04/14/2022: Amsterdam

After two years waiting for this trip, we’re finally in Amsterdam. Two years ago an Olivia cruise we signed up for was cancelled due to the start of the COVID epidemic in the U.S. We couldn’t get our money back, but we could book another trip. We chose a riverboat cruise down the Rhine from Amsterdam to Basel, Switzerland. The trip was cancelled last year due to Europe’s huge COVID numbers. But in 2022, we’re traveling!

We flew from Binghamton to Detroit and, of course, walked through our favorite tunnel from terminal C to terminal A.

After a meal in Detroit, we boarded our flight to Amsterdam, a 7-1/2 hour flight. Neither of us could sleep much on the plane and so we arrived in Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam shortly after 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, April 14th, feeling exhausted. We navigated our way through immigration, declared nothing in customs, and were out in the Schiphol Plaza pretty quickly. We found a ticket kiosk for the train we needed to take from the airport to the Central Station near our hotel, purchased our tickets and headed to the entrance to our train platform, which was underground. We thought we were taking an escalator down, but it was not moving. The stopped escalator was instead forming a bobsled run down a steep decline. I had hold of both rolling suitcases, which I managed to keep from whizzing down the decline. Christine didn’t fair so well with a heavy backpack in each hand. To prevent herself from falling due to the steep decline, she let go of one of the backpacks to catch hold of the railing. The backpack rolled down several feet to where I was able to stop it from rolling all the way down to the bottom. The look on the face of the guy behind Christine was one of panic because he didn’t know whether to catch Christine or go after the backpack. All’s well that ended well, however, and the two of us landed safely at the bottom with luggage and backpacks in hand still standing. It was a rather shocking experience, and totally unexpected.

The train service was great. Most of the trains are electric and are quiet, clean and very easy to use. We were at the Central Station in about 25 minutes. We exited the station and navigated our way to our hotel, about a 5 minute walk. One of the things of note in Amsterdam is that it is a bicycling city and bicycles ride on bicycle paths separate from car traffic. We heard that bicyclers “don’t have brakes or brains” and so it is extremely important to look both ways before crossing a bicycle path. You’re likely to get mowed down if you don’t.

We were happy to learn that our room was ready when we arrived at the hotel at about noon, 3-hours before check-in time. By then we were exhausted and ready to crash, which we did. Even after an afternoon nap we were too tired to do anything so we relaxed and stayed in our room.

Thursday morning we went for a short walk after breakfast and saw our first beautiful canal.

After our walk we came back to the hotel and went up to the top floor to the Skylounge, which provides a fantastic view of the area.

In the afternoon, we went on a 4-hour walking tour of Old Town. This tour was part of our Olivia pre-trip package. Our guide was Marieke and she was fantastic. We wish we had a recording of her commentary because she was so knowledgeable about all things Amsterdam and we had a great afternoon enjoying the lovely sunny weather, seeing the sites and learning some of the history of Amsterdam.

Amsterdam was founded in the 12th century. During the Dutch Golden Age in the 1600s, Amsterdam was one of the most important ports in the world. Today it is one of the top financial centers in Europe. It is a very cosmopolitan place along with its historic architecture in the Old Town. Our walking tour today was through much of the Old Town which has 1,600 bridges and over 100 canals covering about 80 miles in length. Amsterdam is often referred to as “The Venice of the North.” Many of the buildings in Old Town date back to the 1600s and demonstrate the shipping history, with many warehouses, now apartment buildings and shops, along the canals.

We saw an old tower, part of a city fortification, where Henry Hudson departed on his ship, the Halfmoon, to seek a westward route to Indonesia. The Dutch India Company was founded in Indonesia and there was hoped for a shorter route going westward. Of course, Henry Hudson discovered Manhattan, and then sailed up the eponymous river. New Amsterdam became New York City.

We learned why Dutch houses are narrow. Back in the early days (1500-1600s), housing was taxed by width, so the Dutch built their houses narrow and tall. Typically, a shop was at street (canal) level, the shopkeeper and family lived on the 2nd level, a warehouse for the shop was on the 3rd level, and the top level was rented out. Also, gables were really important and they showed prosperity, so everyone wanted their gable to be fancy. There were 3 styles, stepped, bell-shaped, and neck-shaped.

If you want to know why the bell-gabled building above is leaning, it’s because it is sinking. Most of the old buildings are built on wooden pilings driven into the flooded peatland. Over time, the pilings sink and so you see many leaning houses.

There are a number of beautiful churches in Old Town.

One way some of the shopkeepers advertise their location is by decorating a bicycle and placing it near their entrance. So in the photo below, the shopkeeper can say, “look for the leopard bicycle.” Another thing is the coffeshops.

You don’t go to a coffeshop to get a cup of coffee; you go to purchase and sit and smoke marijuana. Although not officially legal, use of marijuana is tolerated and you can smell it everywhere you go.

Amsterdam is a very gay-friendly city and has a neighborhood with lots of gay bars and restaurants. Amsterdam also is home to the Homomonument, which commemorates all gay men and lesbians who have been persecuted because of their sexual orientation. Opened on 5 September 1987, it was the first monument in the world to commemorate gays and lesbians who were killed by the Nazis. The Nazis made homosexuals wear cloth pink triangles pinned to their shirts and so the Homomonument is 3 pink triangles made of granite and symbolize the past, the present, and the future.

We walked past the Anne Frank house. In addition to the small house where the Frank’s secretly lived in the attic for 2 years there is a very large museum about the Frank’s experience and the Nazi persecution of Jews.

Here are more photos of the day.

We had a great afternoon exploring Old Town Amsterdam. Here’s a map. We walked over 4 miles in a loop through Old Town, around some of the Southern Canals, to the Western Canals, back through another part of Old Town, and back to the hotel. I was totally pooped out and my legs were tired and sore. Most of the walking was on cobblestone and rough pavement and you had to pay very close attention to lots of trip hazards. The women in our tour group were all good at keeping everyone apprised of upcoming hazards, which I really appreciated since most of the time my eyes were looking up and swiveling around like crazy.