Chilling Out in Amsterdam

I’ve returned from Holland! The weather was everything but warm. Michele and I enjoyed some moments of clear skies and sun, but we also experienced rain, sleet, hail and snow during the trip. All of these seemed to spontaneously appear out of nowhere. I have never been so cold!

We arrived on Thursday afternoon, and took the train from Schiphol Airport to Centraal Station – what a busy place! It reminded me of Grand Central in New York: not quite as busy, but in a grand building with a melting pot of people from everywhere going everywhere. We wound our way out of the station and into the streets of Amsterdam.

The first thing that blew me away was the sight of what looked like a billion bicycles, parked along the canal. Rush hour each day turned out to be more bicycles than cars, trams or buses. One of the highlights of the trip was seeing the evening commuting cyclists with their umbrellas in one hand and one handlebar in the other. I thought, “Bicycles and umbrellas don’t mix!” I couldn’t imagine being that coordinated.

The second thing that struck me was the shapes of the narrow old houses, leaning along the canal. Next I noticed that winter was in full effect in Amsterdam, as there was hardly a leaf to be found in the city. It was not too cold when we arrived, but then again we were carrying and rolling our luggage to the b&b, so our minds were occupied with the hunt for our destination. It was a struggle keeping the photo stops to a minimum as we journeyed through the charming city.

We arrived at the B&B Jordaan at 2:00, as scheduled, and rang the doorbell. Paul came to the door and introduced himself, shook our hands and led the way up the stairs to our room. It was a large, nicely decorated room with twin beds, a table, a wardrobe and a bathroom. Simple and sweet. Paul’s wife Charlotte came to check us in. She answered our questions about the city and when to see what, and after a pleasant conversation about what to eat, drink and see in Amsterdam, we were on our way to the Van Gogh Museum.

The walk was a bit long and a little confusing. We had to refer to the map several times as well as watching the directional signs pointing every which way. We strolled through a park and saw a dog swimming in a big pond, which made me shiver to think about it. By this time, it was around 4:00 and starting to get a bit chilly. Well, that’s an understatement. It was very cold. I almost never wear gloves, and I had to put them on as we wandered the streets. It only got colder during the rest of our time there.

The museum was amazing. I never get tired of seeing the paintings I saw in Art History books during school in real life – on the canvas right in front of me. There is something awe-inspiring about standing in front of the very canvas that Van Gogh toiled over before anyone – even he, himself – knew it would be a masterpiece. We saw his darker, earlier works right up through the beautiful, brightly colored irises and sunflowers he later painted, advised to use more color by his brother, Theo. We learned of his life and death, and the story of his collection.

When we left the museum, it was most definitely dark and we were feeling a bit peckish. We went to Wagamama, an Asian noodle place in Max Euweplein, a plaza near the southern central part of the city. It was nice to get a hot plate of fried rice and a cold Kirin and a much needed break from the cold. As we left the plaza after our dinner, we strolled up to the Dam, another large plaza in the very heart of Amsterdam. On the Dam are, amongst a host of tourists from all over the world wandering about, the Royal Palace, the National Monument and the New Church. That night it was a busy place, and unfortunately also the place where it began to rain on us.

I can deal with rain; after all, I have practice nearly two or three times a week living in Dublin. When you are sightseeing in the freezing cold, it’s not the most fun. We battled our hats, hoods and even my umbrella made an appearance. The whole thing was made even more comical since we had to constantly refer to the map, jumping under whatever awning was nearby. We accidentally ended up in the Red Light District, and I have to say it wasn’t my favorite place. Alas, we made it through the seedy neighborhoods and back to our own side of town. We found a bar close to the b&b, sat at the bar and ordered a Heineken. The music in this place was downright hideous. It sounded like we’d stumbled into an eighties movie – and NOT a fun one! It didn’t take me long to become completely uncomfortable when the hovering bartender and this old guy were sitting no more than two feet away from me all quiet and staring. We decided to call it a night when it was raining and hailing sporadically as we left the bar.

The next morning we got ready and went to Anne Frank’s house. The canal house was actually an office, and the secret annex where the family and others lived in hiding is the top floors of the old house. The tour was incredible. They had film footage of one of the helpers talking about the hiding period, and even a video of Anne’s father, who found and had the diary published after Anne’s death. There were clipped photos from magazines on the walls of the room that Anne slept in that she pasted there for decoration. The last room contained her original diary, which was particularly moving. I’m reading the book right now and it means much more since I was just in the house she wrote in and about. It’s hard to believe a little girl went through that kind of thing and captured the moments in a diary.

We decided to buy tickets for the “Fun hop on, hop off canal bus” (actually a boat) after we left Anne Frank’s house. This decision was made just after a pretty severe hail storm that left us soaked and freezing in a little stationery shop. We got warmed up and a little bit drier before walking to the boat stop. As soon as I bought my ticket, it was blown from my hands by the gusting wind and directly under the planks that served as the ticket office’s floor. Luckily, the ticket salesman saw it happen, so I was given another ticket. We soon learned that the tickets were fairly unnecessary because not one person ever looked at it again.

