(Part 1) The Land Called The Netherlands: Ambulating Around Amsterdam

- July 7-9, 2019, Sunday to Tuesday.

- For most people, the thought of legal marijuana, prostitutes, and canals bring to mind one city - damn right, it's Amsterdam!! While these are generally true, and are some reasons why people come to Amsterdam, there is more to the charming capital of the Netherlands apart from these things. I've always been curious about the Netherlands and its reputation for being a rather open country, and since I had a bit of time on my hands (and also a still-valid Schengen visa from my Germany trip last December, click here to see) I thought it was about time to visit this country. Of course, what better way to be introduced to the Netherlands than entering through its capital city, Amsterdam.

- I flew via Emirates and arrived in the early afternoon of the 8th of July. From Schipol Airport, my mom and I rode a train to Amsterdam Centraal Station. Now the Netherlands has a good national transportation system, but one important thing to know is that tickets to trains, buses, trams, etc. can be bought through machines via credit card. Most machines (whether in the station or inside trams or buses) do not accept cash anymore. While this is convenient for most, it should be noted that only credit cards with passcodes are accepted in these machines. This was a bit of a problem for me and my mom since credit cards in the Philippines are not of this sort yet. For those not comfortable with using their credit cards, or have similar credit card problems like me and my mom, there are ticket counters (with people manning them) who may accept cash or credit card. The credit card ports that these manned counters have do not require passcodes as the staff assigned can manually check your identity, if necessary. Since you need to be talking to the people manning the ticket counters, you'd be happy to know that English is widely understood in the Netherlands, and people speak it with a high degree of fluency. Knowing some words or phrases in Dutch may also come in handy; I also noticed that since Dutch is geographically closer to the United Kingdom, Dutch is closer to English than German. I don't speak Dutch, but I was ecstatic when I realized that I could sort of understand Dutch a lot better than German (and to think I studied a bit of German, as compared to my supposed "illiteracy' in Dutch.)

- After arriving at Amsterdam Centraal Station, I bought myself and my mom a 48-hour unlimited transportation card each from the basement level of the station (look for the escalators going down right outside the doors of the station.) There are also white-colored "houses" across the street that serves as a tourist center where visitors can purchase transportation tickets by card or cash. Other people, as mentioned earlier, can simply use the ticket machines in the stations as long as their credit cards are the kinds that have passcodes.

Basilica of Saint Nicholas from afar.

Amsterdam Centraal.

- We rode the tram to our hotel, The ED Hotel, which is a quirky newly renovated hotel, used to be known as The Hampshire Hotel; is is a block away from the Leidseplein tram station (trams 2, 11, or 12 from Amsterdam Centraal.) After settling down, I headed to my first destination to know more about one of the Netherlands' most well-known painters - Vincent van Gogh. The Van Gogh Museum, as the name suggests, is a museum opened in the 1970s that showcases the life and works of the artist (online reservation highly advised to skip the lines. The tickets are timed, so you need to be in the reserved line a few minutes before the time indicated on the ticket.) Photography is unfortunately not allowed, except for a few open areas of the museum. By the way, I had a bad decision of walking all the way to Van Gogh Museum, when I could have just gone via tram one station away from Leidseplein (Rijksmueum tram stop, trams 2, 12, or 5).

Van Gogh Museum. It's a lot bigger than it looks!! Unsurprisingly, it has the biggest collection of Van Gogh's works.

- In the museum, I learned that Van Gogh experimented with many styles, before developing his own mesmerizing style, which I would describe as "a symphony of playful colors" such as in "The Starry Night" (this painting, by the way, is in the Museum of Modern Art, aka "MoMA," in New York City, click here to see.) At one point, he even drew a lot of Japanese-inspired paintings, after encountering Japanese ukiyo-e pictures (woodblock printed pictures) in Europe; yes, you can say that Van Gogh had a "weeabo" phase. Despite his paintings showing a lot of vibrant colors, Van Gogh eventually had depression and possibly other mental health concerns, before dying either by suicide or foul play (it's still being debated today.)

The interactive exhibit on sunflowers (photography allowed,) based on one of Van Gogh's works. 

Couldn't take photos of the paintings, so I just took a photo of the museum in general.

- After my visit to the Van Gogh Museum, my mom and I had a stroll along the canals of the city. Now Amsterdam has a lot of canals and each canal will be pretty in its own way, but I decided to take a photo along the Keizersgracht (Keizersgracht tram stop, lines 2, 11, or 12) which was first made in the 1600s. It is known for being lined with linden trees. Other prominent historical canals in Amsterdam include Singel, Herengracht, and Prinsengracht, but if you ask me, all its canals look lovely!!

