ Amsterdam is looking better and better every day. Sunday it is supposed to break 60.

04-27 Karen's Birthday

(Karen writes most of the blogs. I add my 2 cents and edit them. It's a collaboration.)

Today is a scheduled day off. So we slept in and watched the action of King’s Day on the canal out our window. Orange is the color for King’s Day. Some people dressed in orange. Sometimes a hat (like a derby) or pants or nice suit jacket. Sometime head to toe orange.

There are plenty of private boats on the canal today and most of the passengers are standing (to fit more people), drinking and playing loud music. Dancing just a little and singing the words to the popular songs they know.

Out in the main streets and squares, stages are set up, kids sell swap meet stuff on a tarp on the ground, and there are funny little games to play. There are orange hats, scarves, and crowns. Street vendors sell food - cotton candy, pretzels, and hot dogs. We went out to see the festivities and to get lunch. No bands were playing yet, but DJs were spinning tunes.

We ate at Bake My Day. I ordered a chicken club and Pat a grilled cheese with ham. When they came I switched with Pat, because it was so tall I couldn't get it in my mouth it was so big. The grilled cheese was great and Pat took home half of the chicken club.

We walked by more vendors out to the Amstel River and watched the boats. Lots of boats here. At our place it's one or two boats every ten to fifteen minutes. Here, it’s at least 8 boats all the time. We are in a smaller canal and the Amstel is the major river; it's much wider.

Walking back, we grabbed a cheese and ham pretzel for dinner.

Back at the canal house we watched the canal party and watched a little TV coverage on it. One channel had a camera in Dam Square that panned back and forth across the square. Another channel was visiting different sites and following the King and his family.

After a while we turned off the sound and just left the picture on. Pat worked on the blog. I've been good about getting it done every day. I hope I can keep up; I hate getting behind.

04-26 Herengracht Canal Exploration

We are walking the Herengracht Canal today. It's one of Amsterdam's most important canals and also one of the widest; the upper class part of town.

Our first stop is the Willet-Hothuysen Museum. It's a "double wide" house on the canal. You had to be very wealthy to own a double wide with 5 windows per floor facing the canal. The Staff and the cooking facilities are downstairs and the owners live on the upper 3 floors.

This couple married when they were 36, because her father wasn't happy about his only daughter marrying this guy who didn't work, even though he also was well-to-do and respected. So they waited until after Daddy died and then got married.

Since Mrs. Willet-Hothuysen never had children, after her husband’s death she willed the house and all the belongings to the city of Amsterdam on the condition they maintain it as a museum so others could see how they lived.

Over the years a lot of the of the furnishings have gone into disrepair, so not much is original. The self-guided audio tour is excellent and covers all of the owners of the house and then a lot about the lady of the house and what life was like for her living there. Very interesting and thorough.

It's always interesting to me to learn and see how people lived. Walking down the canals it's nice to get a glimpse into life here.

We stopped for lunch at the edge of Rembrandt Square at Titus Parrilla Cafe. Karen had Wiener Schnitzel and Pat had Jerk Chicken; both were good. Like most European cafes, we faced out to the street while we ate. We had a view of the people, trains, and bikes as they all passed by. It was sunny occasionally, but the clouds were very dark and it was raining when we walked over.

Continuing our Herengracht Canal walk. After lunch we crossed the street into Rembrandt Square and took pictures of the many statues. They were setting up for tomorrow King’s Day so they had stuff covering the grass and portable Sani cans and urinals they were setting up all over. This set of statues is called Night Watch. They seem to making sure no one gets to Rembrandt.

I took lots of pictures of the canals and gabled buildings. When walking in Amsterdam there is a sidewalk, a street, and a red brick path for bicycles  🚴. Beware stepping onto the red brick path without looking both ways and then both ways again. Put your head on a swivel. These bikes use the Cloak of Invisibility and just before you step off they remove it.

On some streets they also throw in trains. It can get very congested or it can be a quiet stroll; depends on which corner you turn. The trees along the canal are in bloom and when the sun is out it makes for great pictures. And there are always canal boats, lots of canal tour boats, hop on hop off canal boats, historical looking boats, and beautiful wooden boats. Lots of movement.

Stopped at an antique shop that had a amazing KLM Delft display in the window. They had hundreds of the little bottles that KLM gives their first class flyers. They are Delft ware bottles shaped like the gabled houses of Amsterdam, filled with liquor. Inside they sold for $20 to $50 Euros (the ones I checked). They also had antique Delft tiles.

Stopped at the grocery store for ham, cheese, milk, croissants, ice cream, and crackers. We arrive home about 5pm and have a ham and cheese croissant for dinner and relax before walking back to Anne Frank’s house.

