Amsterdam

[ewx]

naath and I went to Amsterdam.

Tuesday

The train was uneventful, and we ended up on the Stena Hollandica with 90m to spare. Even ferries have security theatre now; they had a fairly neat scanner which could accurately pinpoint my keys, money, sunglasses, polos, etc. We found our way reasonably easy to the rear sundeck (or at the time moondeck) with a smashing view of, er, some containers. We didn't see any meteors though we didn't stick around long.

Our cabin was relatively spacious, with its own shower and toilet. N took the top bunk. I realized about this point that the thing I'd forgotten to pack was the suncream; in fact we managed fine without.

Wednesday

We woke horribly early (in either timezone l-) and had boiled egg and a croissant for breakfast on the ferry. We headed back out to the sundeck to watch the ship coming in to dock at Hoek van Holland. For some reason I'd assumed that this port was in the northwest corner of Holland (not to be confused with the Netherlands!) but in fact it's at its southwest extreme. We took the train to Amsterdam.

Amsterdam's tourist info place had a rather stupid queueing system - you take a number and wait until it's called. The can work well, but here it didn't; many of the customers didn't turn up when their number was called, leading to up up to several minutes delay between the staff serving each customer. Ridiculous.

We were staying at the Hotel Heemskerk, which I really liked. We splashed out on a room with a jacuzzi and very nice it was after a long day!

It also had a balcony. It's situated in a horseshoe-shaped terrace at the back to the concert hall. We wondered how many flats the other four-storey houses in the terrace were divided into - in fact, apparently they are not, each is a single dwelling. (Though from the front it was clear that at least some were offices.)

The (very chatty) receptionist pointed us in the direction of a café to get some lunch. We then headed over to the Rijksmuseum, which had a lengthy queue, though the half hour marker was unduly pessimistic. Lots of paintings, with an unsurprising emphasis on Rembrandt, but no shortage of other things to look at.

Our guidebook's claim that there were too many cashpoints to be worth plotting on their map was a LIE but we eventually found one and then proceeded to Indonesian restaurant Tujuh Maret for dinner. I had Ajam Opor (chicken with cocount and ginger sauce) and the Es Kalapa (coconut icecream with chocolate sauce and whipped cream) and very nice they were too.

Thursday

We found our way to the Royal Palace, an imposing building on Dam square. Like the Rijksmuseum (and indeed much of the rest of Amsterdam) it was encrusted with scaffolding. The central hall is vast; there are plenty of interesting carvings and we spent a while speculating as to what they represented, but the thing that really caught my interest was the maps on the marble floor. The (smaller but still very spacious l-) rooms around the building were mostly only possible to peer into, leading to queueing, but a few you could go inside and look around properly.

Via lunch at a café we proceeded to the Historical Museum which (although it had no shortage of them) had less emphasis on paintings. In places it had a slightly unfortunate reliance on interactive electronic displays which to my thinking didn't really offer anything that printed information wouldn't, and weren't particularly easy to use.

After that we fit in the Sex Museum which was interesting and amusing before heading to the Sea Palace, a large floating Chinese restaurant (recommended by rejs), N demanding duck. The menu (which like most menus we encountered included English) had few surprises; tausie sauce turned out to be black bean sauce, which the waiter knew even if the menu didn't.

Seen on the way back:

The north of Amsterdam is even more of a building site than the rest:

At this end of the city it's not so much canals in a city as a city strung out across islands. Building wasn't only going on on the land:

Back to the hotel to try out the jacuzzi.

Friday

We went to the Science Museum, which was full of loud children but still had plenty of things for adults to look at. The display of robots was interesting, but the most striking object was the zebra rock (PDF). At the other end of the scale the building itself is quite striking.

There was a VOC (Dutch East India Company) ship moored next to the science museum, though we didn't go onboard.

Wonky buildings seem to be the style in this part of the city:

You can get up to the roof of the science museum.

We had excellent weather all the time we were there, here reflected in a new building.

