A tower with a view and a room without one

Friday evening

Back in the hostel, writing a quick blog post before I set out for the bus (leaves at 11.15 pm). I think today was the best day I've had in Amsterdam, whether because of what I did or because I've caught up on sleep and am a bit less grumpy, I don't know.

I had a bit of a slower start to the morning, it was after 10 or even close to 11 by the time I got into town. I started off with a quick wander through the red light district. It was apparently too early for the prostitutes in windows, that or I wasn't in quite the right bit, so I missed those, but walked past a few coffee shops which were already open for business. I recognised the smell from police burnings (which is a lame joke about a specific incident that happened in NZ that I've already used on the blog before, but for some reason I still find very funny. If anyone cares, some guys were once caught smoking dope in the toilets at Parliament and the guy that dobbed them in said he recognised the smell from police burnings. Which is just the nerdiest thing ever. Him saying that, not me telling the story - I'll let you make up your own minds on that.)

Another wall plaque

Rambling aside, I went to the Anne Frank house and once again found that the line was too long for my likings, so instead I went next door to the Westerkirk and bought a ticket to climb up the tower at midday. It was actually quite a steep climb, but broken up in to convenient stages where the guide (you can go up max 6 at a time) explained various things about the tower and the bells and so on. I don't seem to remember anything that she said, must have been due to walking past those coffee shops.

Even the churches were getting behind gay pride! I didn't realise when booking that it was this weekend, so unfortunately I missed the parade on Saturday. Oh well, these things aren't much fun alone anyway

The huge organ inside the Westerkirk. "Huge organ" sounds dirtier than it should...

Views from the tower

After coming down from the tower, I checked the Anne Frank line again, still too long unsurprisingly, and decided to stay in the church for a free organ concert at 1. I assumed that it was going to be on the massive organ, but apart from one song, it was all on the little one. It was quite nice, I'm not the biggest fan of classical music, but yeah all good. Most of the audience seemed to be listening to it with their eyes shut, which I found more than a little creepy, but maybe that's the done thing at organ recitals.

STILL a big line after the concert, so I just wandered around looking for lunch. Imagine my surprise when I found a pie and mash shop! I don't know when the last time I had a pie was! These, of course, were a bit fancier than your NZ petrol station mince and cheese number, but very good all the same. I had a small chicken pie with mash and, as the menu described it, "groovy" (gravy).

Mmmm, pie

It was getting a bit later in the day by this stage, so I decided just to suck it up and go wait in the line for the Anne Frank house. I probably got in it at about twenty to five, and it only took twenty minutes or so to queue up, so not too bad. I came out again at 6.15 and the line was the same length as when I went in, so that made me feel better.

I'm really glad I went, it was very moving. I started tearing up as soon as I got in and saw some big photos of Anne on the walls, and I cried a few times thereafter. I didn't see anyone else crying, so either I'm just a big wuss or they were very discreet. You start out in the warehouse/office bit which would have been filled with people coming and going, most of whom did not know there were people hiding upstairs. Then you head up into the secret annexe itself, before coming out to an exhibition showing some more of what happened to the Franks and the others in the annexe once they were found and a display of the diaries themselves (there are several, plus Anne started rewriting the original diaries with the intention of publishing something after the war).

There are more rooms than I remembered (it's been a long time since I read it) - two stories plus an attic - but all the rooms are really quite small. I couldn't imagine being stuck in there 24/7, having to stay absolutely quiet all day and not let any lights show all night, with 8 people. The rooms are kept empty at the wish of Otto Frank, I think they said to show what was lost rather than putting it back to "normal". It's so tragic that they got so close to the end of the war before being discovered and killed. There was a really sad interview with Anne's best friend who was in a slightly better part of Bergen-Belsen than Anne and was able to talk with her through a fence. She was saying that she wished Anne had known her father was still alive, as after the death of her sister she had nothing left to hope for, and she died just a month before the camp was liberated.

Photos weren't allowed in the house, but I snapped this horrible Slavic version in the bookshop. It would be utterly tasteless to suggest that they chose to depict her shortly before her death of typhus, so I won't

From the Westerkirk tower - Anne Frank's house is the white one with one window in the foreground. It seems amazing that none of the workers or anyone thought, "hmmm, this house is a lot taller on the outside than the inside", or at least not for a long time (it's still unknown who betrayed them to the Nazis)

A less than enthusiastic day's outing

Thursday evening

I slept well last night, even though it rained quite loudly on the metal blinds in the room. I did decide to go to the Rijksmuseum this morning, getting there in drizzly weather at about 10 am. There was no line, but it was pretty crowded in the relatively small exhibition space. As I mentioned, I was aware that because of the renovations, only the "masterpieces" were on display, however I failed to realise that they were restricted only to the Dutch Golden Age. Since I don't really like landscapes or 17th century art or Rembrandt, I was a bit disappointed to have shelled out 14€ to see it, especially in the relatively unpleasant cramped exhibition space. Oh well. 

