Amsterdam, Holland
What is Holland known for - Cheese, Tulips, Wooden Shoes and Windmills. What's Amsterdam renowned for - Canals, Legal Marijuana the Red Light District... and Heineken - who knew?! The Heineken company began as - and still is - a family business. Heineken's history began in the late 1800's with the purchase of a nearly 300-year-old brewery. At that time, beer drinking had long been in decline in the Netherlands. Three generations later, through continual improvement and innovation, the company become the most international brewer in the world.
"Venice of the North" - In the course of the 17th century the famous crescent shape of the Amsterdam city centre was designed and realized resulting in the unique ring of canals. A number of narrow streets and canals, fanning out from the centre of the crescent, traversed the network of concentric semicircular canals. On the outskirts of the city centre, the canals ended in squares, where the city gates were located. The squares were used as parking places, since vehicles were not always allowed into the city itself. The Venice of the North consists of approx. 90 islands, separated by some 100 kilometers of canals and linked by about 400 stone bridges.
 Canals |
 Flower Market |
 More of the Flower Market |
| On the train to Amsterdam, a woman around my age sat in the seat next to me. Poor her - I found that she knew English so I talked to her the whole 2 hours. She was born in Morocco but has lived in Antwerp since she was 11 years old. She was very interesting - telling me all about Europe and where to eat, what to see in Amsterdam, etc. I asked her what she thought about the whole war with Iraq. It was very interesting... she said that the U.S. is the strongest power and that we can basically do whatever we want. She went on to say that she believes most people are glad that Hussein is now gone but that it should have been handled in a different way. That being said, we are also the youngest country. The U.S. is only 200 years old, which is very young when compared to most European countries. She said, if all these other countries who have been around for such a long time disagree, don't you think they would know a little something about what's going on and have some say ? | |||
 Okay, so I liked the flower market |
 Tulips at the flower market |
||
|
Well, I spent one day in Amsterdam and it rained on and off all day long.
When I first arrived, I took a boat ride through the canals - I thought it
would be a good way to get out of the rain and to get my feet a little so I
would know where I was going. WRONG! The canal cruise was very
informative but I still had no idea where I was headed. In fact, I
thought the first place I would go would be the Anne Frank House to try to
avoid a larger crowd later - I ended at the Flower Market. They are
not even close to each other!?!? But eventually I figured out the
trick... don't try to find street signs - go by canals. After that, I
was A-OK!
There was about a 35 minute wait for the Anne Frank House but well worth it. The Anne Frank House has two parts. In ‘het Achterhuis’ is the rear part of the house where Anne and her family remained in hiding. In the front part of the house there was a company belonging to Otto Frank, Anne’s father. You can walk all around the different rooms where Anne, her sister Margaret and all the other families stayed. There are authentic postcards and letters displayed as well as pictures that are still left hanging on the children's walls. Documentaries and other videos are playing in different rooms for people to stop and watch. I bought a book that thoroughly takes you through the house and explains everything in English... there is FAR too much to take pictures of. |
|||
 1st protestant church in Amsterdam |
 Anne Frank house |
 Attic door in Anne Frank House |
|
 Both of these can be found on Dam Square, which is in the middle of town. On the Left is Madame Tussaud, which is one of the few famous wax museums in Europe (a larger one can be found in London, England). The picture on the Right shows a monument with part of a hotel in the background. This is the Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky. To get to the Red Light District, you go down an alley next to the hotel... and there you are. There are a few things everyone needs to see when they go to Amsterdam... the Red Light District is one of them. The other is a restaurant that sells marijuana. There is a restaurant called the "Grasshopper" (clever eh?!) that has a menu filled with different types of marijuana one can purchase. I was walking past an outdoor cafe and I could have sworn I was going to have a contact high. |
|||
 The Rijksmuseum (Left) is the largest museum in the Netherlands, in the size of its collections, its building, the budget and the number of staff employed. The Van Gogh Museum (Right) contains the largest collection of paintings by Vincent van Gogh in the world. It contains a whole section solely to follow the artist's developments and compare his paintings to works by other artists from the 19th century in the collection. The museum also holds an extensive offer of exhibitions on various subjects from 19th century art history. |
|||
 Me getting on the Canal Cruise (Left) and the Hard Rock Cafe in Amsterdam (Right) |
|||