We popped into the post office to get some stamps (a few readers should have postcards...) and then went along to the Anne Franke Huis, but lacked sufficient tolerance for the queue so decided to skip it. After a break in a café and a diversion into a cheese shop so N could buy a whole Edam we ended up having dinner in Haesje Claes, recommend in our guide book as a good place to find traditional Dutch food. I had pork in a madeira sauce, which was lovely.

Yes, that's a multi-story bicycle park. Cambridge station could use one.

Saturday

We went to FOAM, which self-identifies as a photography museum but is better described as a gallery. Massimo Vitali's huge and detailed beach scenes were impressive; there are some images on the website but you really need to see them up close. Garance Doré's street fashion photos were also engaging, some can be see on her blog.

After another café lunch we headed to zoo. This is pretty vast and I got quite tired walking around it, but took many, many photos.

A tefal fish? I was glad of my camera's high-ISO capability in the aquarium.

We encountered the penguins at feeding time, which can best be described as an undignified scramble.

This bird was splashing about like mad...

...the seals were a bit more dignified.

There was a large butterfly house.

These blue ones were huge and cause me to duck more than once.

The lionesses were mostly dozing. The spider monkeys on the other hand rushed out about as we turned up, but got bored and wandered away after a while. We wondered which side of the wire they thought was which l-)

The baby monkey was a bit prone to falling over.

We went to Pastini to eat, a small but pleasant Italian restaurant. On the way back to the hotel, we passed the “I Amsterdam” logo in the Museumplein, where the done thing seems to be to sit on top of it and be photographed.

Sunday

We woke earlier than usual so we could have breakfast and check out in good time, then went to the Hermitage Amsterdam, currently showing a large exihibition of costumes, paintings and other artefacts from the Russian court. Incredible riches, and Russophiles would be recommended to visit. We lunched at the museum's Café Neva and made our way to the station via the hotel to pick up our baggage.

After a wait in the first class lounge we spent a while being marshaled on the platform until the train arrived (and had to walk a carriage length or so anyway). We caught the the Thalys (not to be confused with my employer) to Brussels, crossing into Belgium somewhere around 1700 local time, and the Eurostar back to Britain. We had just enough time in the departure lounge for N to buy some chocolate, our time advantage having been consumed queuing for security theatre and passport checks. At least two Britons asked if the queue for European passport holders meant them.

Getting Around Amsterdam

We got an I Amsterdam Card each. This is a public transport ticket and free or reduced entry into various attractions. I think in the end we about broke even; I think this sort of thing is best to get if you're going to use the accompanying guide as an itinerary rather than if you're going to hope that the things you want to see honor it.

We got around by tram and on foot. Our guidebook's tram map wasn't very good, unfortunately.

The city is divided up by canals. We didn't in the end go on a canal tour; perhaps next time.

There are bikes and scooters everywhere. Initially we kept straying into cycle lanes but soon managed to learn to recognize them and be more careful.

There weren't that many cars on the move (though quite a lot parked), except on Sunday when large numbers appeared. Possibly holiday-makers going home.

Living In Amsterdam

There were a lot of houseboats.

I think these used to be warehouses, but they are homes and offices now.

Other

I wondered if there was a separate set of celebrities for them to photograph.

The gables on this café are very characteristic of Amsterdam. Less common, but still by no means rare, is the tilt to the front wall; the idea is to stop your furniture banging into the wall when you haul it up to the window to get it in. We did not spot the obviously necessary Café Castor.

Apparently angels sell life insurance policies.

Comments

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

Nice to see someone else cares enough to avoid flying when possible. (I'm getting rather despondent with people pouring scorn on my travel methods...)

[lnr]

When it just cost me 83 quid to get back from Exeter on the train you can see why cheap flights still appeal though.

[naath.livejournal.com]

It did cost rather more than flights would have though (I wouldn't have *gone* if it was flights or nothing though - it was not a necessary trip by any means). It was all much more pleasant than my very limited flying experience has been though (especially the 1st class Thalys, which was very comfy and had free tea and bikkies).

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

...but no power sockets. ;^b

My mother thinks I have more money than sense for paying five times what it costs to fly to Rome to travel there by train.^* I call it putting my money where my mouth is.

* Or, I suppose, half that if you want to get me there as early in the morning by 'plane without incurring getting up at an undogly hour.