Amsterdam, Netherlands

SUN., AUG. 27 thru FRI., SEPT. 1, 2023

After trying multiple times to go on a British Isles cruise but being thwarted by a worldwide pandemic for several years, Gary & I finally were able to make it happen. Since good things happen to those who wait, we decided to build in a 5-night visit to Amsterdam before boarding our ship for the British Isles. After leaving our tiny home parked at a campground in New Hudson, MI, we flew out from Detroit with a layover in Newark before our 7+ hour flight to Amsterdam. Since we had splurged on purchasing “business class” seats, we enjoyed a meal on real china, then stretched out for the long flight. While we didn’t exactly sleep a lot, we did appreciate the comfortable roomy reclining seats. Well worth the added expense! We arrived in Amsterdam on Monday morning, August 28th.

No language barrier here, the locals all speak Dutch and English. It’s taught in school from a young age. We very quickly learned to watch out for the bicyclists. They are everywhere, and pedestrians definitely do not have the right-of-way. We took an Uber from the airport to the hotel and were able to check in early. Our home for the next 5 nights is the INK Hotel. It used to be a printing shop back in the day, which warms the cockles of this retired graphic designer’s heart. Artifacts still remain. It’s located in the heart of the city so a great location. 

We hadn’t eaten anything in a while so managed to get to the hotel restaurant for a late breakfast before they closed. It set us back over $50. That was the first and last time we ate at the hotel restaurant. Our friends Linda & Phil from Massachusetts were due at the hotel later in the afternoon. We’re doing this little adventure together!

After a 2-hour nap and gathering intel from the hotel clerk, Gary & I headed out on our first tram ride to visit the “Heineken Experience.” 

My beloved Aunt Grace worked for the NY importer of Heineken for over 40 years and made several trips to “Holland.”  I envisioned her walking these same steps in this historic old brewhouse. This is a popular tour so a busy place! Lots of young people! The brewhouse with its copper kettles opened in 1913, and remained operational until 1988. There are beautiful arched stained glass windows in the building, and, of course the copper kettles. Just gorgeous. Apparently Heineken thinks historic old brewhouses aren’t enough of a wow factor for their tour. They also have a glitzy interactive experience… you walk into a multi-sensory room and become a bottle of beer. I thought it was cool, Gary thought it was hokey. Potato… Potahto. And, if you were a real Heineken lover you could spend some extra money and walk away with your very own label on your very own Heineken beer.  Of course free samples were part of the tour. Plus we spent a little extra money and were able to head up to the rooftop for the view and some of their specialty drinks. I had beer mixed with some fruity/minty something-or-other which was not my favorite. 

After the tour and another tram ride, we were making our way back to the hotel when we bumped into Linda & Phil on the street. Perfect timing! Our international pod headed back to our room to crack open the cheese Gary and I had just purchased at a local shop. Unfortunately, we had no wine to accompany it. We chatted for a bit then headed out for dinner at a local restaurant. Gary had done a fair amount of checking on restaurants before we left home so we had some good dining options lined up. This one was called the Grand Cafe 1884. Charming local restaurant with water views. We all enjoyed our meals. Then we headed to LuminAir, “The Bar Above Amsterdam.” It’s located on the top floor of the DoubleTree by Central Station. We enjoyed great views with good (if expensive) drinks. We didn’t stay too long as it was getting chilly! Then it was time to walk back to the hotel with the city’s lights coming on… a great first day!

 

Day 2 in Amsterdam, Tuesday, August 29th… the four of us walked to Greenwoods Singel, a lovely small cafe for breakfast where we struck up a conversation with an English couple as we sat overlooking one of the canals. When the husband learned we live full-time in our RV and travel around the country, he called us “gray nomads.” That’s a term I hadn’t heard before!

After breakfast we had tickets for a canal boat cruise. Fun to drift along eyeing all the houseboats, bridges adorned with flowers, and houses lining the canals. We even saw the narrowest house in Amsterdam… I think several hold that title! 

Some interesting facts we learned about canal living:

• The 300-year old houses along the canals are very narrow and tall because they were built to minimize on taxes, and the way to do that was to keep the footprint small. 
• The houses are built tilted outward and with a hook at the top so that furniture can be raised and brought in through the windows to avoid the (too) narrow staircases. Wild.
• The canals are about 9 ft deep. 
• There are approx. 200,000 houseboat permits in Amsterdam. When someone buys a used houseboat, they also get the permit. I assume if someone wants to scrap that houseboat and buy a new one, then they can use the same permit. Kind of like buying a house in the states for the water view and then tearing down the house and starting anew. 
• People who have homes or apartments adjacent to one of the canals, but no balcony or outdoor space, will tie up a small boat in the canal in front of their home. The boat, which doesn’t move, serves as their outdoor space.
• Our guide said you can tell which houseboats are owned by the Dutch and which are being used as rentals if you look at the windows. Closed curtains means they’re rentals being used by tourists. The Dutch feel they have nothing to hide so they keep their curtains open! Haha. We did see this so can vouch for its accuracy! 

