Day 41: The Final Ride

Well it's the final day on tour as we fly out of Amsterdam tomorrow morning for home. We wake up early to make the most of it. We head to a bike rental shop to get some bikes for the day so we can do as the Amsterdamers do and pedal ourselves silly. 

After getting our bikes from a friendly Aussie at the bike store we set off on our two wheeled adventure. We are a little nervous at first, but quickly get the hang of it. The bike lane system works a treat here. It's crazy that I feel safer riding a bicycle in a foreign country, with a foreign language that rides and drives backwards to what I know, then in my own city. 

In what seems like only a few minutes we pass through the colonnade under the Rijksmuseum and area down in Vondelpark. Wow, we really should have got a bike the other days. Having said that,it's €10 a day and the last 15 minutes has been a blur to me. Wouldn't have done a lot of sight seeing as you do have to pay attention to what's going on around you. So many other bikes, trams, cars and pedestrians! They're the real killers! So I'm still a big believer in walking a city first.

 

We ride through the lush and green Vondelpark. Today being Saturday it's full of weekend activity. There's already people setting up picnics and sports games. We see one large group of various families with their toddlers having sack races. Haven't seen that in years. There's also the regular park goers too, the joggers, the cyclists and the tourists strolling the pathways. We stop for breakfast at a cafe on one of the lakes. It's so nice in the morning sun sitting in the parkland. It's meant to be a warm day today with a high of 21. So high right? Too funny.

I really like this park. It has all the right ingredients for a good public park. Large green spaces, water, trees for shade and wildlife. We watch the birds flying and the fish in the lakes whilst we eat. Not far from the timber deck where we're sitting a bird then plunges into the lake to get some food.

After finishing our yoghurt and toasties we ride around the full extent of the park, something we didn't do the other day when we walked, before riding back out past Museumplein and over to the same markets we visited yesterday in De Pijp, the Albert Cuypmarkt. There's more dutch delicacies to try, such as the Poffertjes, which are little round pancake balls with butter and icing sugar. We also get some cheap €1.50 juice smoothies and I get some chicken with peanut sauce as it looks unreal. Tasted good too. Sim gets a huge container of fresh raspberries which are also super tasty. Such good produce here in Amsterdam. 

 

We do some market shopping and then continue our ride north up through Jordaan. 

Again we're amazed at how easy and quick it was to get across town. Sim's in heaven on two wheels. She loves bike riding. I'm enjoying it too. A lot more easier on the feet than our last few days.

 

We park our bikes and stroll another market in the upper Jordaan area. It's annoying we leave tomorrow as there's so many nice things to eat from these markets. This is where you'll find the Dutch cuisine it seems. The cheese, meets and fish look unreal. We wander back through the streets of Jordaan to where we parked our bikes. The colours of the trees on the canal side overhanging the water are really beautiful.

We head up under the railway line and west of town for a few kilometres. We're in search of one last Amsterdam School building, the Het Schip it's called. It's pretty easy to find as it's quite a unique building in a quiet little residential pocket not far from the train line. We ride around and explore the area. The buildings are interesting yet again, with quirky brick detailing, fussy window details and interesting uses of roof tiles. The round elongated bulb form to the building street corner is really interesting. 

 

 

 

We ride up to the harbour and along the eastern docklands. There's a few modern architecture highlights here too. Notably MVRDVs stacked container apartment building on the water. This building fits in well with the ugly working nature of the harbour. It's not a naturally beautiful harbour by any means. It's very much a transport corridor. But many of the buildings along it are interesting. One being the new film and cinema museum on the northern side of the harbour. It's a really nice piece of sculptural architecture. 

 

 

We ride through central train station and head east up to the old windmill in town. There's a lively brewery underneath it so I grab a paddle of craft beers and get sim a ginger beer. Sitting at the bar I overhear a guy order a Heineken. He sounds Aussies and he's wearing a State of Origin cap too. The barmen turns and yells out to everyone, "one Heineken please!"

Laughing he then turns back to the Aussie bloke at the bar, "we don't have Heineken here I'm sorry. We loathe Heineken."

Was pretty funny. I guess they are a craft beer brewery though. I got a similar response when I first asked for a Coke for sim. A stern no, don't do cola. 

 

 

After finishing the paddle we get back on the pedals. We continued further east of the town and up into the eastern docklands area. We check out Scheepstimmermanstraat and ride past its  famous canal row house strip designed by a multitude of architects in the 1990s. Very interesting mix of aesthetics within a single typology of similar size and scale. The whole area is quite interesting as its obviously gone through an urban renewal phase in the last 20-30years, moving away from working harbour to residential. Very similar to other cities I guess.

