The ship arrived and docked at Amsterdam during the night.
We usually would wake up when docking, because of all of the noise and
vibration.
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| The master and his subjects |
We missed this one, either due to the captain’s expertise, or most
probably due to the drinks the onboard ship credit purchased, as we were trying
to use it up! We arose early and got ready to disembark, having made
arrangements for a taxi to pick us up at 0930. We had breakfast with Dayne and
Pam and Leo and Agnes.
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| Wooden carved doorway |
Like us, Dayne and Pam were going to spend two days
touring Amsterdam, but our hotels were not close together and hooking up again
didn’t seem likely. We said our goodbyes and gathered our bags.
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| Amsterdam's canals |
Jane checked
out only to find we still had a ship’s credit, but it was just enough to buy
Dayne, Leo, and Capt. Larry Viking Cruise Line baseball caps, and that is what
she did. We left the ship to find our taxi waiting for us.
We arrived at the Hampshire Hotel on Rembrandtplein, or
Rembrandt Square. We picked this hotel because
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| A canal and interesting architecture |
we knew we would be walking the
streets of Amsterdam and thought it had a good central location. Our taxi
driver told us this was a really nice area. We were too early to check in, so
we left our bags with
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| Another canal shot |
the concierge in a luggage room and decided to take a walk to
see the sights. First we explored Rembrandt Square. The square is home to a
number of sculptures and other works of art, but the main attraction is a very
large bronze statue of the master painter surrounded by life-size sculptures of
the subjects he painted. This made for a very interesting outdoor art display
and was constantly being photographed by visitors and climbed upon by children.
Besides the artwork, the plaza is surrounded by architecturally interesting
buildings.
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| A canal boat |
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| Another canal boat |
We left the plaza and strolled along some nearby canals
watching the numerous canal boats leisurely transport their passengers
throughout the city’s canal system.
This maze of canals has earned Amsterdam
the moniker of
“Venice of the North.” We
continued our self-guided walking tour while trying to follow a map that
highlighted the city’s main attractions. We entered the main business
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| Flowers at a flower shop |
district
and were admiring the scenery when we spotted Pam and Dayne who were doing a
guided walking tour. We were so excited to see them that we momentarily
disrupted their tour with our hugging and squealing. We exchanged information
and decided to try and hook
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| Porn star wheels! |
up the next day. Pam pointed out Amsterdam’s famed
red light district to us and sketched out how to get there. Off we went.
WOW! The district certainly lives up to its reputation as a
free-swinging area. But taking pictures of the offerings is prohibited.
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| Museum of Prostitution |
As we walked through different sections we were somewhat
shocked at the explicit, unabashed displays of raw sex and sexual offerings.
After Capt. Larry’s third round trip (that’s a joke!), we decided to check out
the offerings in some of the sex shops…not that we were looking for anything!
We hesitated to go into some of these places, but finally
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| A major landmark |
figured we’d never
see any of these people again. Maybe we are getting old, but there were many
things that we could not figure out what they were or how they would be used,
and none of the items had instruction sheets!
Still having about
2 hours before check in,we wound our way back to Rembrandtplein and decided to have some lunch and people watch at a
sidewalk
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| Jane with the subjects |
café. We found a café, but it was situated very close to a coffee shop
and in very short order the cannabis-laced fumes emanating from the entrance were
starting to have an effect on us. Marijuana is legally sold in Amsterdam
through a network of coffee shops and one can always
identify these popular establishments from the
atmosphere that surrounds them.
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| More interesting architecture |
Not wanting to eat our lunch in these environs,
we moved to another café on the other side of the plaza. We ate our lunch,
drank some beers, and watched the people and street artists moving through the
square. After a couple of hours of people watching and a great lunch, we returned
to our hotel.
We checked in, organized our things, took a short power nap,
changed clothes, and decided to take a walk back into the city (and the Red
Light District again!). This trip was closer to dusk and the
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| The beautiful canals |
sights were much
more enticing. We went into a couple of the sex shops trying to do some
Christmas shopping and jokingly thought about buying some of the more bizarre items
to see if the people on our list would know what they were.
