I had really been looking forward to our visit to Amsterdam
on this trip. Partly because it is a city in a country I’ve never been to
before (I never count airports), but mostly because we were staying with my
childhood friend and her family. K and I didn’t keep in touch after high
school, but then we were reconnected through the miracle of Facebook. We
started getting together for an annual dinner with a couple of other high
school friends about four years ago. Then she found out she was moving to
Europe just a couple of months before we did. Crazy! We’ve written back and
forth quite a lot this year. It has been so nice to have a friend going through
a similar experience with which to compare notes. We really wanted to find a
way to get together while we were both in Europe, and, since she lives in such
an amazing city, we asked if we could come stay for a few days. Her family was
graciously willing to host us. So in Amsterdam we had a place to stay, our own
English-speaking guide, and a chance for our kids to make some new friends. How
great is that?
K, her husband, and two kids live in a great house just
outside of Amsterdam on what is fairly new reclaimed land from the sea. This
whole idea of solving the land area by basically “making” more is so cool to
me. And then the Dutch go one step further and turn it into fantastic farmland.
Such a different way to look at solving problems—as opposed to just going and
taking what you want/need from others. Anyway, I think we had been there all of
fifteen minutes before the boys had immersed themselves in a video game and the
girls had headed off to the park. Our kids totally hit it off!
We spent our first morning together at the FloraHolland
Aalsmeer Flower Auction. This is a HUGE warehouse where nearly half of all
Holland’s flowers for export are auctioned off each day. You walk along an
elevated catwalk above dozens of people on little motorized scooters pulling
trains carrying thousands of buckets of flowers. Then you come to the auction
rooms where you can peer in at the action. It’s interesting to watch. The
auctions run in reverse. To keep things moving quickly, the price starts at the
highest point and ticks down. The first buyer to click his button (I couldn’t
spot a single female buyer) has “won” the auction. There is no “going once,
twice…” I imagine being a buyer at this auction must be a pretty intense job.
(Although we did see one guy playing Bejeweled on his iPhone, so maybe not?) The
auction room looks like an auditorium. Two separate auctions run in the room
simultaneously. The flower for sale is projected on each screen along with the
circular price countdown. The actual flowers are moving on trains beneath the
screens. The auctions happen so quickly that the flower trains never stop
moving. The obvious idea is to get the fresh flowers to their final
destinations as quickly as possible. They have several of these auction rooms.
We arrived a little after 8:30 and things appeared to be winding down for the
day. Obviously you have to be a morning person to work here; therefore, I’m
out!
Next, K took us to an open-air museum called Zaanse Schans.
Here we got an up close look at a couple of windmills and saw how they make
wooden clogs today. It was a windy day, so we were lucky to see the windmills.
Firstly, if you’re unsure of the term “open-air museum,” it refers to an area
that is usually set up to model historic life. In Zaanse Schans the millers and
shopkeepers actually live here, so you also get to see their lived-in version
of a 1600’s Dutch village.
We started by walking along the canal down to the first
windmill. This windmill operates a series of cogs that turn stones in order to
grind material into dyes. The stones were moving at an incredible speed. We
could get fairly close to see how it worked, and then we went upstairs to see
how the cogs connect up with the rotating shaft of the windmill. We were also
able to go outside at the top to get a close up view of the spinning arms of
the windmill. The entire top of the windmill is made to rotate so that the
miller can turn it to make best use of the wind. Again I was struck by the
awesome engineering involved. I wish I could bring my class here when we study
simple machines. We went in a second
windmill that is set up as a working sawmill. We couldn’t go up to the top of
this one, but instead were able to get an up close look at the working saws.
The windmill powers three sets of blades. The millers were using the big middle
set to rip a large log into boards. We watched as they set another of the
blades sets to cut one of the ripped edges of a log. It was really fascinating
and the miller was happy to tell us all about his mill and how it works.
We left the mills and walked past the residential part of
town to the klompenmakerij, where they make Dutch wooden clogs. They had a neat
little display of clogs from all over Holland. We arrived just as they were
starting a demonstration and were able to see how they make the shoes today.
They use two machines, one for the outside and one to hollow out the inside.
The first machine operated like a lathe and turned the shoe. It uses a blank as
a jig (like when you have a key copied) to cut the outside shape of the shoe.
Then the shoe is put into the second machine to hollow out the inside. This one
also works by using the same blank as a jig, but the cutting part works more
like a router. Sand it smooth and in about five minutes you have a finished
shoe. Then you have to wait weeks for the wood to dry out before you can
decorate/wear your shoes. They had lots of painted clogs on sale for the
tourists. I really wanted to get myself a red pair. But they would have to be
so huge to fit my feet that I guess they wouldn’t be very cute. The Dutch still
wear them for their intended purpose. K says they sell them in the garden
stores right next to the rubber boots!
