Amsterdam Revisited

Paris - ✔

Next stop - Amsterdam.
We had just visited last Spring (see those posts here, here and here) but we were very excited to come back and see some more of this gorgeous city.

We hopped the train out of Paris around lunchtime and, being the mean mom that I am, they had to do some homework before they were allowed their electronics.

A few short hours later we were walking into the front door of our home for the next week.  Well, after tackling 3 flights of stairs that go STRAIGHT up and are smaller than the size of my foot.  Very very Dutch.

Left - the view going up.  There is one more set of these once you get in the front door.  

Right - the view going down.  My foot is there for reference on how tiny the stairs are.

It didn't bother us though because we didn't plan on spending much time indoors anyway.

The first thing the next morning, we were up and out and enjoying the gorgeous streets of Amsterdam.  I honestly will never bore of their beauty.

First stop:  The Rijksmuseum.  We had not had time to visit on our first trip last spring, and we really wanted a chance to see it.  But the kids were getting a bit tired of the museums.  The kid's tour to the rescue.  They each got a set of earphones and a small computer device.  It told them where to go, played an ongoing scavenger hunt/game with them and made the whole thing super exciting and go them through the museum in about an hour without a single "I'm bored."  Highly recommend!

Rembrandts, The Night Watch, is being restored, and you can watch it live and in real-time.  Pretty impressive.  Here they are getting ready to scan it for the first time to see what restoration they need.

From top left:  Model ships that are recreations of the fleets that used to sail the seas around Amsterdam; old shotguns; a necklace made out of steel tubing; a lock that needed 4 steps to open (in the right order) and that told you how many times it had been opened so you could tell if someone had unlocked it without your knowledge.

We wish we could have stayed longer, but we had a little girl to go see...

The Anne Frank house.  We didn't get a chance to see it last time because I did not know that I had to book tickets for 2 months (!) in advance.  This time I was ready and got a late afternoon showing and even then they were almost sold out!  There are no pictures allowed inside the house, but you really don't feel like taking them anyway.  It is a very sobering experience to be standing inside the small spaces that confined eight people for 25 months.  The girls knew the story but being inside made it very real to them.  Definitely, a history lesson they will not soon forget.

We all needed a bit of levity (and lunch) after that, so we headed off to find Dutch pancakes.  Which are nothing like that pancakes of your morning breakfast in the U.S.  These are more like crepes, are the size of a large dinner plate and have the most savory toppings!  I could not even come close to finishing my spinach and goat cheese, but it was oooohhhh so good.

Back outside, we headed off on foot to the Oude Kerk.  But not without seeing some interesting sights...

The Oude Kerk (Old Church) is the oldest building in Amsterdam.  Built in 1213 and consecrated in 1306 with St. Nicholas as its patron saint the church has been remodeled and expanded throughout 15 generations.  It now boasts the most significant medieval wooden vault (roof) in Europe, over 2500 graves with 10,000 bodies buried under them create the floor, and it is the only structure that still stands in its entirety since Rembrandt walked its halls (his children were all christened here).  The Oude Kerk was also the site of the Iconoclastic Fury. In August of 1566, an angry crowd forced its way into the church and destroyed statues, stained glass windows, and altarpieces. From then on the church would be a Calvinist church and no longer Roman Catholic one.

Top left:  The graves that make up the entire floor.  

Top Right:  The organ regarded as the finest Baroque organ in Europe.

Ironically, the church is in the middle of the Red Light (prostitution) district in Amsterdam.  This photo is a view from the inside of the church looking out.  I say ironically because as I mentioned its patron St. Nicholas is the patron saint of the lost.

Back in the sunshine, we spent some time just enjoying the scenery that surrounded us.

Rembrandtplein and a recreation of the Night Watch that I spoke of at the beginning of this post.

It as getting time for dinner and after those huge pancakes none of us was ready for a large dinner so on the suggestion of Dutch friends of ours we stopped into a pub that served another traditional Dutch treat - Bitterballen.  Traditionally they are filled with a meat mixture and fried in a breadcrumb and egg mixture and served with a side of spicy mustard.  This pub served several variations with fillings ranging from chorizo to goat cheese to cheese risotto.  And we tried as many as we could manage!

Day 1 in Amsterdam was a huge success.  We headed back to our Airbnb to climb some stairs to work off some of those Bitterballen and fell into a deep, satisfying sleep.