The "Anne Frank" house is really a collection of buildings. On the right is the gift shop and cafeteria in the new blocky un-Amsterdam looking building (building #1). Next year it will also be the entrance. Building #2 is currently the entrance, bathrooms, and the room for the Introductory Program. Building #3 is the shortest one and all we used it for was to GET to building #4 - which is really the ANNE FRANK house. The front half that you can always see from the street is actually the warehouses and offices of her father's work. The back half, where they actually did the hiding for 25 months you can't see. (Insert "hidden" joke here).

The Anne Frank House was very well presented. We chose to pay for the Introductory Program ($5e) AND the self-guided tour of the house ($9e). We were led into a room with pictures on the wall on a timeline. Above the timeline were Frank family pictures. Below the line were Germany history pictures. The young man's 30 minute program wove the history of Germany and the occupation of the Netherlands with the Frank family. He was slow but thorough and engaged the audience in answering questions.

From there we picked up our audio guide and walked through the front offices business part of Otto's building. The audio told about the guy that worked in that office and how he helped the families in hiding. Only a few people knew they were there. When we went behind the bookcase, where their hiding place was, there was no headset audio and all the people were amazingly quiet. There were pictures and plaques telling you whose room this was and a little about them and the room. We didn't get to go up in the attic, but could look up the ladder/steps leading up there. An angled mirror was set up so you could see a little farther over.

There were 8 people who spent 25 months in those 3 rooms in 1943-44. They were eventually found and all were transported to various concentration camps where all died expect the father, Otto Frank. Anne was 15 when she died. Her book has been translated into 70 languages. She was an ordinary teenager in an extraordinary situation and that makes her story fascinating to read.

We spend a couple of hours at Anne Frank's. It is by far the busiest attraction in Amsterdam. Tickets are sold online for all entries up until 3:30pm. After 3:30pm you have to stand in line to get in. There IS a line.

Finally, we are glad we are at least a couple of blocks away from the stages they have set up for tonight’s King’s Night. I don't know how long they are going to party tonight, but it's 9:30 and it’s not that crowded yet and there's only DJs spinning tunes. I wonder what time they start live music.

04-25 Amsterdam Walk

Started out today at 9:30 walking down to Amsterdam Central Station to start Rick Steve's Amsterdam City Walk. By the time we got to Dam Square it was pouring. All of the amusement rides were now gone and the square is a big open area again. Good for our tour, because now we can see all the things Rick talks about.

There is Karen all alone in the big Dam Square.

The Royal Palace

The plan was to follow Rick's tour till here, then tour the Palace, but the Palace is closed until May 4th. We later learned that the King and Queen would be using the Palace in a few days.

We toured the New Church like Rick suggested via the gift shop and up the stairs for a quick over view (we have toured so many famous European churches). The stairs have now been closed off though, so you can no longer go up to the balcony overlook from the gift shop. We could see enough of the church from the gift shop (the gift shop was INSIDE the church) to get a couple of pictures of the stained glass and the pulpit. While I was here I found a nice Amsterdam magnet with the different canal house gables.

Now back to the tour outside, where it was still raining. Making our way along the pedestrian-only street we came to another hidden church, the Papegaai Church. They were having church services so we just stood in the back and listened to the priest doing Mass in Latin. From the street this church is not as hidden as the church we visited yesterday. You could tell it was a church, but the width of the building on the street was only about 10' wide.

We took a few pictures and continued on our tour, entering the Begijnhot , a court yard with houses around it and two churches. The houses were occupied by unmarried women who cared for the sick and taught.

Having already visited the Amsterdam Museum, we moved on and we stopped for lunch at the Blue - one of those places you like to say you "found" even when you've been reading about Amsterdam sites for a year. It's on top of a shopping mall place that was all under construction. Blue has glass all around, is about on the 3rd floor, and has views looking out over the roof tops of the buildings surrounding it. Pat had a lamb meatball sandwich and Karen had a cheese and grilled onion burger.

After Spui Square and the Mint Tower we shopped the two little Delft shops under it. Next was the Singel Canal Flower Market. We shopped through most of the flower shops here. Lots of bulbs which I expected, but not nearly as many cut flowers as I had hoped for. I thought I would see as many cut flowers as the Seattle Public Market. Not even close. The amount of cut flowers I saw would only fill three vendors at the Pike Place Market. But they had lots of Amsterdam magnets, Delft ware and other Amsterdam souvenirs.

At Leidseplein Square we could see why this area was so busy. For about a block in every direction there were nothing but sidewalk cafes.

From the Square we walked a mile down to the Central Library (next to the Central Train Station) for the view and dinner. Pat and Karen split a medium bowl of potatoes and bowl of fruit and a banana orange Smoothie and a Pepsi Max. The view was weird because it was from under a cement roof jutting out over you. There was nice seating outside, but since it was 45 and windy, we ate inside at the window.

After dinner we walked back to our place (no groceries tonight) along the canal we are staying on. It rained off and on today and was very windy at times, but it was also sunny part of the day and we even had hail.