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| Another canal shot |
But after serious
consideration we thought better of it. It seemed like it might have been a good
idea! It was certainly a very interesting atmosphere. We grabbed a bite to eat
and returned to our room and crashed for the night. We were also contacted by
Dayne & Pam and it looked like we would be able to hook up tomorrow before
we returned to the states.
Our last full day in Amsterdam found us sleeping in a little
later than usual. After enjoying a light breakfast we killed some time walking
the canals and the Rembrandt Plaza waiting for our tour of the Anne Frank House
at 1340. We had been advised to purchase our tickets online so that we could
avoid the tremendously long
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| On the way to Anne Frank House |
line to get into this venue.
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| Canals and bicycles |
Jane received a text
from Pam suggesting that after our tour of the Anne Frank House, we meet and go
to some café for lunch. Sounded good to us! We headed out for a fairly long
walk to Anne’s place. As we were walking along one of the canals, we noticed
that several people were in swimsuits and were wet. Investigating further, we
found that there was some sort of canal swim event in which children and adults
of all ages had participated. Many of the swimmers had trophies and we
witnessed the unabashed modesty
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| Canal swimmers |
of Hollanders as they were changing from their
swimsuits into clothes right along the canal, making no attempt to conceal
their nudity from passerby eyes.
We arrived at the Anne Frank House and waited for our tour
time. At the appointed time we entered a side entrance for those that
pre-purchased tickets and immediately started our tour.
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| At the Anne Frank House |
The Ann Frank House is
about 8 Jewish people who hid from the Nazis, during their occupation of
Holland, in a secret annex behind Anne Frank’s father’s warehouse for his business
of making and selling jams. The four family members and four family friends hid
from the Nazis from June, 1942, to July, 1944 when they were finally discovered
and sent to Nazi concentration camps. What was striking about this ordeal was
the level of discreetness the family had to endure in order not to be detected.
While in hiding, Anne kept a diary of her
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| Singing competiton |
experience which became a widely read
and translated historical document. Anne died of a typhus infection in the
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in March, 1945, just a few weeks before the
camp was liberated by British forces in April. Only the father, Otto, survived
the camps. Going through the museum and annex which has been restored to its
original configuration, was a very sobering experience.
We exited the museum and found Pam & Dayne waiting for
us.
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| Spectators at the Cheese Museum |
They had visited the Van Gogh Museum instead of waiting in the long line at
Anne Frank House. Again, we were excited to see them. We walked along the
canals until we found a café to have some lunch. After lunch, we started our
walk back to our hotel. Along the way, we happened upon a street singing
contest of local amateur singing groups.
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| Singing competition participants |
We were told that these groups
regularly compete, not so much for prizes, but for the drinks they consume
during the competition. Capt. Larry and Dayne visited the Cheese Museum while
Pam and Jane window shopped at shops near the singing competition. We were
impressed with the groups’ performances, and finally parted ways when Pam &
Dayne hopped on a tram that would take them back to their hotel. We feel pretty
certain that we will encounter them again on some future travel.
We can’t leave Amsterdam without commenting on all of the
city’s museums that we saw. Most of these are
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| Tulip Museum |
tourist-trap sideshows and should
not be considered actual museums, but the diversity is interesting. Except for
the Cheese Museum, we didn’t go into any of these establishments, but saw the
Museum of Prostitution (naturally), the Sex Museum (naturally, again), the
Erotic Museum (there’s a theme here), the Hash, Marijuana, and Hemp Museum (go
figure), the Torture Museum (what a pain!), the Tattoo Museum, the Amsterdam
Dungeon, the Tulip Museum, and the Houseboat Museum.
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| Hash, Marijuana and Hemp Museum |
There are also some really
legitimate museums such as the Van Gogh Museum and the Rembrandt Museum. We
guess where there’s a tourist with a buck… But these attractions add to the sum
that makes Amsterdam so interesting. There was a Sunday afternoon art show in
Rembrandt Square which we viewed.
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| Some have it easy! |
We arrived back at our hotel, got our bags
ready for tomorrow’s departure, and just chilled out for the rest of the
afternoon and evening.
The next morning we caught a taxi to the airport and flew
first-class for our very first time back to the states. And that was our first
trip to Europe!
