Amsterdam

It’s been 4 years since I was last in Amsterdam. I absolutely loved it, so I had set the expectation bar pretty high for Jacob. I was going to show Jacob the ropes— but since it’s been 4 years since I last visited, I didn’t really remember that much about how to get to and fro’. Mostly I had a loose mental map of some of the major tourist attractions, parks, and pleins. Thankfully, we had a map.

Amsterdam is a beautiful city. Gorgeous old buildings with intricate detail, tree-lined canals, and cobblestone streets. It’s the beauty of Bruges, with the hustle and bustle of a big city, and the sights are within walking distance of each other and plentiful, which makes it easy to see a lot of stuff in Amsterdam.

But man oh man, there are a lot of tourist. I had either conveniently forgotten this OR perhaps there really were more tourists—in ’06 I was there at the end of October, rather than the end of September. Or perhaps it’s because we arrived on a Friday night?

But no matter—rarely did those pesky tourists interfere with the likes of seasoned travelers like Jacob and me (going on three weeks now!). Not sure about you all, but I was a fan of the format of my last Bruges post—Other Bruges topics. It was easy to write. And I like that becuz I don’t’ right so good.

Dutch Resistance Museum

We woke up early(ish) our first day in Amsterdam to go to the Dutch Resistance Museum. It was sunny when we woke up, but by the time we got out it was rainy. Oh well, we were going to a museum. And it was a really fascinating museum dedicated to telling the story of all the various ways people in the Netherlands resisted Nazi occupation and the war in general. From an imprisoned women sewing her captors socks shut, to publishing underground newspapers, to creating false papers for Jewish children and “adopting” them into families to protect them, to massive protests, the Dutch seemed to find many ways to resist. I’d highly recommend the museum to anyone—Jacob and I learned a lot and it gave us a broader understanding of WWII in general.

Anne Frank House

We went to the Anne Frank House the same day as the Dutch Resistance Museum. It seemed to make sense that way. As we waited in the massively long line to tour the secret annex behind the book case that Anne Frank and her 6 roommates occupied for two years, we thought about the impact that Anne Frank has had across the world. People from all walks of life, speaking all kinds of different languages joined us in line. It was truly astounding and incredibly powerful to see how her story has touched so many.

Touring the annex and the adjoining museum was a very moving experience and the museum does an excellent job getting people to think about the issue of hate and what we can do to stop it. Again, if you are ever in Amsterdam, this is a must see.

House Boat Museum

For 3 Euro each, Jacob and I got to step inside a houseboat --you can’t help but wonder what it would be like to live in one when you see all those houseboats lining the canals. It was a quick tour but fun to see what it was like inside. Living in a housebot could be fun, but I think I’d need to step inside a larger houseboat to know for sure.

Electric Ladyland

We read about this place in our guide book. It’s a museum dedicated to fluorescent art and fluorescence found in nature as well as everyday objects. It sounded pretty sweet, so on another cloudy, rainy day, we headed to the other side of the city to check it out. The main floor is store which sells lots of fun prints and art. A friendly woman greeted us, told us a little bit about what we’d see in the museum which was downstairs, collected our entrance fee, and enthusiastically held up a black light to our 10 Euro bill and showed us the various parts that gave off the fluorescent neon glow. Who knew?

I must admit I was a little creeped out about going into the basement museum area. We climbed down a very steep stair case (really more of a ladder) into a dark room with a low ceiling. Once we were down there we were greeted by a kind, bearded fellow who told us bit more about what were seeing. And what were we seeing exactly? Well the main feature was this huge fluorescent sculpture, which were encouraged to crawl around in, touch, and explore.

Within the sculpture there were little caverns that you could look into and see glowing rocks, crystals, and some bizarre little scenes with glowing statuettes.

It was a very interesting experience, but eventually it got a little too stuffy down there and my claustrophobia started to kick in, so it was time to leave. It was a cool sight to see and the staff was very enthusiastic, well-informed, and eager to tell you about fluorescence. I’d recommend it if you have more than a couple of days in Amsterdam.

Canal Boat Tour

What trip to Amsterdam is complete without a canal boat tour? No trip. That’s the answer. On one of the few sunny days we had there, we hopped on the first (and cheapest!) canal boat tour we could find. From the pictures it looks like no one was on the tour boat, but that wasn’t the case. Much like a school bus, everybody sat in the back (that's where all the cool kids sit). ANYWAY, the narrated tour left something to be desired, but for the price, we were just pleased to be driven around the canals so we could snap photos. So that’s what we did, while a nice fall breeze drifted through the open windows of our boat.

