Amsterdam - Day 1

We left Heerlen on the 6:19 am train this morning. Arrived at Amsterdam Centraal train station at 8:45. No hiccups this time. One train all the way.

We walked eight minutes to get to our hotel. We are very close to the train station AND 700 m to the Red Light District! Cathy might be working tonight to make some money. haha She's bought a lot of souvenirs.

Although check in wasn't until 3, we were able to leave our luggage in a secure room at the hotel. That was nice as Cathy had a ticket to go to Anne Frank House at 12:15.

We turned right out of our hotel to go in search of a place to have breakfast. What a lovely surprise to see a chalkboard with the words pancakes, breakfast & more on it. In we go. It was like walking back in time. The restaurant is called Schreierstoren.

We had a table overlooking one of many canals in Amsterdam. I was happy because I'd always wanted to sit in a restaurant by a window looking at a canal.

To protect Amsterdam, the earthen walls were replaced by a city wall at the end of the 15th century. A city wall that ran from the IJ, along the Singel, at the Munt to the Amstel, Nieuwe Doelenstraat, Kloveniersburgwal, Nieuwmarkt and via the Geldersekade back to the IJ. There were towers and city gates at strategic points, with the Schreierstoren on the corner of the IJ and the Geldersekade.

Many think that the Weeping Tower owes its name to weeping women who said goodbye to their departing husbands at this point. This is supported by a representation above the street name sign on the right side of the tower. This relief shows a woman turning her head away while pointing to a ship on the choppy waves. It also says Scrayer-houck and 1569. Perhaps this relief was a kind of pun by one of the rhetoricians' societies of the time. The Schrayerhouck Tower does not refer to the crying, but to the schraye (sharp) corner in the city wall towards the Sint Antoniespoort (De Waag).

I took Cathy to Damtrak which is what I call the main street through the center of town. We came across a parade in honour of the visiting President of South Korea. Many soldiers and bands. That's always a cool thing to stumble across. I was in Amsterdam a year ago for 10 days so it's nice to know where I am going.

Next was buying a 4 day tram ticket. Nice to avoid more walking. We then headed to Anne Frank House. Cathy took the tour. I waited for her in a warm pub. I had a Coke Zero and listened to piped 70's and 80's tunes for an hour.

The pub I waited in while Cathy was in Anne Frank House:

There is no avoiding stairs in old buildings. These were the steps down to the washroom.

Cathy with the statue of Anne Frank. Sometimes I have to shake my head at the things Cathy says. This was one time. She looked at me and said "She wasn't very tall." I told her it's a tribute to Anne not a life size statue. Anne was at one time an average sized teenager.

Mari Andriessen (himself an anti-Nazi war hero) made this sculpture of Anne Frank when he was already well into his 70s. He made Anne look like a rather serious, resolute girl with her eyes wide open, a whole life ahead of her. Of course most onlookers know she died at the age of 15 of typhus in a German concentration camp just months before the end of WWII.

Anne Frank House Museum.

These doors are the actual doors and entrance to Otto Frank's factory where the family entered and climbed up to the attic to hide.

Westerkerk and Anne Frank are intrinsically connected. At that time, it was a Protestant church. She mentions the chimes of Westerkerk in her diary entry of 11 July 1942.

These next pictures are Westerkerk.

In the above picture, Anne's home, while hiding, was to the left of the building on the left.

Interesting tidbit - The famous painter Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) lived near the Westerkerk on the Rozengracht at the end of his life. He was buried in the Westerkerk on October 8, 1669. It is no longer possible to determine where exactly. There is a memorial plaque on the north wall in his memory. We saw many tomb stones in the floor. They are so old that most of the inscriptions had worn off.

Cathy was moved by what she experienced in at Anne Frank House. She said you read the book and see the movie but after visiting the house, you are hit with realty and how very sad all that happened is. It was stressful for her. She ended up with a headache. Her pills were in her suitcase so after stopping for some pop, we made a beeline back to the hotel. We could get the pills out of the suitcase. Fortunately, our room was ready just before two. We came in. Chose a bed, Cathy took her pills. I turned lights off and closed the curtain. Cathy had a sleep.

Our room is nothing fancy. Sometimes it's about location. This is perfect. Beds, bathroom, TV and a fridge. That works.

For supper tonight we went to my favourite place to get wonton soup. It is one of the three places I have to go back to while we are in Amsterdam. It's called Asian Kitchen and is one of those hole in the wall places. We ate at the restaurant which was a first for me because I used to get my soup to go. The restaurant only has about 10 tables in it. It is very busy with people buying takeout food. You know it's good when three policemen are standing in line to order food. It was only 7 minutes by tram from our hotel.

This is fried rice and sweet and sour chicken. The spring rolls were vegetable. It was all delicious. We shared everything. We had leftovers so I had them boxed up. I took them to the train station and gave them to a young fellow pushing all his worldly goods in a shopping cart. Unlike the last time I did this in Amsterdam, this fellow was living on the streets.

My memory failed me when I ordered my wonton soup. I got this large bowl with wonton and noodles. When I asked the worker about just getting wonton and chicken juice next time, she said I should have asked for a small wonton soup. I will do that next time.

I told our server that I was happy to be here as I was a regular at the restaurant during my last visit to Amsterdam. She said she hoped it was still good soup. It was!

I got a rain cover for my backpack for Christmas last year. My last trip, everything would get wet in my backpack when it rained. Not this time thanks to Beth and Mat's present.

We were across the street from the Bloemenmarkt (flower market). It is unique in Europe and it is here that tourists and shopkeepers buy their flowers.