Day 4: Walking the Canals and Amsterdam History

 Today was beautiful—sunlight, warmth, beauty, and no specific agenda. Here’s what we did:

Getting off the #7 tram at Frederiksplein, we walked along the canals to the Amsterdam Museum, reveling in the blue skies and perfect weather. (This promises to be our only sunny day on this trip.) We both felt more spring in our step than yesterday, and the play of light on water was like poetry.

Houses along the Amstel River, just past Prinsengracht (gracht = canal).

A fountain in Frederiksplein on our way to the museum.

The Prinsengracht continuing past the Amstel.

We chose the Amsterdam Museum because the guide book said it had a marvelous presentation of Amsterdam’s history. We did not realize that it was being housed in a temporary location, with most of its original displays in storage. The history portion of the museum was paltry, to put it mildly. Mostly paintings that showed the power and glory of early Amsterdam, with written comments apologizing for the triumphal tone and pride in the city’s accomplishments that these early paintings depicted. I did find a painting of a tower we had seen on our canal tour, however, and thought the comparison was interesting:

No, the tower is not leaning. I just shot it at an angle.

The best thing about the museum was the oversized cat in the outdoor sculpture section, put together by an autistic artist, who is quite brilliant. It’s made mostly of bicycle gears and chains.

We then very sensibly had lunch in the adjoining park, enjoying the play of light and leaves:

We found we were right next to the Holocaust Memorial, so we spent some time wandering through it, reading names. There were tens of thousands of Jews taken from Amsterdam and sent to prison camps. Each of their names is inscribed on a brick and built into a structure of walls. Reading the names and ages of the victims was heartbreaking.

Most of the victims had Dutch last names. There were no Bajemas or VanDykens. But the names went on and on and on…

It was a place of reflection and sadness:

Next we walked back across the Amstel and wandered the “canal ring,” in which many of Amsterdam’s finest homes are located. These are from the Heerengracht canal:

The two old buildings in the center appear to be leaning.

This was done on purpose. Cranes at the top of the building would haul up heavy furniture.

If the building leaned forward a bit, the furniture wouldn’t bump against windows as it was

being hauled up.

We had our afternoon Heineken at a cheerful outdoor cafe.

Only 3 euros during “happy hour.” But it was the small size.

There we got to know the proprietor and her mother (who were the only other people there at the time). Phil charmed them with his humor and won their hearts by giving them a genuine American dollar, which they had never seen before. They also gave us tips on what we should see and do in Amsterdam.

Our last stop of the day was a Catholic church (De Krijtberg) not far from our beer tent. It had been a Jesuit mission early on, and began as a “secret” or “hidden” congregation in the 1600s, when any church except for the Reformed persuasion was not allowed to worship in public. By the mid-1800s this had softened, however, and the inside of the church was built in the classic Baroque style. It was amazingly complex and beautiful.

We were greeted by an art history student from Malta, Julia, who with great enthusiasm taught us much about the church’s history and architecture. She is staying there for a year with a group of students called “Living Stones,” undergoing a Jesuit study program and also meeting and talking with tourists.

Then home, rest and tea, dinner, and now bed! 

What I liked best about today was that we had almost no agenda, did lots of walking in scenic Amsterdam, and met lovely people. A full but restful and pleasurable day. Oh, and we stopped for Turkish pastries after dinner.