Amsterdam

November 15-19

Our final stop in Europe is Amsterdam, a city both Cal and I have wanted to visit for a long time. When we were in Bordeaux, our lovely host Bonnie even commented, "You two look like Amsterdam people," which we took as a compliment. Amsterdam is famous for its welcoming of debauchery, but it is also an incredibly beautiful city with amazing things to see beyond the Red Light District (though of course we had to pay a visit there as well for the full experience).

Day 1: Van Gogh, Sinterklaas, and the Red Light District

After one of the longest travel days yet, including a delayed-then cancelled-then delayed again train, a train crammed so full of people than many were standing that also happened to include multiple crying babies, and yet another train that proved that teenagers are the same in every culture, we made it to Amsterdam late Saturday night. As soon as we stepped out of the central train station, I was in awe of the beautiful city around me. Lights shone on idyllic facades, and we watched the glitter on the canal waters as we walked to our hostel.

The next morning--our first real day in Amsterdam--we had breakfast in our hostel before heading out to the Van Gogh museum. Van Gogh has long been my favorite artist, and I was really excited to see so much of his work in person. Calvin, on the other hand, was just along for the ride. In his words, "I liked the parts that weren't Van Gogh!" The museum-provided audio tour was wonderful, taking you through the phases of Vincent's life and career along side his work, including excerpts from his letters to fully illustrate his personal experience. I teared up when I first saw the famous Sunflowers, and stood for long minutes in front of several paintings, enamored by the brush strokes and thick globs of paint that added dimension and feeling to seemingly simple scenes. There was also a temporary exhibition that included a recreation of Vincent's studio in the Yellow House in Arles, and that allowed you to try your hand at coloring your own creations.

"There are colors that make each other shine--that make a couple complete each other like man and wife." -Vincent Van Gogh

When we left the Van Gogh museum, we walked through the Christmas Market that has already set up in the square, including a skating rink. Already feeling the Yuletide spirit, we walked further back into the city and noticed barricades, children in costume, and a crowd forming. We walked closer to investigate and realized that it was the day that Sinterklaas made his arrival into Amsterdam, and we were just in time for the parade! We got hot dogs at a street cart and joined in the fray eagerly waiting Sinterklaas' arrival on a white horse.

Click here to see my video about the Sinterklaas parade!

After fully experiencing the Dutch Christmas spirit, we decided to head back to the center of town and listen to our first Rick Steves Audio Tour--the Red Light District. Listening to Uncle Rick talk about sex workers and dildos was a bit uncomfortable, but he did provide good context on how Amsterdam has become such a hot spot for activities that are illegal elsewhere. Interestingly, the city has been trying to reign in the prevalence of sex work over the past several years, and many of the windows identified by Rick are now empty or have been taken over by new, less taboo businesses. Still, we did see our fair share of fair women in the windows, which did provide a cultural experience in itself.

The other side of the tour was highlighting legal drug use in Amsterdam, which quite frankly felt a bit like old news to us Seattlites. Sure, the famous Amsterdam coffeehouses filled with smoke are a novelty, but walking by bud shops or passing through a cloud of skunky smoke on the street is really old hat for us at this point. It kind of felt like a night out on Capitol Hill!

Our feet fully aching from our long day, we briefly returned to our hostel for a quick rest before heading back out into the cold to find dinner. As I mentioned in our last post, we are now fully overbudget, so finding a place in the city that we can afford to eat is tricky. There aren't even any grocery stores nearby! We settled for some truly mediocre hamburgers and some really tasty fries, and decided that we were going to need to be okay eating a bit further into our Asia budget if we were going to be able to enjoy this city at all over the next several days.

Day 2: Anne Frank House, Laundry, and the Heart of Amsterdam

We awoke on our second day in Amsterdam to a beautiful, cold, sunny morning. After breakfast, we walked about 10 minutes to reach the Anne Frank House. This museum is built around the actual house where Anne Frank and her family hid from 1942-1944. The "Secret Annex" was above the warehouse where Anne's father Otto Frank had worked before going into hiding. Several of his former co-workers helped support the family while in hiding by purchasing extra ration coupons on the black market and smuggling in food and other resources. The museum is excellently done, with an audio tour that takes you through Anne's full story as well as the journey of Otto--the only of the residents of the Secret Annex to survive the war--from Auschwitz back to Amsterdam. The audio tour pauses in the middle of the tour as you walk through the actual Secret Annex where the Frank and Ven Pels families spent over two years in hiding. Even as you walk with the crowd of other visitors, there is a reverent silence throughout the space as you try to imagine the what the families went through as they lived in the small rooms.