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| Neighborhood street in Zaanse Schans |
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| Different clogs from all over the Netherlands. |
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| These clogs are made for ice fishing. |
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| She was barely humoring me by putting these on. I guess she's not a fan. |
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| But I am. I think these are so stinkin' cute! |
We were fortunate that our kids were getting along so well
because K had set up a sitter for the evening so that the grown-ups could go on
a double date! We had a very nice dinner out in an older converted building
that reminded me of a McMenamins type of place. Then we walked around Amsterdam
a bit in search of a place for dessert and champagne. It was so nice just
chatting and getting to know K’s hubby (great guy!). Before heading back to the
car they took us on a quick walk through the Red Light District—because you
just can’t visit Amsterdam without checking that off your list. It was
definitely different. The streets were clogged with tourists checking out the
ladies in their black light lit windows. We saw lots of little red lights and I
definitely have pot in my catalogue of smells now. Intellectually, I can
appreciate the pragmatic view of the Dutch toward prostitution and marijuana,
but personally I’m not really sure. A believes strongly that a society should
set higher standards for itself. Ideally I agree, although the realist in me
doesn’t think that’s a battle that will ever be won, especially when the former
is a profession that’s been around as long as society itself. What did make me
a little sad, however, is to see what a big part of the tourist industry the
Red Light District is. Amsterdam has so much to offer that I certainly hope
people come to see more than just that piece of it.
After enjoying the enormous breakfast K made for us (and
leaving her husband with the dishes), we spent our second day in the city. We
had tickets in the morning to the Van Gogh Museum, so K left us there and we
spent a couple of hours admiring his work. Van Gogh is probably my very
favorite painter. I’m not sure why, I really don’t know much about art, but I
just like the way his landscapes feel personal. It kind of makes you feel giddy
to see art that you recognize, but have only seen in books. Seeing the actual
brushstrokes is somewhat surreal. The museum is laid out mostly
chronologically, so we were able to stroll through while reading about Van
Gogh’s life in our guidebook. His art is amazing on its own, but I think
learning about the tormented nature of his life offers a deeper insight and
appreciation for his work. Of course we are all drawn to tragic stories, and
I’m not sure there is one more tragic than Van Gogh’s. We were allowed to take
pics of some of the paintings. Here are some of our favorites.
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| Still Life: Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers--1889 |
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| Landscape with the Chateau of Auvers at Sunset--1890 |
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| Self-Portrait in Front of the Easel--1888 |
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| Wheat Field with Crows--1890 |
After the museum we met up with K and her kids again and
walked around Amsterdam. We usually love the self-guided walks in our
guidebooks, but I must say we were pretty disappointed in the one for
Amsterdam. So we gave up on it fairly quickly and just let K lead us around. We
saw some great squares and old buildings, but my favorite part was really just
walking along the canals and seeing the neat old houses. K says one of the cool
things about Amsterdam is how little it has changed. That if you look at a
picture of it from a hundred years ago, most of the buildings are the same. The
houses are all tall and skinny. K told us that taxes used to be assessed based
on the width of your house, so the Dutch built their houses narrow, tall, and
deep. The houses have a hook at the top for hoisting things like furniture up
from the street and in through the windows of the upper floors (Dutch houses
have incredibly steep and narrow stairwells). If you look closely you can see
that the houses were actually built to lean slightly toward the street to make
it easier to raise the items. So clever!
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E would have loved to play, but at least he was able to
help out the players as they set up for a new game. |
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| Walking along the canals was my big "must do" in Amsterdam. I wasn't disappointed! |
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The "Skinny" Bridge. There's a neat story that says this bridge was built by two sisters
who lived across the canal from each other so they could get together and chat everyday. |
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I would like to buy this house. I love all of the large windows.
I also love the guy next door hanging out his window. |
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| The train station. |
The other thing we had to get used to while walking around
was the bikes. Apparently there are more bikes than people in Amsterdam. They
are everywhere and you’d better stay out of their way. We had to keep pulling
the kids off the bike paths. And it was tricky to remember to look when
crossing a bike path just as you would crossing the road! It made me feel a bit
better about our decision to ride in Berlin, because Amsterdam is at a whole other
level. A said watching for the bikes was the most difficult part about driving
there!
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| I wish I had taken a picture of a bike parking lot. The number of bikes is crazy! |
K and her kids left us again once we arrived at the Anne
Frank House. What a powerful place! I’m not really sure how to describe it.
It’s definitely a humbling experience, but not as depressing as I would have
thought. I actually left somewhat uplifted by this young girl’s beautiful
spirit. The museum starts by giving you some background on the family—how they
came to Amsterdam to escape the growing anti-Semitism of their native Germany.
Anne’s father Otto, the only one of the family to survive the holocaust, worked
hard to keep the building from being torn down. He wanted people to experience
it and learn from it. The building is where his pectin business was housed.