After the canal cruise, we visited the Royal Palace, considered the 8th wonder of the world when it was built. For more than 200 years, the Royal Palace has been one of the residences of the Dutch head of state. The palace is the official reception palace of King Willem-Alexander, and it is beautiful.

By then we were starving and had lunch at Blue Amsterdam with an eclectic menu and nice rooftop views. Afterwards we did a guided walking tour of the historic Jewish quarter. For centuries before World War II, this area, called The Jodenbuurt, was the center of the Jews of Amsterdam — its name literally means Jewish quarter. The Dutch people tried to help their Jewish friends in Amsterdam at the start of WWII but the Dutch government capitulated early on and Nazis came to power. This is why there is no WWII bomb damage in Amsterdam. As a sign of remembrance, there are plaques inlaid in the streets with the names of Jews who were taken from their homes never to be seen again. 

Going back well before WWII, the Jewish quarter was quite diverse and many artists lived in the area. Rembrandt lived in this area for over 20 years… Rembrandt’s House Museum is a popular tourist destination.

After our walking tour, we visited the Anne Frank House. We had purchased tickets months in advance. Amazing and so moving to see the actual rooms where Anne and her family hid and the incredibly narrow and steep staircases. There were posters on the wall that Anne herself had hung when she lived there. No photos were allowed inside the building. Anne and her family ended up on the last cattle car to Auschwitz. All died except her father who was rescued by the allied soldiers. So many sad stories related to WWII. 

There are three versions of Anne’s famous diary. The one she originally wrote where she complains about her sister, talks about a boy she likes, complains about having to share a room with someone,… basically all the things a normal teenage girl would talk and complain about. Then there’s the second version that she herself edited down while in hiding. The one that is more widely distributed is the one that her father edited. Miep Gies, one of the people who helped the family while they were in hiding, rescued all of Anne’s diaries after the family was taken away and gave them to her father after the war. 

We capped off the day with dinner at a local Dutch restaurant, Cafe Sonneveld, where we had no reservation and the place was packed but somehow we scored the best table in the house with a great server. Afterwards we enjoyed a pretty walk back to the hotel with the city lights shining off the canals. 

Every corner you turn in this city is another picture postcard. A tiring but fun day. 

 

Day 3 in Amsterdam, Wed., Aug. 30th… we woke up to rain. Breakfast was a quick one at Dunkin Donuts then our intn’l pod took the ferry across the canal to meet up for a “Zaanse Schans Windmills and Volendam Small-Group Tour.” There was the 4 of us and an Aussie couple and “G” our French driver who had emigrated to Amsterdam 15 years ago. A delightful day! 

We first visited the charming country town of Broek in Wonderland with the narrowest streets imaginable. It’s surrounded by water with picturesque old wooden homes. We posed for photos in front of the largest lake in the Netherlands. Then it was on to a “cheese and clogs shop.” There are only 14 remaining wooden clog makers who make the shoes by hand. We were entertained by one. He missed his calling as a stand-up comic! The same family that makes the clogs, has been making Gouda cheese for decades. Of course we had to buy some! 

Then we traveled to the old fisherman’s village of Voldenham. It’s known for its colorful wooden houses and the old fishing boats in its harbor. It was raining so we ducked into one of the many restaurants nearby for an adult beverage and a lunch of Dutch appetizers. 

Lastly was visiting Zaanse Schans. It is a reconstructed Zaan district neighborhood showcasing an industrial town in the Netherlands in the 18th to 19th centuries when 700 windmills would have been in operation. There are now 13 remaining at this reconstructed site. Many of the windmills were operational and the one that we toured, built in 1642, was still in use cutting logs down to boards to be used on the nearby historic wooden homes. At one time the Netherlands boasted 35,000 windmills. Now there are only 1,000 remaining. 

Our international pod capped off the day with dinner at an Argentinian Steakhouse called Cou. Once again the food was delicious and we had a great server. Afterwards we visited the oldest craft beer bar in Amsterdam, Biercafe Gollem, with its funky local vibe. Then it was time to make our way back to the hotel.