 

It's now nearly 4pm and starting to sprinkle with rain. We ride back towards our hotel, past the zoo and through the leafy streets. There's more open space over this side of town. I'm really enjoying the freedom of riding this city, so easy. Everything is within reach. 

 

We make it back to the bike rental with everything in tact and then head back to our hotel. Just in the nick of time too as the skies open and it starts to pour with rain. Phew, what another big day. Our bums are feeling it though. Saddle soreness. Not good for us casual riders. 

We watch a bit of the Tour on tv in the hotel bar before heading for a rest. Sims in a little bit of discomfort in the nether regions, quite a funny thing to happen in the Netherlands I reckon!

We head out for dinner at 7ish, wandering back through the Jewish quarter and down the canals to the flower markets for some final souvenir shopping before heading into Rembrandtplein. Again, we struggle deciding where to eat as were not too sure what to eat. For some reason deciding on dinner here is hard. I guess in Italy you just go to an Italian place, in Spain the go to was tapas and in France if all else failed a bistro. But here the multitude of cuisines makes it confusing. Looking forward to a home cooked meal very much now. A little bit of stability in the diet.

We decide on Thai bizarrely, it's nice but expensive for what it was, and not as good as some cheap Thai back home.

We stroll the evening streets and canals one last time before heading back to pack our bags.

What an adventure it's been. 1 lost iPhone, 2 pairs of exhausted feet, 4 countries, 6 weeks, 14 different cities and a lot of fun times. Been a really enjoyable summer (I'll clarify that as "European summer" for France and Amsterdam) sojourn in Western Europe. Feel very lucky to have been able to wander Western Europe with Simone and I hope we can come back to a few of these places again in the future. 

Ciao, Gracias and Merci 

mat + sim

Day 40: Walking Amsterdam

We set off for another big day of exploring. We started off for breakfast at a place which turned out to be full of history, well at least that's what our over excited waiter told us. It turns out it's now an archive building but used to be one of the large banks in Amsterdam during the Golden Age. Full of safes and interesting documents.

We then spent the mid morning hours wandering the "9 streets" area of Amsterdam. It's an interesting neighbourhood full of trendy designer shops, cafes and pretty houses. Kind of like Paddington back in Sydney. The streets are pretty but not overly busy yet as its quite cloudy and cold out. 

 

Weird and rather confusing name for a shop?

CLOSED

 

We head across Westermarkt and past the Westerkerk church to the Anne Frank House. Surprisingly were told we can't get a ticket until 3pm as its pre booked online tickets only at the moment. We wait for 10minutes however and one of the ushers tells us and a couple of other people who've hung around too that we can go in as some prebooked people haven't showed. Lucky for us, as it started to rain quite heavily. Was only thinking that we've been lucky so far with the weather in Amsterdam, as apparently it rains here for 200 days of the year. 

Heading into the Anne Frank house and you can't help but feel moved and humbled. Not only by her story, but by the whole war and sad tale of the holocaust. Such a horrible moment in history. Walking through I'm reminded of our visit to the Genocide museum when we were in Rwanda. Places like this are important for visitors to experience and remind us all of such atrocities we do yo each other. 

 

 

No smoking weed in this park? Shock horror!

 

 

After an emotionally taxing hour or so we headed out and over the canals into the Jordaan area of town to find some lunch. We zigzagged and snaked the streets of Jordaan for a bit before stumbling upon a cool cafe for a sandwich and a juice. It's another nice neighbourhood in what in general is a nice city. Jordaan again seems to be like Paddington or Surry Hills back home. Full of 3-4 storey walk up terrace houses. There's a lot more gardens and greenery here than in the inner old town part. A small change occurs at the threshold between the street and the house, rather than the abruptness of the inner city houses. 

 

Ice cream time!

We come across a florist shop that has a plant Simone is in love with. It's very hard to get back in Australia, and sim contemplates trying to bring it back in. I talk her out of it saying I'm not going to jail for sneaking in a plant. We laugh about the irony of getting arrested back in Australia for bringing a plant back from Amsterdam that is not a cannabis plant. Rather comical. 

"What are you in for?" 

"Cannabis. you?"

"tried to smuggle a Chinese money plant through"

 

What do you do instead of car windscreen advertising in a city of 800,000 people with 880,000 bikes. Easy!

Bike seat rain covers. Very clever!