When the family decided to go into hiding they converted the back half of the
top two floors into the “secret annex.” They lived there with four other people
(eight in all) for two years before they were found and arrested by the
Gestapo. As you walk through the lower two floors you get a little background
on their story, along with video interviews of the friends who helped them. Some
of Anne’s quotes are on the walls. You also see a furnished diorama of the two
floors where they lived, so you can try to imagine what living with seven other
people in fewer than 1000 square feet must have felt like. I can kind of
imagine that, but it’s the never going outside part that I can’t really wrap my
brain around. Then we climbed through the hidden opening behind the bookcase
and made our way up into the secret annex itself. Other than the lack of
furniture, the rooms are much the way they were when the families were in
hiding. The windows are blacked-out. You can see pencil lines on the wall
marking the heights of Anne and her older sister. The pictures Anne pasted on
her bedroom wall to cheer up the place are still there. Everyone was very quiet
as they walked around and took it all in. When we made our way back down we saw
artifacts like their registration cards from Gestapo headquarters and Anne’s
name on the transport list to Auschwitz. Finally we came to the room containing
her actual diaries. There are also short stories she wrote and a book of her
favorite quotes. There are pages showing Anne’s revision of her diaries as
well. She wanted to have her diaries published after the war and had revised
most of them with that in mind. Her father was able to publish her diaries
because his secretary had gathered and saved them after the family was
arrested. The last room in house is an interactive board that describes current,
real, moral conflicts and asks you to vote on the correct course of action.
Then it shares the poll results. It was Otto Frank’s wish that you leave the
house understanding that morality will never be an area of clear consensus
among us. I voted and was in the 23% minority. It is a little unnerving to see
how different our moral compasses are. I think that is what Otto Frank wanted
us to understand.
I’ve actually never read The Diary of Anne Frank, but I
bought a copy and I’m starting it today. Reading her quotes on the walls I had
to keep reminding myself that she was only 13 and 14 when she wrote them. I
also had to try to fathom the fact that a young girl could gain such a deep
understanding of life while locked away from much of it. It’s sad, but uplifting
at the same time, to see the strength of the human spirit.
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| Anne Frank's statue outside the Secret Annex. |
Our Dutch neighbor in Rome had advised us to be sure to have
pancakes while in Holland, so K and her family obliged and took us to a great
place out in the country for dinner. Dutch pancakes look a lot like crepes,
except they are topped with just about any combination of savory or sweet
ingredients you can imagine. The kids had theirs with bananas and powdered
sugar. I think their favorite thing about Holland may be that you can get away
with eating dessert for dinner. A and I opted for savory. A had ham, and cheese.
I chose sundried tomatoes, mozzarella, and pesto (it must be the Italian in me)
and I couldn’t even finish it!
For our last day in the Netherlands we decided to treat all the
kids to a day at an amusement park. K’s husband scored us a great deal on some
tickets to Efteling, a traditional Dutch theme park, they both took the day
off, and all eight of us headed out to play. This place is fantastic. It is a
theme park based on traditional Dutch fairytales. It’s large, spread out, and
beautiful. There are a lot of gardens and huge trees. You can tell they’ve
worked hard to keep it from feeling big and commercial. Because things are
spread out, you don’t just see a series of rides. There are huge trees
surrounding many of the big rides so you don’t even know they are there until
you’re right in front of one! The boys wanted to head straight for the roller
coasters, of course, but S needed to warm up to the idea, so she headed off
with K’s daughter and husband to some of the tamer rides. It was really nice to
do an amusement park with another family because we could better accommodate
what the kids wanted to do.
A and E both liked the Python best. It’s a roller coaster
with a couple loops and a big corkscrew. S liked the giant swinging Viking
ship. I usually have a great stomach for amusement parks, but even I had to
call it quits after 5 goes on that one. My favorite was the old-fashioned
wooded roller coaster. It was actually a racing coaster, with two tracks.
Unfortunately our side lost both times we rode it. Another interesting ride was
a bobsled type coaster. We were actually in a bobsled-type car with wheels, and no track, so
that was a little different! And I believe Efteling may have the world’s
fastest carousel. You have to hold on tight on this one!
One thing the park does much better than the parks in
America is food. The cafeteria-style restaurants were pretty decent and
reasonably priced. And the place we went for dinner had a fantastic play area
for the kids. It was nice at the end of the day to sit and relax while the kids
could run and expend more of their endless supply of energy.
Unfortunately, we didn’t take a single picture, so you’ll
have to check out their website
here. I think it may have had something to do
with our too recent experience mixing cameras and rollercoasters.
We had a great time in Amsterdam, made even better by our
wonderful hosts. It was so nice to spend time with an old friend and watch our
kids enjoy each other’s company. A huge thank you to the Hill family. We hope we can try to repay the favor and you'll come visit la bella Roma!
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