Pedestrians, Shmedestrians

Everybody knows that Amsterdam is big biking city. And it is. And that’s really cool. But you know how in America, people in cars get all angry and annoyed when they have to pass a biker? Well I feel like it’s like that in Amsterdam, only it’s the bikers getting all upset at the walkers. It’s hard to be a pedestrian in Amsterdam. You have to watch out for cars, trams, AND a constant stream of bikes. That wouldn’t be such a huge issue if Amsterdam had ample sidewalk space for walkers. It would seem, however, that the city has chosen to dedicate most of that space to bike lanes. In many spots, Jacob and I had to weave around planters, trash cans, trees, and barricade posts that were in the “walking area.” Sometimes the street was safer than the sidewalk.

Hamkas

One of my favorite things about being in other countries is going to the grocery store. It’s fun to look at the different kinds of products they offer, as well the flavors of familiar brands that aren’t available in the U.S. While we were shopping in the Albert Heijn grocery store, we came across a brand of chips called Hamkas. The package showed a chip that looked very similar to Cheetos Checkers. No-longer in production, these cheetos had a grid-like shape, and were a little more substantial than a standard cheeto. I was a huge fan of them in my youth, so I was very excited to see a similar product. I showed Jacob—we both agreed, “Yes to Hamkas.”

Boy were we wrong. The first bite was absolutely disgusting. It was so gross that I couldn’t take another bite. That’s saying a lot for a self-professed “Chip-lover” whose normal pickiness is never an issue in the chip world. It tasted more like the way ham-flavored dogfood smells. Jacob tried one. He agreed. I think we had been thrown off by the farmer who was wielding a pitchfork full of cheese on the front of the bag. Hamkas, meet the trash can. Of course this is all completely subjective.

Beth Nielsen Chapman at the Paradiso

It just so happened that an incredible songwriter, performer, and friend was in town playing at the Paradiso, so we headed down to her concert on a Sunday night. I’d liken the venue to First Avenue--- it had a large main room, with a smaller venue in the same building. The building used to be an old church, so the rooms were far more ornate and classy then a standard club. We had a great time seeing Beth perform--- she is amazingly talented and we had a blast at her show. It was fun to mingle with some of the locals who were there enjoying the show too. Check out Beth’s website!

Vondel Park

The Vondel Park is a large park just outside the city center. I wanted to make sure Jacob got to see it, because I always felt it reminded me a little bit of Lake of the Isles—lots of trees, weeping willows, water, and large homes. We went there on a beautiful day to have a picnic. More on that later though. It’s a very nice park, and clearly well-loved. The place was packed with locals out for strolls with their dogs running freely beside them, people tossing around a Frisbee, children playing on playgrounds, and other picnickers. Just like Minnesotans, Amsterdam citizens know a good day when they see one and they take full advantage of it.

Specialty Shops

One of my other favorite things about being in a foreign country is checking out all the neat specialty shops that they have there. One shop that we went in to was dedicted to action figures, mostly from the 80s and 90s. The store had a real real pop-culture sensibility. It was there that Jacob found a Joker action figure—one that he had when he was younger and cherished, but mysteriously disappeared (stolen by the real Joker?). He’d been looking for another one for about the past 20 years and he finally found it in Amsterdam. Very cool. My favorite shop was “Kitsch Kitchen,” a shop which sold large variety of goods (Cookware, furniture, purses, accessories, gadgets), mostly in bright colored plastics. They also had lots of junky toys that you might purchase with tickets at a Chuck E. Cheese. I love these kinds of things. They had a really neat chair there that I wanted but, alas, it wouldn’t fit in my backpack.

MY BIRTHDAY

While in Amsterdam, I also celebrated my golden birthday! How exciting, right? I thought so! Ever since I was little I dreamed about my golden birthday, jealous of my friends who got to celebrate when they were 10, 12, 15 etc. I woke up on my birthday to a rainy day—something that I’m not really used to in Minnesota where 9 times out of 10, it’s a beautiful fall day. Europe didn’t get the memo on that one. Before we could start celebrating, we had to run an errand to pick up a train ticket at the fed ex store by the airport. That involved taking a train to Schipol, and a bus to the fed ex location.

By the time we got back it was almost 2, so we celebrated by having a late breakfast of pancakes and beer!

It was still raining, but that didn’t stop us from wandering around the city and shopping for several hours. I had wanted to go to some museums, but none of any interest were open—so we headed back to the hotel for a nice birthday nap. After the nap, Jacob surprised me with some fun gifts he had picked up in Bruges.

After that we headed out for dinner (cheap Italian food. Yum!), and then sang some karaoke and called it a night. It wasn’t as glamorous as I had thought it would be, but it was a very memorable experience, and feel glad that I could experience my golden birthday at an age where I can fully appreciate it-- And in Europe, no less!