 

Thursday, August 31st, was Day 4 in Amsterdam. It was supposed to be a rainy day but we lucked out once again with no rain. We took a tram in the morning to visit the Rijksmuseum, the National Museum of the Netherlands. We almost had a minor disaster. The tram’s doors tend to open and close fairly quickly. It’s a cashless system… you tap a credit card on the monitor when you walk through the tram doors and then tap again upon leaving. So there is a slight delay as you’re fumbling around with the credit card etc. I went through the doors first exiting the tram followed by Gary and then Phil. Before Linda could exit, the doors closed. Rut roh. Phil frantically waved down the conductor to have them open the doors for his wife. He was her savior for the day! 

With four pod members intact, we moved along to the Rijksmuseum. It’s positively enormous! Thank goodness we did an audio tour or we would have been wandering around aimlessly for hours! The building itself is awe-inspiring then you have true masterpieces like The Milkmaid by Vemeer and multiple Rembrandt paintings. Gave me goosebumps. Rembrandt’s most famous painting, “Night Watch” (1642) which is also his largest at 11 ft x 14 ft in size, sits in a see-through enclosed room where a large scanning devise is attached to it to scan every inch of every layer to learn more about its original colors and other aspects of the painting. A little disappointing to have to view the painting in this way but it’s just astounding to me that something that old, almost 400 years, is still in existence and intact and able to be studied. Sometimes we humans do the right thing… like preserving masterpieces. Many of these painters lived in poverty. To save money, they used mirrors and painted their own faces on paintings since they didn’t have money for models… Rembrandt and especially Van Gogh were known to do this.

Afterwards we had lunch at a local cafe along one of the canals, Cafe Mankind. In the afternoon we headed via tram to Vondelpark, Amsterdam’s largest park. Once off the tram we were accosted by a guy in a car smiling and beckoning us to look inside. He had 11 dogs with him in his very small car! Big dogs and little dogs all sitting very quietly next to one another with wagging tails. I guessed correctly he was a dog walker. He was headed to the park. I don’t know how you walk 11 dogs. Whoa. Unless you set them free in the dog park for awhile. In any event, Vondelpark is an oasis of calm in the city with lakes, walking/biking trails, a rose garden, amphitheater and yes, a dog park. Just delightful! 

Then it was time to rest back at the hotel before we headed out for dinner to a Dutch restaurant, DeHaven von Texel. Once again we got a table right by a canal. Afterwards we enjoyed a private tour of the Red Light District. We had a great guide who had moved to Amsterdam about 4 years ago from Nigeria. He enlightened us as to the history of prostitution in Amsterdam. Apparently it dates back to the time when men often didn’t make it home from their jobs at sea. Women weren’t allowed to work or re-marry and so they had limited options to take care of themselves and their children. Initially prostitution was allowed, but then outlawed. However, what a woman did in her own home was perfectly fine. Thus leaving curtains open became a thing… a way to entice a gentleman in… and a new industry was born. Jump to modern times and now you can walk thru the Red Light District in the evening and scantily clad women are behind a red lit window/door where they wait for an interested gentleman and negotiate price. The local government is actually trying to move the Red Light District from its current location. The opposition have signs up all over the area that say “save our windows.” There are 315 “windows.” The local government wants to limit it to 100 windows and move it to a separate building outside of the current location. 

The ladies must register as sex workers. Currently 70% are Eastern European. Our guide said no one discriminates against the sex workers. There’s a culture in Amsterdam of letting everyone live as they want. 

Surprisingly, it’s actually illegal to smoke cannabis on the streets of Amsterdam. Locals who have lived here forever bemoan the fact that the town is “changing.” They feel it’s not Amsterdam anymore. Too many rules for them! Supposedly there are homeless in Amsterdam, although we did not see a one during our 5-day stay. 

Another great day with our international pod in this fascinating city.

 

Our last full day in Amsterdam was Friday, Sept. 1st. We headed to Pancakes Amsterdam for breakfast where Linda & I ordered a traditional Dutch Pancake with ham and cheese. It was delicious but big. We should have shared one! The guys ordered “American” pancakes and were disappointed. They should have ordered the Dutch ones. After breakfast Linda visited the restroom and said to me “you have to visit the ladies room.” Oh-kay. Turns out the wall behind the toilet was covered with notes… on toilet paper! Oh my. I’m happy to report that I did not leave a note!

Afterwards we set off for another tram ride. This time to the Van Gogh Museum which houses the largest collection of his works in the world… including 200 paintings as well as many drawings. Humbling to see so many of his works under one roof. Self taught, he produced much of his work within the last 10 years of his life and died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at age 37. A sad life marked by depression and mental illness. The one bright spot was the incredible relationship he had with his brother Theo.  He painted 5 versions of his famous Sunflower painting… all considered “icons of modern art.”