We rode the “fun” canal bus to the Rijksmuseum stop and walked over to the Heineken Experience, which lifted our spirits after the heavy tour of the Anne Frank house. I liked this better than the Guinness Storehouse. Heineken had much more to offer – a Brew You Ride, where you virtually experience being the beer as it is brewed, bottled, and sent off to a party. The floor beneath you moves and shakes! They also had places where you could bottle your own beer with your name on it, make a music video, and watch old Heineken commercials in a little green-lit pod. AND you get TWO free Heinekens!! Total score.

After our Heineken experience and getting caught in more hail (very hard this time) we ate lunch at a very cute café where the waiter translated the entire lunch menu from Dutch to English for us. He was friendly and we got our food quickly - I had chicken with mozzarella on a ciabatta with rocket and it was very good. Michele had a rib-eye sandwich that looked delicious too!

We got back to the boat and rode the entire tour around the canals, learning more about Amsterdam along the way. We discovered that the canals are over 100 kilometers in length and only nine feet deep. We learned that the houses all have hoisting hooks on their roofs to aid in moving furniture to the higher floors through windows. I can think of a couple of times that might have come in handy for my moves!

After we got off the tour, we strolled back to the b&b for some rest and I tried to plan out where we could go for dinner that evening. We’d been rained and hailed on all day and were wiped out and didn’t care to walk around much in the bad weather again. I found a couple of local places and we tried one first that was supposed to have bitterballen, which is a traditional Dutch dish of meat balls made with meat and potato, but they didn’t have it. We drank some Heineken and moved on. We came to a busy street and saw plenty of pizza places and cafes, but we ended up back near the b&b at a Tapas restaurant. The place was dark, barely lit by more than candles. Michele said it looked like a vampire place. I could see that. The menu, again, was in Dutch, so we ordered Tapas voor Twee (tapas for two) and hoped for the best. The wait was a bit long, but the restaurant was really entertaining, with a few big crowds being noisy, even singing Dutch songs that could have been school songs? We weren’t sure, but it was fun to listen to and even more fun to watch. After a salad, some calamari, some chicken, some sardines (only I ate those), some olives, some pork and some bread we left stuffed. It was pretty late so we went back to the b&b and hit the sack.

Saturday morning we watched the snow while we ate our breakfast, checked out and walked to the bus stop to wait for the bus to Centraal Station. While we were there, it snowed again, and I thought about how much nicer snow is when you’re watching it from inside a nice warm place. We rented a locker for our luggage inside Centraal Station and caught the canal tour again since our tickets were good until noon. This time we rode to Waterlooplein to see City Hall, the music theatre and the Waterlooplein Flea Market, where I am proud to say I bought a Big Lebowski t-shirt. I also bought some socks to replace the ones I had on, which were soaking wet.

After the market we sat inside a coffee shop for a while with a hot chocolate (Michele) and a chai latte (for me). I changed my socks and began to feel thawed. We walked to the Dam after our toasty beverages, to see it in the daytime. It was such a nice walk. We had blue skies for about two hours while we strolled and stopped into a few souvenir shops and markets along the way. As we approached the Dam, it began to hail again… the hard stuff! We hid under an awning and then ran into a store across the way.

It was at this point I realized my socks were not defective – my shoes were. Apparently they were leaking from the soles and my feet were again soaking wet and freezing cold. Beginning to worry about frost bite, we snapped a few photos and headed back toward Centraal Station to get into the lockers so that I could change my shoes. We had to pay again, but it was worth it. I had dry feet for the rest of the day and was a lot happier for it.

We asked for directions to a spot called Elf for lunch and took a long walk there only to realize it was closed. Anyway, it was a nice walk because it wasn’t raining, snowing or hailing and the sky was even a bit blue. We walked back into the center of town for lunch at this really weird place that had steaks and stuff. This place was near the touristy place with all the coffee shops, so we were a bit concerned about the quality. We had salads with grilled chicken and surprisingly it was very good.

We made a few more sightseeing stops and then headed for the airport, which we hate by the way. This place was monstrous, first of all. The signs are a little confusing and from what we could tell you can’t check in with a human, it is done only by the electronic kiosks. Therefore we were not able to sit together on the plane, since I had booked a seat and Michele had not. To make matters worse, the security checks happen at the gates, which you would think is more effective, but I now have my doubts. When we got to the gate, we went through security where I was yelled at not ABOUT my liquids, but about the container they were in. It’s clear plastic, but too big apparently. I have traveled to and from the US, Scotland, Austria, Italy, and Sweden and have never had a problem. Anyway, they let me through and I tried to get into the next part of a divided seating area but had to show my boarding pass, to which the man remarked, “We are sending you to London Heathrow.” I said, “I don’t want to go to London Heathrow.” He told me to go sit back down in the first area to wait for the Dublin flight. There were more seats in the second area, and no one was sitting in them because they were boarding the plane for London. Confused, I sat back down, enduring Mr. Jokey Jokemaker’s jab that I just didn’t want to go to London because Madonna had left. Hardy har har. Then another guy came up to us and told us we’d have to go through security again because they were going to close up again before the Dublin flight. Irate, we walked back out to the front and I HAPPENED to notice that the gate for Dublin had changed (no one told us, so I’m glad I saw it by accident). We proceeded to the new gate, where there were no chairs outside the security and boarding area. What confusion! Before too long, we were on the flight and all was well except for the dozen or so babies on the plane. But hey, that’s how it goes sometimes.

All-in-all, a really good trip despite the bad weather, wet socks and airport confusion.