Amsterdam Here I AM!

October 18, 2008

Yep, you guessed it. I decided to take a weekend excursion to Amsterdam this weekend with John Bell, a colleague from the office. Let me tell you a little about John. JayBee as I now call him is a good guy with stereo-typical Jersey mannerisms. Calls girls “Hon”, gets a little loud sometimes, likes to talk, etc….and all with a nice Jersey twang. John is a good travel companion though because he is easy going and willing to do whatever...as evident by the sign above his head. Just kidding of course.

Anyway, I’ve always heard Amsterdam is a very fun city with lots of beautiful architecture and great museums. I have to say I have not been disappointed. It’s true that there are coffee shops on every corner and a red light district that is.…well…..crazy might be the best word, but it is also true that the canals are beautiful and the homes and architecture are very cool. The picture on the left was taken right off of Dam Square and shows the style of the houses.

Amsterdam is the capital and largest city of the Netherlands and it's name is derived from Amstel Dam, which means a Dam in the river Amstel. The city center is called Dam Square and is where the old Amstel Dam used to be. The city has a population of close to 750,000 and is built around a series of canals that are really beautiful. John and I decided to stay at the Marriott in the area called Leidseplein, which is Amsterdam's equivalent of Times Square. The area has plenty of restaurants, nightclubs, pubs and coffee houses and although it feels very touristy, it is still pretty fun.

We arrived in Amsterdam on Friday night, getting to our hotel around 10:30pm. This is by no means late for the crazy Dutch so we dropped off our stuff at the Marriott and decided to explore Leidseplein and found a couple outdoor bars to rest our feet and enjoy a couple of Amstels. The people watching was fun, but after a couple beers we decided we would head toward Dam Square for a different scene and another beer or two outside of Susie's Place. By this point it is getting late and we decide to walk back toward the hotel. On the way back, we found the notorious red light district and took a stroll through the tiny side streets and alleyways where the girls advertise their goods in the window. It was a very surreal scene but also a very popular spot!!!!!!

Saturday

We began our Saturday with breakfast at Café Hans and Gretjie. The Café is a small little place built in the downstairs of an old flat. There are about 6 tables inside the café and room for many more outside. I decided on a omelet with Ham, Mushrooms and Cheese. John asked for a “plain pancake” with some Bacon. I waitress said…”you mean you want a crepe?” In John’s best Jersey accent he greed...."Sure, Hon.....I'll have a “CREP”. The food was good and the service was nice. A good start to the day.

The second stop of our day was the Rijksmuseum. This is a world famous museum with the main attraction being the Dutch paintings of the 17th century by artists such as Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Jacob van Ruisdal, Jan Steen and Johannes Vermeer. However, the Rijks also contains more modern work by less famous artist and has some cool sculptures and other displays. I decided to splurge and spend the extra 4 Euros to get some earphones and listen to a pretty good narration as I went from room to room. The tour starts with some lesser known artist and a couple of big dollhouses. There were two dollhouses on display from the late 1600’s. The ultra rich women of that time took great pride in building the biggest and best dollhouses in town. The utensils on the tables were solid silver, the rugs were Persian, the little tiny paintings were commissioned by local artists, etc. The dollhouses themselves cost more than an upscale flat facing one of the canals in downtown Amsterdam. One crazy ol rich women even had a painting made of her dollhouse so she could hang it in her country home to show off. Crazy rich people.

The Rijksmuseum

Moving through the museum from gallery to gallery, the anticipation builds as you go. The Rembrandt room is on the second floor and one of the last galleries in the museum. There truly is a buildup in anticipating this great gallery. Upon entering the Rembrandt room, it is obvious this is the greatest Rembrandt collection in the world. Also on display along side his own paintings are paintings by many of his pupils. It was all very cool. The final gallery in the Museum is a large room with Rembrandt's Masterpiece called “The Night Watch”. This is one of his most famous works and it is huge (143 x 172 in) and covers an entire wall. The painting is one of the greatest I have ever seen and was by far the highlight of the Rijks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_Watch

As much as I enjoyed the Rembrandts, my second favorite painting of the day was by Hendrick Avercamp and is called "Winter Landscape with Ice Skaters."

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/avercamp/rijks-winter-landscape/winter-rijks.jpg


What I liked about the painting is that it combines and amazing amount of detail yet also shows a little sense of humor from the artist. You can tell the class the people are in by the details of their clothing. The aristocrats have much nicer clothing than the peasants but even within the upper classes, there were differences in garments. According to the dude narrating my recorded tour….the very rich would often show their undergarments, as many times only the elite had the highest quality underwear. Crazy rich people. The sense of humor from the artist comes through in that he has painted two men using the loo. These can be seen in the bottom left corner of the painting. Anyway, I like it. It reminds me a little of a Norman Rockwall print I have in my house.


After leaving the Rijks, JayBee and I decide to go drop our souvenirs off at the hotel and take the Hop On - Hop Off boat cruise. The hop on hop off is very cool and takes you through the canals of amsterdam stopping at many famous places. We get off at the first stop which is the Ann Frank house and the Westerkerk Protestant chruch, which was built in 1631. I hate to admit it, but I really didn’t want to go inside the Ann Frank house (below) and hear the horror stories of the holocaust.

We did walk around the house and took a picture of the outside (see right). We also saw a couple of guys getting into an argument in the open area by the church. We later realized that this was really just a distraction as there were two other guys working the crowd as pickpockets. Nice, huh! Good thing we didn’t carry our wallets and had our money and credit cards in our front pockets. Lesson to the traveler to Amsterdam….watch out for the distractions! Hey JayBee...ever see that in Jersey?

After the Frank house, we had about an hour before the next boat was coming around so we went looking for a local café to have a beer. Café Brandon caught our attention and we grabbed a couple Amstels and set outside. Did I mention we were in a predominately gay part of town? It didn’t take long for John to get a little attention. See the lady in the red shaw sitting by John???? That ain’t no lady! Why is JayBee so happy?




After leaving Café Brandon we caught the next boat and ended up at Central Station, where we took in a beverage at Teasers Brews and Babes. The Hooters of Amsterdam. The waitresses wore tight tops and short shorts and served cold beers and burgers. All that was missing were nasty tasting hot wings. At this point it is starting to get late and John and I are both hungry so we are off to look for dinner. Stay tuned for more.....