"Amsterdam Adventures" Amsterdam Travelogue by njtourist

If you had been following along, we have left Delft and are on the way to Amsterdam.

We stayed at the Radisson SAS Hotel.

In Europe, the ground floor is floor 0, instead of floor 1. The basement was -1. We had to go down to floor -1, cross under the street, and then come up on the building on the other side of the street where our room was. It was decorated in a Art Deco Motif.

For dinner we went to Puri Mas for Indonesian food.
You can spot in in the photo. We had a traditional Indonesian Rijsttafel, which is a feast of mild to strongly spiced Indonesian dishes.

Rijsttafel means Rice Table, an array of many dishes in small portions that covers the whole table. Although it is a Dutch idea, its origins are clearly Indonesian and it was known at one time as Makan Besar.

Next to us were some folks from the US, and we spent half of dinner trying to figure out what state they were from. Turns out they were from Utah. As we are going to the Olympics next year, we started chatting with them about lodging during the Olympics. I gave them my card...We will find a reasonably priced place to stay, I hope!!

Stepped and Funnel Gables

A Stepped and a Funnel Gable.

Bell Gable

A Bell Shaped Gable. Notice the rope hanging from the hoist beam.

A brief look at historic buildings in Amsterdam will show you that all canal houses have hoist beams. After all trade and commerce are at the basis of Amsterdam life and most houses were built as merchants’ houses combining residential and business functions. Hoist beams were indispensable. Their purpose was to tackle commodities up into the loft. It stands to reason that such provisions belonged to the standard equipment of warehouses.

Cornice

A Cornice.

Sunday we got up and paid for the bikes. While waiting for the bike shop to open, we had a yummy pastry with custard and strawberries. After taking care of the bikes, we had a buffet breakfast at the hotel.. It had the normal breakfast foods,: eggs, bacon, cereal....and beans. The hotel in Eindhoven had beans too. Why?

We did a little shopping at the airport (chocolate).

The flight home got delayed because someone's baggage got on but they didn't. That is significant because as we were nearing Newark Airport, a thunderstorm was raging. We couldn't land and we couldn't circle because we didn't have enough fuel. We watched the display that shows where we are and where we were going change to Philadelphia! We had to land in Philly and refuel...and do paperwork...and wait for the thunderstorm to pass thru Philly! So 3.5 hours later...we finally get to Newark.

Beans for breakfast? (Update: I am told by reliable sources that this is really a UK thing, not a Dutch thing.)

No refills on cofee

Microscopic sodas

Everyone Smoking

Talking on your cellphone while riding your bike

Bad American shows on TV: Jerry Springer, A-Team, Knight Rider, McGuyver

After dinner we went on a canal cruise. The tour was pre-recorded in 5 languages. You had to hope you hadn't passed the sight before your language came up!

Work's done so Rick's relaxing with a Heineken (made in the Netherlands).

Row Houses

Check out the house second from the right. See how skinny it is!

Also, note the HouseBoat in the foreground. There was a housing shortage so people bought houseboats. They are official and have electric and gas hookups.

Since it didn't get dark until 10:30pm (22:30), we didn't get to see many of the canal bridge arches lit up.

Batavia

The canal tour took us out into the harbor.

Above is the 'BATAVIA', a US$12 million hand-built replica of a 17th century Dutch trading ship, measuring 59 metres with 3 tall masts and sails.

After the cruise we took a look at the Red Light district. There really are red lights and scantily clad women standing under ultraviolet lights in windows.

Anne Frank's House

Saturday morning we got up early and rented bikes. Our plans was to go to the Anne Frank House and then get pancakes at a nearby Pancake House.

I had been reading Anne Frank's diary and it was exciting to see the real thing. In her diary Anne mentions that she has put up pictures of movie stars on her wall. Many of those pictures are still there. The secret bookcase is still there as well.
At the end fo the tour they had a computers with a virtual reality version of the house. We didn't
even begin to explore the whole program.

Waiting for Pancakes

After that, we went to the "Pancake Bakery", just down the street. Now, you would think a pancake place would be open for breakfast? Well you would be wrong! It didn't open until 12:00!

Above is me sitting at a nearby cafe having a snack of a croissant waiting until the Pancake Bakery opened. I had an apple and bacon pancake. The strips of bacon were baked right into the pancake, which was as big as my plate. There was a bucket of thick molasses like syrup for the pancakes.

Rijkmuseum

Next we were off to the Rijkmuseum.There are many famous painting here from Rembrandt and Vermeer.

If you look closely, you can see the traffic light specially for bikes. In fact there were signals for cars, bikes, pedestrians and trolleys.

Along a canal

After the Rijkmuseum, we took a coffee/applecake break not too far from this canal.

Next we went to the Van Gogh Museum . Rick had already been there so I did the quick tour myself.

We then bicyclde to Dam Square to see the Royal Palace. We were there just before closing so we did a quick tour. After that we went to a nearby shopping mall and got some Dutch dolls for the girls.

Then we realized we needed to turn the bikes back in! They took the bikes (it was just after 6:00pm, when they close) but we would hvae to return the next day to pay.

We had dinner at Haesje Claes. We loved the Pea Soup.

More Gables

We took pictures of the gables on what turned out to be a beautiful evening.

Typical of the Amsterdam facades, however, is the gable top. The reason behind the characteristic shape of the Amsterdam facades is the fact that the plots were narrow and deep with the narrow side facing the canal. It is crucial to realise that as a result the ridges of the saddle roofs were at right angles to the facades. Ornamental gable tops came to be used as a way to hide the saddle roofs from view.

Click Here to learn more about architecture in Amsterdam.

This is a Raised Neck Gable.