After such a poignant morning, we had to shift gears to the rather banal task of doing our laundry. Throughout this trip, we have been able to persist between housesits, meaning we have been able to do our laundry for free whenever we made it to the next home. However, we have no scheduled sits in the foreseeable future, and we don't know what our next several stops will hold, so we felt we needed to set out from Amsterdam with the greatest possible amount of laundry clean and ready to go. We hauled our laundry bags down the street to a laundromat, where we ran into a very helpful woman who assisted us in deciphering the arcane texts plastered to the walls which tell one how to operate the machines. The washers took laundry tokens which could be purchased by feeding a 10€ (and ONLY a 10€) note into a machine, which would then give you 1 token and 3€ in change. The washers included detergent, so all you had to do was set the machine, insert your token, and wait. The dryers, on the other hand, took coins (the 3€ in change you received from the machine). Why such a complicated process? Why, to confuse hapless tourists into losing their money to the machines, of course! One such gentleman, burdened with a wet load of laundry, had clearly not interpreted the arcane texts correctly. In fact, he claimed to have attempted the operation four times, losing not only a substantial amount of money from his pocket, but also from the pockets of those foolish enough to donate to his ill-informed cause (yours truly). Fortunately, we read the instructions and followed the advice of our laundry spirit-guide, and we didn't lose any money (other than the 2€ we gave to the guy, who promptly tossed it into the token machine instead of directly into the dryer). While we waited, we went next door to a bar that served Belgian beer, which we fell in love with a few weeks ago when we were in Enghien, so the time passed happily.

We returned to the hostel briefly to pack away our crisply cleaned clothes, then set back out into the sunshine to explore more of the city. We stopped for a quick snack of Flemish Fries (the best of the fries we've had so far in our travels), then returned to the Central Station to start our second Rick Steves Tour. This one took us down the central area of Amsterdam, giving context to sites we had already seen and bringing us to new stops we hadn't explored yet. One of these new sights was the Het Begijnhof, a walled set of houses surrounding a 15th century church which was created to provide housing for women who were living on their own. A similar secluded housing arrangement exists in Bruges. The area is quiet and peaceful, and still provides subsidized social housing for women in need (mainly the elderly these days). The church itself is lovely, and is said to have been one of the final European churches where the Pilgrims prayed before setting off on the Mayflower! A lovely stained glass above the alter showcases this story.

We also indulged in some Dutch culinary delights. On the walk, we stopped so Cal could get a broodje haring (raw salted herring sandwich, with onions and pickles). I abstained from this edible adventure. Cal wishes he had as well. I will let him explain the experience in his own words:

It tastes alright, not unlike a sushi sort of situation, but I'll tell ya, that texture. It does not do it for me. Just a big ol' wet bite of raw fish you've got to muscle through. Like gnashing down on a loogie dipped in a harbor. All sorts of cold slime punctuated by a row of gelatinous ribs. Downing not only a salty seagull snack but also an undulating sense of dread that this is going to be the meal to take your guts out for a week. Zesty pickle though, so 9/10.

Later that night, we finally got the real Dutch delight--stroopwafel. A little shop down the street from our hostel makes them fresh, wish warm chocolate and the topping of your choosing. We got hazelnuts and enjoyed every last bite on the street, shivering as the warm treat made our hands and chins sticky.

Day 3: Haarlem

Our final day in Amsterdam actually took us outside the city. On the advice of Cal's parents (hi John and Heidi!), we took the short train ride out to Haarlem, a cute town about 20 minutes away. Like Amsterdam, the streets of Haarlem are mainly filled with bicycles, and many are closed to motor vehicles. The town is sandwiched between stripes of canals, which are crisscrossed by bridges that provide excellent views of the water. Essentially, Haarlem is like a quieter, cuter Amsterdam--we loved it!

We started out our day by just wandering around the streets a little bit. We stopped by a shop called "Catnap Books" that had English books and super cute cards and pins (but unfortunately no actual napping cats). Then, we journeyed over to one of the canals to see an actual windmill! At this point, we got caught in a complete downpour of hail, which brought a sudden (but unfortunately not immediate) end to our wandering. We found a cozy little cafe on the edge of the square to have a hot beverage and dry off before setting back out.

Once the worst of the weather had passed, and we had sufficiently warmed up again, we crossed the square to the famous St. Bavo church. This church was originally built in the 14th century and developed into a Protestant church during the Reformation. It is home to the largest organ in Holland at 30 meters tall with over 5000 pipes! This organ was famously played by 10 year old Mozart in 1766 and also by Handel on a visit to the area. We unfortunately did not hear it played, but just looking at the beautiful instrument was worth the price of admission.

After our reverent viewing of the organ, we continued to another church of sorts--the Jopenkerk Brewery. Another recommendation from the Brighams, this craft brewery is built into an old church, complete with stained glass behind the large brew kettles. We spent a lovely couple hours sampling a variety of the beers on tap, playing cribbage, and watching as one of the "Brew Crew" actually climbed into a (hopefully empty) brew kettle.

Our thirst properly quenched, we ventured back out into the cold and to the train station for the quick journey back to Amsterdam. From here, we settled in for a quiet final night in Europe. We packed our bags as much as possible so as to make the morning trip to the airport a bit easier. We found an Indonesian restaurant nearby with some tasty, warming soup on offer (Calvin's shoes still hadn't fully dried from the walk in the hail, so warming was necessary). And now, we sit in our quiet hostel, typing this, while other guests (who maybe haven't yet exceeded their budget) go out to explore the Amsterdam nightlife. But we are content with our cozy night in. We have the next phase of this adventure to prepare for--a whole new continent to visit! So we are happy to spend our last night away from the red lights and smoke-filled cafes, writing out our story for you.