After the museum, I walked in to town and had a nice lunch of chicken parmigiano, and then walked to the Oude Kerk. Not to sound like a sour old stuck record, but it was a bit underwhelming as well. It's pretty much empty, since the Protestants destroyed most of the old artwork in it, and you have to pay to get in.

So yeah, that and watch the gymnastics final was pretty much all I did today. Sorry it wasn't very interesting.

Sorry for the slightly random order of the photos below, I forgot to group the Rijksmuseum ones together when I was naming the files.

This made me laugh

Incredible doll house at the Rijksmuseum

Dollhouse detail

My Latin's more than a little rusty, but I think this means 'Hope of another life' or something like that

A spot of cat torture by Jan Steen

Detail of Rembrandt's Night Watch

Another Night Watch detail

The Oude Kerk

Inside the Oude Kerk. It was quite hard to photograph, it's just kind of like a big empty barn or ship or something

Carved choir stalls in the Oude Kerk. Many of them illustrated proverbs, but the guide didn't tell me what this interesting one may be

This, however, is "money doesn't fall out of your arse", apparently the Dutch version of "doesn't grow on trees"

St. Nicholas church

St. Nicholas church window

Okay, I'm not a style maven, but this guy was such an uber tourist it made me laugh - from the shorts to the white sneakers to the black knee socks to the floppy hat... Unfortunately, he did have his camera around his neck but must have taken it off

This was my favourite picture in the Rijksmuseum, by Caesar Van Everdingen

This dude looks way more pleased with himself here than I would be if I were him

This seems to depict starving naked children begging for food?

Ambling around Amsterdam

Wednesday evening

The wifi at the hostel isn’t working, so I can’t post this onilne yet but will keep plugging away. Based on how quickly I forgot everything the woman said at the basilica, I need to keep recording my impressions as and when I have them.

I was super tired this morning, dreading having to hang around all day in Paris on Saturday, don’t know what I was thinking booking such a late train. Didn’t want to miss out on doing fun things in Paris, I suppose. I went to Starbucks when it opened at 7, and waited there for an hour until I could take the metro out to my hostel.

I’m staying about 15-20 mins away from the centre. I picked this place because it was cheap, but especially because it’s a women-only hostel. Amsterdam being Amsterdam, I didn’t want to be staying somewhere near the centre filled with people partying it up all night. Not that women can’t be just as bad in that department, but I thought the distance from the centre and the female-only thing combined would make it a bit calmer.

I dropped off my bags after 8 and then just mooched around the central city like a zombie. I had my laptop with me, which weighs an absolute ton, so that combined with being exhausted and having a sore back meant that I didn’t do very much. I’m sure I’m going to be an absolute cripple by the age of 50 or something. I can walk around for hours with no problems, but standing for long periods, like I did during the 2-hour+ basilica tour yesterday, absolutely kills my back. Unfortunately, it doesn’t just start to ache, the muscles start to spasm and then after that the muscles just seem weak for days on end, so that I had to keep stopping to rest today like an old woman. Crap.

So that meant I spent the morning wandering around taking pictures of pretty buildings, of which there are many, and sitting on benches in the sunshine, of which there are also many. I had a healthy lunch of poffertjes, fluffy little Dutch pancakes covered in butter and icing sugar and maple syrup, which I had fond memories of from when I used to go out with a Dutch guy. They cost a fortune and I felt a bit sick after eating 15 of them, but they were yummy!

There are soooo many tourists, including a weirdly high number of Australians. Two couples were sitting behind me at the poffertjes place, one of whom actually said “that’s noice, that’s deefferent” about the notion of taking a train from Paris to Amsterdam. Their conversation turned on the fact that they all had only boys, and one described the experience of changing his baby granddaughter’s nappy for the first time (I’ll have to ask you to imagine the broad Aussie accent) “So I take the nappy off, and there’s no gear stick mate! Whaddaya do with that?”

After lunch I came back to the hostel for a much-needed nap in a real bed. I slept soundly for about 3 hours then forced myself up, in to the shower and back out into the city. I had planned to go to Anne Frank’s house, because I’d read it was best to go in the evenings (it’s open till 9), but there was a line in which I didn’t feel like waiting, so I mooched about some more, had falafel for dinner for the second time in two days (not as good as the Parisian version, I must say) and then right after I left the falafel place it started absolutely pouring down, some of the heaviest rain I think I’ve ever seen, so I ducked into the nearest pub, which conveniently had English cider and thus kept me happy for a couple of hours.

I’m not really sure what I’ll be doing tomorrow, definitely don’t want to be rushing around making myself miserable. I think I’ve decided to strike the Van Gogh museum off the list of possibles, since I don’t really like Van Gogh in any particular way. I’m still in two minds about the Rijksmuseum – most of it is closed for renovation, and the entry price does seem quite dear considering, but the best works are supposed to be on display, so maybe it’s a good chance to get the edited highlights without museum fatigue setting in. And I definitely would like to get to the Anne Frank house before I go.

Here's some of what I saw on my travels!

Central train station

Gangsta Miffy

The Nieuwe Kerke (sp?)

Mmm poffertjes

Quite a few buildings have these cute little plaques on them, mostly in clusters