04-24 The Hidden Church

Amsterdam is FULL of museums. They even have a history museum that they don't want to CALL a history museum. The Amsterdam (History) Museum is located in an old orphanage. They had a free audio tour and some videos for viewing as you made your way through the life of Amsterdam. 

A long time ago they build a city on both banks of the Amstel River. After they ran out of land to build on, they dammed up the river and called the city Amsterdam.Then there was an exhibit on Schiphol Airport, celebrating their 100th anniversary. It was mostly for kids, but had some interesting parts. I just wasn't impressed with this museum. 

After a stop at McDonald's for a coke and a McFlurry, we headed over to the Hidden Church, otherwise know as Our Lord in the Attic Museum. What a cool place and story. Really enjoyed seeing this place and it was very well done and thorough.

They had a self guided audio tour and it walked you through the church and the residency here and talked about the people who lived there. We heard why they met in secret - because the country had kicked out the Catholics in the 1500's and now Protestants were the religion of the land. Other religions were technically not allowed, but they were tolerated if they couldn't see it from the street.

It was very interesting that it took over 6 years and $13 million Euros to restore it. They bought the building next door, demolished it, and built a new entrance and gift shop. You enter the Hidden Church by going to the basement of the new building, under the street, and up the stairs of the Hidden Church's residence area.

We got to see their kitchen, the box beds they slept in (like cupboards), and the room with the big fireplace.

Then we continued on and proceeded upstairs to the church via very, very narrow winding steps. It was obvious that they took out the center section of the three upper floors and made a nice church upstairs from their residence.

We sat in the pews and listened to the info on building the church and about the bishop. We also saw the pipe organ and the door where the people coming to church would enter.

As we started our walk towards home it was time to start searching for dinner. I know, it seems like we're always searching for food! On the way we stopped at an automatic dinner place. I put $3.50 Euro coins in the slot and open the door and got a warm breaded chicken sandwich. Pat got a roasted chicken thigh from the man behind the counter and two Coke Lights (their version of a Diet Coke). It was not bad, had a flavorful sauce on it, and I liked it for a fast small dinner. 

Next we went to the de Bijenkorf store. It's their Nordstrom's.  We're looking for a travel alarm clock (seems I forgot mine) and a better curling iron. Didn't find either. Walked home with a stop at the grocery store (yes we are now European; shopping for groceries every night). Not my favorite, but we have to carry everything.

Once home we again get to enjoy our canal view with the boats going by and ice cream a little later.

04-23 Arriving Amsterdam

It's a short travel day for as as we make our way from Lisse to Amsterdam. It's a short walk (3/4 mile) to the bus this morning and the 9:05 bus arrives on time. They have these wonderful electronic reader boards that tell you when each of the bus numbers are going to arrive. 

At the airport we go inside to the train station to the ticket window and buy our tickets into Amsterdam Central. By 11am we have arrived at the station and deposited our luggage in the storage area ($7 per locker; we can fit one suitcase and a backpack in the small units). Here's another time that all of our planning and reading has helped us. Each section of lockers has it's own terminal. Lots of people standing around with their luggage waiting in the close-by sections for others to get done with the terminal. We zoomed past them to terminals further back that were empty.

Lunch and WiFi were obtained at McDonald's. They have a few big screens where you can order your own food. Once you were familiar with the setup it would be quick to do. Our credit cards don't work in these machines, so we ordered at the counter. Want a LARGE coke light? Nope - the larges are really mediums. Want some sauce for your fries? Extra charge. Want to use the bathroom after your meal? Extra charge. These Europeans - I think they want everybody to pee on the ground. I just don't understand charging paying customers.

Walking further along the main street called Damrak we arrive at the start of our Rick Steve's Jordaan Walking Tour. WHAT? The whole DAM SQUARE is full of amusement rides. Dam Square today is full of carnival rides and carnival food booths.

The aim of today's walk is get far from the maddening crowds and into the residential neighborhood of the Jordaan.

Karen never met a canal she didn't like and the 100's of pictures she is taking every day is proof of that. Of course, when you put canal houses, boat houses, tour boats, private boats, horse-drawn carriages, trees, and cafes all along the canal the pictures are there for the taking.

Amongst the quaint shops of the Jordaan, we came across this pretty cool one selling miniature patterns to help YOU make miniature dioramas.

It was a nice long walk and eventually we circled back to the hustle and bustle around the train station where we picked up our luggage and took the train one stop east closer to our apartment that we'll be at for 17 days.

Dinner was at the Burger Bar, a really small place with good grilled, fried burgers where you get to choose your meat, cheeses and extras.

The closest grocery store is only 1/4 mile away, Albert Heijn. We bought some groceries and carried them back to our room, where we arranged our new room, put our groceries and clothes away and enjoyed the lovely view of the canal out the window. You know, there are more boats going down the canal than there are cars going down the street.