Hello again!
I haven't posted for the past two days, which hasn't been for a lack of pictures (I have about 200 waiting in line), but because Tuesday and Wednesday are my busiest days with the kids.
Last Sunday I decided to venture down to Amsterdam. It was my first trip by train, if you don't count coming from the airport on the first day.
This is the train station in Bussum. With my discount card, a return train trip to Amsterdam is 4.40 Euros. That's just a bit more than what I paid for my milkshake from Burger King in Hilversum.
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This was my first trip to a major European city. The airport is pretty far outside city limits, so I saw nothing when I first got here.
Amsterdam is--and I employ no hyperbole when I say this--the most amazing place I have ever seen in my entire life.
This is how it looks when you first emerge from the train station. My excitement was palpable.
I took over a hundred pictures during my trip, and it was only an afternoon excursion!
I'm going to seperate the pictures into different areas in order to try and give a sense of the city to those who have never been there. Of course, it's impossible to really convey the beauty and liveliness of the place through second-hand methods, but I'll do what I can.
The Streets
The heart of Amsterdam, the oldest part of the city, radiates outwards from the train station. It's full of narrow alleyways and layered with shop after shop. To the Vancouverites, think how it would be if Robson Street covered the entire downtown, was three times as narrow, and hundreds of years older. (Also, the occasional whiff of marijuana smoke comes not from grungy back alleys, but from funky little coffee shops with names like Route 666).
The buzz on the streets was infectious and neverending. I felt like I could spend a month exploring the different passages and never see the same place twice. One could find chain stores and corporations, but mostly it was independent shops selling anything and everything you could conceive. There were gorgeous women everywhere; I routinely walked into poles and stepped into traffic watching girls cycle by.
The Canals
My guide books like to say that Amsterdam is fun, if you don't mind the seediness and grime. I think they're completely mistaken. Every major city in the world has a bit of an underbelly, but Amsterdam's is, if anything, less troubling because it's all regulated and localized. (more on this later).
But how many major cities can boast of aesthetic like this? After walking alongside the countless canals in the downtown area, I had to remind myself that this wasn't just a tourist trap: for many people, this is where they live!! I can't imagine seeing it every morning, and I used to wake up next to Vancouver's biggest beachfront.
After what was about an hour of wandering around, I decided to check out a museum on the history of the city itself. Amsterdam is extremely nice for an English-speaker such as myself because it's basically a bilingual city. Every museum exhibit was in Dutch as well as English.
Dam Square
So, with my new knowledge, I could now identify many of the buildings I had seen.
The heart of the heart of Amsterdam is Dam Square, the historic gathering place of the city. Today the square is surrounded by massive buildings and still filled with people. These buildings are among the most impressive and storied of the whole city, and I'll go into detail about them below.
The Royal Palace
Once you set your eyes on the Royal Palace, it takes some effort to turn away. It dominates the Square.
Construction began on it in 1648 and completed seven years later. It first served as a town hall (Europe's largest administrative building at the time), and eventually became a palace to Napoleon Bonaparte's brother, among others.
I'm still not completely clear on what function the building serves today. It did not appear that it was possible to get inside.
Nieuwe Kerk (The New Church)
This was originally built in the 1400s, and was the first Protestant church built in Amsterdam (if I'm remembering the museum correctly). It burnt down almost completely in 1645, and was rebuilt in a Gothic style. It sits directly beside the Royal Palace.
It's a creepy but impressive building. It is used primarly as an exhibition space, and it currently has a large exhibition on "Dutch heroes", as well as certain art pieces on loan from other museums.
Magna Plaza
This actually sits just behind Dam Sqaure. I'm not even sure how old the building is, but it's a massive and eye-catching structure.
Before getting to the last picture, see if you can guess what's inside.
Only in Amsterdam: a shopping mall!
The National Monument
It sits on the opposite side of Dam Square from the Royal Palace. It was erected as a memorial to the victims of World War II.
The Rijksmuseum
We are no longer in Dam Square; this is on the far side of the downtown district from the train station.
The Rijksmuseum is a massive art museum, the biggest in Holland and one of the biggest in Europe. Its collection is usually in the thousands, but it only has about 200 at the moment because of major renovations due to complete in 2009. It's most famous piece is Nightwatch by Rembrandt.
The Red Light District
My guide book says: "You're not fooling anyone. Everyone who goes to Amsterdam ends up doing some 'window shopping'."
Well, of course I had to go check it out for, um, cultural reasons.
It's very strange. I didn't take any pictures, except for the irresistable one below, because I felt weird walking around there with a camera. Basically, there are a ton of alleyways and along them are little doorways that either have a girl in them or they don't.
I thought a lot about this while I was there. It's hard to imagine a more degrading situation for a female to be in.
But prostitution happens whether it's legal or not. The Red Light district is full people, you know exactly where it is in the city and can avoid it if you want, and it's regularly patrolled by police. I would rather spend three hours in the Red Light district than three minutes in the Downtown Eastside in Vancouver.
All that said, I felt terribly sorry for the women behind the doors. What a life.
The Rest
Obviously, I haven't even scratched the surface of the city, but there's only so much a guy can do in a few hours. I spent my last 90 minutes just wandering the streets again. It is absolutely staggering how many times you round a corner and are facing a mind-blowingly huge and ancient structure, the kind that just takes your breath away. I don't know what most of these buildings even are. Some are clearly churches, but others...who knows?!
If you ever saw one of these buildings in Canada it'd be listed as a national treasure; in Amsterdam, it's, oh, the grocery store.
This was my last view of Amsterdam.
3 comments:
Makes the little church at Kelwood look really little, eh? Thanks for bringing Amsterdam to life for us. Any people pictures in that camera of yours?
Not sure what happened to my posting name, but tis me, your aunt.
Reading your blog was a nice way to spend my morning off. Makes me want to go there. Guess you're saving Anne Frank's house for when your mom is there hey?
The smallest church in the smallest town of Holland makes the Kelwood church look little. (Actually, most of the churches in Canada do too....). But it is amazing how dominant the churches are here in relation to the other buildings.
As for Anne Frank's house, I was there but didn't go inside. It's not a noteworthy building from the outside; it'd be pretty easy to pass it by if it weren't for the lineup of people.
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