We had a late lunch at Amsterdam’s version of Seinfeld’s soup nazi. Only this “Nazi” was super nice and even gave samples. All of his homemade soups were delicious! Then we headed back to the hotel to rest for a bit. 

After having observed Amsterdam’s bike culture for several days and being on several tours by this point, we learned a few things:

• 18,000 bicycles end up in the canal each year. Bike “fisherman” extract them! 
• 150 cars end up in the canals each year. 
• When Teslas came along that was a big problem because the self-driving Tesla couldn’t tell the road from the canal. Six cars ended up in the canals in the first month, so powers-that-be from Tesla and Amsterdam got together to figure out a solution.
• There are 1.5 million bikes in Amsterdam. The population of Amsterdam is 950,000. Most people have at least two bikes. A good bike for work, and a crappy bike to take to the pub. 

I will say the Dutch appear to be way more fit than Americans! Bikes are how they get around their city. They have bike lanes all over the city that are separate from the pedestrian walkways and separate from the motorways. It was explained to me by one tour guide, “You wouldn’t enter the highway in your car without checking for oncoming traffic. The same is true for the bike “highway.” You have to look before you step off the curb and enter the bike lane.” 

In the evening we headed to the hip and trendy DePijp area of Amsterdam for an authentic Italian dinner at Pizzaria Dope, complete with a full selection of Italian beer and wine. We sat outside in the busy market area. Great for people watching. We had just finished dinner, which was delicious, when it started to rain. Hmmmm…. this may be a problem as we’re supposed to be enjoying an evening canal cruise. Sure enough we board the boat in the rain and are handed umbrellas. Since we’re waiting on two late comers, the boat captain positions our boat under one of the bridges so we can all stay dry. They also ply us with free drinks and snacks. Then he starts heading back to pick up the two latecomers who have finally arrived, and it’s still raining. Now his engine is giving him trouble. I’m thinking we’re doomed. They offered a full refund for whoever wanted it OR they would continue with the evening cruise for anyone who didn’t mind the rain. Linda and I would have opted for the rainy evening cruise as it’s our one and only opportunity since our British Isles cruise will be setting sail tomorrow. But, our wussy husbands bailed on us. Fine! We acquiesced! 

While waiting almost an hour for the evening tram to get us back to our hotel (luckily we were under a covering since it was still raining), we were entertained… first by a guy strutting around naked in his apartment with all his drapes open. Granted it was an upper floor, but still, there is after all a tram station across the street. Once again, the Dutch “have nothing to hide” so leave their drapes open. Secondly there was a bar across the street from the tram and there was a local rugby game airing. The Dutch take their rugby seriously! 15 guys piled out of the bar on to the street. Several garbed in king’s robes and all singing a song only they knew the words to. Then they proceed to light a fire outside. What could possibly go wrong??? Luckily the fire did burn down about the time their singing subsided and they piled back into the bar. By then our tram came along and we happily boarded. 

Another interesting day in Amsterdam! 

 

On Sat. morning, Sept. 2nd, we walked around the city one last time and enjoyed breakfast at a local restaurant, Omelegg. We had delicious omelettes served with salad and homemade brown bread. A healthier option then our American hash browns.

Our walk took us to Dam Square where we saw over 10 street organs setting up. They play for awhile at Dam Square and then scatter throughout the city playing in various locations. A monthly ritual. Our walk also took us to the Red Light District, which was very quiet on a Saturday morning. 

Some final thoughts about this most interesting of cities. For the record there are more canals in Amsterdam than in Venice. Being American I have a different take on “history.” Our history is more recent. After all our nation was founded in 1776. Many historians regard the Dutch Republic (the Netherlands) as the world’s first capitalist nation established in 1588. Amsterdam was home to the world’s first full-time stock exchange. We found the shopkeepers, tour guides, hotel staff, and restaurant workers all exceedingly friendly. The average Dutch person on the street sees a lot of tourists. They weren’t unfriendly but not exactly friendly either. We struck up more conversations with other tourists than we did with the locals. It’s a real city… not a Disney-esque version of one. There’s some trash on the streets. There’s some unsmiling locals. We never felt unsafe even wandering around after dark. It’s a rich culture with a diverse population. We found the food divine, and a city that is easy to navigate. We loved our 5-day exploration and were so very glad that we came to Amsterdam! If the opportunity presents itself, we would heartily encourage you to visit!  

But for us our time here is up! Now we have to head back to our hotel to pack up and head to our ship for our British Isles Cruise. More on that in the next post!