Part One: The Art
Trip Start
Dec 25, 2005
1
2
5
Trip End
Jan 03, 2006
Amsterdam,
Netherlands
Saturday, December 31, 2005
The Art. Whether it's hanging in a museum, in the passing landscapes of the countryside, or in the constant vibe of a city or subtle buzz of a town, it's always the same when you travel. Everything around you is the art and you are always the viewer. An outside observer, looking on and always trying to figure out the secret of getting into the other side of the frame.
We left for Amsterdam on Christmas day and arrived in the late morning the following day. When arriving in at a new destination you are overtaken by a sudden sense of urgency to go experience everything right away. Our energy was so strong that we decided to take our luggage on the scenic route to our hotel. Right away we learned that in Amsterdam all maps are useless.
After checking into our hotel, The Frisco Hotel Bar, and struggling up the verticle ladder they claim are called stairs, we settled in and headed back out. It was a bit chilly, but nonetheless we stumbled our way through the central part of Amsterdam and into the canal belt. Amsterdam can best be thought of as a half-circle, bordered by three main canals. All the canals are bordered by cramped, tall, and leaning houses with gabled tops and large picture windows. The canals are crisscrossed with lovely arched bridges and all roadways seem to be brick alleys and paths. Amsterdam has done a superb job at maintaining its antique classiness.
Our first tourist stop was the Rijksmuseum, which houses a collection of Delftware and art by the Dutch masters.
A Canal Tour
Currently the museum is under construction, so only a fraction of the collection is on display. Some people may be disappointed by this, but for us it was nice. Instead of tackling a gigantic maze of a museum, we were able to keep our jet-lag in check and enjoy an oversized gallery of classics. The display included numerous Rembrandt's, including his famous "The Night Watch". After this we followed the tourist signs back towards Centraal Station, avoiding the annoying land mines of dog crap littering the sidewalks, and found ourselves a brown cafe for a cup of hot chocolate with butter rum. We then returned to our hotel for a quick nap before dinner. Our nap lasted until breakfast the following day. So much for energy.We seemed to get into a pattern of alternating between a day in Amsterdam and a day touring the rest of Holland. It was nice to contrast the relentless chaos of the city with the quaintness of the smaller towns and cities. In Amsterdam we hit the other major museums, including the Van Gogh and Anne Frank House. The Anne Frank House was an excellent museum. It was fascinating to actually see where her diaries were written and to gain a visual of her life. The museum was narrated by Anne's diary entries painted on the walls of the rooms. The rest of our time was spent exploring the city's quirks by foot, enjoying a canal cruise, shopping, and eating a variety of food, including the best Indian restaurant (which we visited twice) and the worst Chinese restaurant (which we visited once).
Our first venture out of The Dam was to Delft and Den Haag.
A Non-photogenic Cat
Delft is a perfect little town famous for the blue and white hand-painted china known as Delftware. Leading to the town square are several small canals. The town square is flanked by the impressive town hall and new church. We grabbed some breakfast and coffee at a cafe, poked around the shops, saw an artist painting her delftware, and did a bit of shopping. We then headed back to Den Haag, the administrative capital of The Netherlands and also the home of the United Nation's International Court of Justice. Our goal here was to see the Mauritshuis, a small museum full of big paintings. It seems every piece is a masterpiece, including numerous Rembrandt's and Vermeer's City of Delft and Girl with a Pearl Earring. At first I was a little bored with the art. Don't get me wrong, the paintings are amazing, but I'm more of an abstract guy. To try to make more out of the museum, I randomly picked up an information card and began reading. Talk about introducing you to a whole new picture. Who would have known the hunters rifle was really an erect penis? And that masterpiece in four parts, look closely and it tells the story of a drunken night, complete with a man puking over a railing, another pissing in the corner of a house, and yet another fondling the servant's breast. And finally, my personal favorite, another portrait of human merrymaking and sin, complete with two little spaniels doing it doggy style in the background. No matter what the time, you can always count on art finding a way to be a little bit perverse and extremely entertaining.A couple of days later we attempted to venture out to Rotterdam and onto Kinderdijk, home of the World Heritage Site of 19 working windmills.
Alley Football in Haarlem
Who goes to Holland and doesn't come back with a picture of a windmill? But the day we went was freezing and the whole bus/tram situation seemed a bit risky, so we turned around and went to Gouda, home of Gouda cheese. Gouda is sold as a nice town, but really its a rather large city with great shopping. Not to mention the perfect town square, gothic looking town hall, and all the Gouda cheese you can think of. Unfortunately, it was really cold out so we didn't stay much longer after lunch.When we happened to run into Nate and Andrea at the Van Gogh Museum, we made plans for us to meet them in Leiden on New Year's Day. Leiden is a university town about a half hour outside of Amsterdam. The town is great, but the plan to actually be productive on New Year's day was not. After fighting off a hangover we discovered we could not figure out how to use the phones (this problem could have been slightly related to the hangover, perhaps). We decided to jump on a train and go to Leiden and see what happened. Unfortunately, the phones in Leiden were still uncooperative. We began to wander the streets figuring there was a slim chance of running into them. We never ran into them, but we did run into an internet cafe, and although we never met up via email, we did find a phone that worked. Nate gave us a grand tour of Leiden (I say forget law school, tour guiding sounds more fun), including the windmills (I have pictures!), canals, churches, gates and forts. We also enjoyed one of the best dinners I've ever had. Andrea was feeling a bit under the weather and was unable to join us, so instead we went to their place to enjoy a variety of Dutch beer and to be introduced to the wonderful world of Dutch candies.
The following day, our last full day in Holland, we met Nate at Centraal Station and headed up to Haarlem. Our guide book said that it is impossible to find someone who is not enthusiastic about Haarlem. I don't know why people are enthusiastic about Haarlem, it's another Dutch city perfectly preserved with a square, canals, and impressive churches, but everyone, including myself, is enthusiastic about it. Perhaps it was nice to be out of the city or the fact that the sun was actually out may have helped? We wandered around a bit, ate some food, and tried to find an art museum. Instead of an art museum we found a closed museum with an entertaining alley cat. With some free time on our hands we made a quick decision to go to Zandvoort and to see the sea. It turned out to be the most perfect choice of our the trip.
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