Keizersgracht.

I was not prepared for the temperature.

- Finally, we ended our first day with a Brazilian dinner. By the way, speaking of "day," it was my first time in Europe in the summer, and boy were the days long! Sunsets were usually around 10 in the evening, and I needed some getting used to not only because sunsets are usually around 6pm in Manila, but because I got used to going to Europe in the winter when the sun would set around 4pm or 5pm the latest. And while on the topic of mother nature, I had a temperature anomaly during my trip. Weeks prior to my departure, the European heat wave problem was all over the news and so I packed a lot of light short-sleeved clothes. However, knowing how weird the weather can be during summers in the temperate region, I packed a bunch of long-sleeved clothes too. The day I arrived in Europe, the temperature dropped to the 10s, and thankfully I had some clothes that were appropriate for the cold weather. This kind of cold temperature would go on for the rest of my trip, and the temperature shot up again (around 30-40 degrees Celsius!) the day after I left Europe. I could say I was fortunate because I HATE the heat.

The streets of Amsterdam.

My first taste of the traditional Brazilian feijoada (stew with beans and meat,) and one of my favorite Brazilian drinks, guarana. (I had my first taste of guarana in Portugal.)

- The following day, dressed up in a more weather-appropriate getup - and of all colors, orange, the color of the Dutch royal family. That early morning, I first went to Anne Frank's House (Westermarkt tram stop, lines 13 or 17) to try my luck with the tickets. Online tickets to Anne Frank's House are released 2 months prior to your planned date of visit. Since my Europe trip was a semi last-minute decision, I ran out of tickets. However, the online tickets are just 80% of the total, and the remaining 20% of the tickets will be released on the day itself at 9am. I hung around the premises of the house just to see if I could have a chance to get in the moment the museum opened. However, I was told by the staff that even the tickets released on that day will still need to be reserved online. Fortunately, the museum has free wifi that extends even to the benches outside the museum. The most important tip they gave me and other ticket hopefuls was to start accessing the site around 5-10 minutes before 9am since those who were accessing the site for more than 15 minutes would get kicked out since their session has expired. For the next 10-15 minutes after 9am, I kept refreshing the online ticket waiting line, and fortunately, I was able to purchase my ticket which I scheduled for 5pm that day. I left the house and rode the tram to Dam Square, the main square of Amsterdam (Dam Square tram stop, lines 13, 17, 2, 11, or 12.) (More on the Ann Frank House museum later.)

Westerkerk ("Western Church") across Anne Frank House.

More canals!!

The facade of the original Anne Frank house. This is not the entrance to the museum, but a new building built behind he original house.

- The crown jewel of the Dam Square are is none other than the royal palace. First built as a town hall in the 1600s, it was converted into a palace by Napoleon Bonapate's brother, King Louis I of Holland in the 1800s. Today, some of the bedrooms and sitting rooms can be seen by the public, as well as other items such as maps, taxidermied animals, records, and other things they used before.

The royal palace.

I love bow brooches.

Chandeliers.

Giant world maps showing the extent of the Dutch Empire during its height.

The study.

Royal aesthetics.

Taxidermied animals.

Giant map books.

An old piano.

- After visiting the palace, my mom and I strolled around the area, passing by the 15th-century Nieuwe Kerk (beside the palace,) which is a church now used as an exhibition hall, and the National Monument. There are also a lot of places to eat and shop in the area. 

Nieuwe Kerk.

National Monument.

Royal Palace and Nieuwe Kerk from Dam Square.

- We had a quick Dutch lunch in one of the nearby restaurants and visited the eastern side of the historic downtown where the red light district is. (I did not see any prostitutes as it might have been too early? It's not like I'm looking for one anyway.) Speaking of which, prostitution is legal in the Netherlands, but heavily regulated by the government. The area also has a lot of "coffeeshops," though it's easy to find one anywhere in the Netherlands. "Coffeeshops" are not what you think. These are places where you can buy marijuana and smoke marijuana legally. Do understand that only 5 grams of marijuana is allowed per person, and you'll be arrested if you are in possession of any amount higher than that. Also, all other forms of drugs are illegal. However, prostitutes and marijuana aren't the reasons why I visited the red light district. The reason why I went there was to visit the Oude Kerk ("Old Church,") a 13th-century church that now functions as a museum and exhibition site.

Port, and Amsterdam Centraal Station at the back.

Beurs van Berlage, the old stock market.

I thought you were in New York. HAHA. (This is a small replica of the one in NYC.)

Oude Kerk's bell tower from the streets.

Oude Kerk.

Stained glass windows.

A headless half-wax half-marble statue.

Different religious groups.

- Another important place to visit which some people often overlook is the One' Lieve Heer Op Solder, or "Our Lord in the Attic." In the 1600s, the top floors of three conjoined houses were converted into a Catholic chapel, after the Netherlands became Protestant and those who would practice other religions or other forms of Christianity were persecuted. Although canal houses are known for their infamous steep stairs and tight spaces, the chapel itself was spacious not only in terms of floor area (as it was, again built on the attic of three houses combined,) but it had a high ceiling too!

Oudezijds Voorburgwal Canal. Yes, that's it's real name.

Another view of the Oudezijds Voorburgwal Canal.

Our Lord in the Attic.

Kitchen.

Fireplace.

The pink chapel in the attic.

It even has an organ!!

Apparently, this is called a "box bed" and was pretty common in the Netherlands and surrounding regions before.

The houses that contain the attic.

- My mom and I had a taste of Dutch herrings before riding the tram to Rijksmuseum (Rijksmuseum tram stop, trams 2, 12, or 5). By the way, Rijksmueum is read as "rye-ks museum" ("rye" as in "rye" bread.) Rijksmuseum is one of the Netherlands' national museums, and is dedicated to art and history. Do be careful as the layout of the museum can be quite confusing as certain stairs only go to certain parts of the museum (ex. the third floor has two parts, accessed with two different flights of stairs from the second floor. If you wish to go to another part of the third floor, you have to go back to the second floor and find the other flight of stairs that goes to the part which you wish to see.)

You can find food stalls in the streets that sell herring. I think it's raw, or maybe lightly smoked, but I like fish like that so it was a good snack. Some people might not like fish cooked this way (or, not cooked, rather.)

Rijksmuseum.

Chess with an updated war theme.

Memories of the Nazi era.

A whole plane in the museum!!

Delft blue ceramics!!

Would be scared to play a violin like this. Haha.

Library in the museum.

Replica of a Dutch ship during the age of exploration.

Pretty guns and cannon.

"Eyewitnesses of Waterloo," by Jan Willem Pieneman, 1824.

A legally-photographed Van Gogh painting (as photography is not allowed in the Van Gogh Museum near Rijksmuseum.)

- I also like how this museum has a special gallery for non-European art, mostly Asian art. It had a small collection of art from China, Japan, India, and some from Indonesia (which, by the way, was a colony of the Netherlands.)

Kimono!!

Chola-style Shiva Nataraja statue, from South India.

Boddhisattva, from China.

- My tour of the Rijksmuseum was fast-paced because I had to go back to the Anne Frank House a few tram stops away. Now, photography is not allowed inside the Anne Frank House (though I did post some photos of the facade a while ago, please scroll up,) I can tell you that it was a visit that will both inspire you and crush you. If you don't know who Anne Frank is, she was a girl who lived in the Netherlands during World War II, and lived through the tyranny of the Nazis. She wrote a diary with her experiences, and was published for all to read in 1947 onwards, courtesy of her father Otto Frank. Otto Frank was the only survivor of the Frank family, as everyone else was killed in various concentration camps during the war. Personally, I was inspired by the way Anne Frank dealt with the environment of war, how she maintained her cool and voice out all her worries through her essays, diary entries, and even fantasy stories. It was also inspiring to see how the family and some acquaintances made a hideout inside the house and cooperated to not be caught by the Nazis. It was impressive to see how they were able to make a rather spacious hideout!! Of course, the crushing part was when they were eventually caught by the Nazis and sent to various concentration camps. Despite this, I was glad to understand Anne Frank and her family's life more, thanks to my fast fingers and the fast internet which were the main reasons why I was able to quickly book a ticket for the day.

- My mom and I ended the day after dinner, and rested for our first day trip outside Amsterdam the day after. I'm sure you must know that the Netherlands is famous for its windmills - and that's just where I was about to head!!

- Please don't forget to read all about my other adventures in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg here!!

THE NETHERLANDS

Part 2, Zaanse Schans: here

Part 3, The Hague/Den Haag: here

Part 4, Haarlem: here

Part 5, Hoorn: here

Part 6, Amsterdam: here


BELGIUM

Parts 1 and 5, Brussels: here, and here

Part 2, Ghent/Gent: here

Part 3, Bruges/Brugge: here

Part 4, Antwerp: here


LUXEMBOURG: here