 

It's now 3ish and we head down past the Museumplein and over to Oude Pijp to visit the Albert Cuypmarkt. It's an open air street market with lots of clothes, fresh food and hot food treats. We stroll up the long narrow strip, stopping a few times for me to sample a few treats. One was the Stroopwaffles, the Dutch classic of hot sweet syrup sandwiched between 2 hot thin waffles. Very tasty. The waffle has a spice to its flavour and with the syrup it's like a hot, sticky, gooey gingerbread. Yum. 

 

Getting to the end of the market we head down into De Pijp to explore some more. The suns out now and it's a nice afternoon for a walk. We stroll quite far down Van Woustraat until sim asks where are we going? I reply, there's a building down here that I want to see. Story of the trip!

We wander into Niuewe Pijp to find a couple of the Amsterdam School buildings I saw in the brochure at the Stedeljik Museum. After wandering for a bit we spot some other hopeless souls walking the quiet streets looking up and taking pictures. Figuring they're architects, I think we're close. Sure enough we turn the corner and the extravagant brick detailing of this architecture period reveals itself. 

 

De Dageraad is the name of the social housing complex, designed in the early 20th century. We head into the bottom floor of one of the buildings to visit the small exhibition that's on. When I say small, I mean one room in a lobby foyer. Still, it's quite an interesting further look into the design ideologies behind this architectural movement. The planning of a lot of social housing at this time had a rationalist approach. Similar to other parts of Europe I guess, notably Italy and Russia. The buildings too had this, but with more ornate and detailed facades.

 

After wandering the area for a bit we start the long walk back to our hotel. We're quite far south of town now so we make our way up through De Pijp and back up to Museumplein. The residential streets around here remind me of the residential villages of New York City. I can now see why NYC was established as New Amsterdam.

 

 

 

 

We head up through the tunnel under the Rijksmuseum and stop for better photos with the Iam.sterdam letters, before crossing over into the residential area south of old town and walking up the beautiful tree lined canal Reguliersgracht, with its sequence of 7 canal bridges. Again, Amsterdam shows its beauty to us. Notwithstanding, our feet are sore now. We finally get back to the hotel for a well earned drink and a rest. That was epic. 

 

 

We're not finished yet though. After a freshen up we head out and back in to Dam Square and then into the red light district to find out it's intriguing parts. It's after 8pm now on a Friday night and the streets are bustling with people, as are the pubs. Lots of stagg and bux parties as well as a hens party too. We wander a few narrow alleys getting a peek at the lovely ladies in the red curtained windows. We walk up the main canal with all the pink elephant signs and sim gets perplexed at the 2 minute peepshow. Not understanding why. This was kind of the same for the whole place too. Made slightly more sense back when sailors got off shops after a few years at sea, but these days it's just bizarre and really for money and exploitation I would think. 

One of those interesting conundrums for the city too, do you accept it and keep the people coming or do you change it and risk losing the tourist dollars. That being said Amsterdam has so much more to off than weed and boobs.  

 

After an hour or so of looking at condom shops, magic mushroom stores, and seeing the red and blue (male) windows, we head out for dinner at an Italian restaurant back on Nes, called Mappa. Not bad, wouldn't say it's Italian food though, more Dutch people cooking Italian dishes. Nonetheless it's nice. 

So after another epic day of walking, in which we cracked a PB of 26km, were both well and truly stuffed. Hiring bikes tomorrow, so should be easier on our feet. Let's hope our bums are ok though.

mat + sim

Day 39: Windmills and Canals

We had a small sleep in this morning after an epic walking day yesterday. When we eventually decided to head out we made our way down into Rembrandtplein and then along the canals to the flower market.

 

 

 

I must admit we were a little let down by this place. There really wasn't anything intriguing about it. Perhaps in tulip season it's more impressive. That being said it was more tourist shop than flower market anyway, with loads of windmill nick-nacks, marijuana paraphernalia, and heaps of clog slippers. Every shop seems to have the same stuff too. 

 

We then walked up the shopping street of central Amsterdam, Kalverstraat. Kind of felt similar to walking up Pitt street mall to be honest. We headed through Dam square and up Nieuwendijk shopping street to get another ice cream from Banketbakkerij van der Linde. So good this place. Sure, it's 11am but it's never too early for ice cream when it's this good.

 

 

We wait at the Victoria Hotel to join a tour to the windmills. It's taking us to Zaanse Shance, which is about 25-30 minutes drive north of the city centre. We take the bus under the river in the tunnel and out into the northern suburbs. It's quite industrial here. Our guide tells us that this area was the first industrialised area of Europe, hence why all the windmills are here. It also had a major part in the Golden Age of the Netherlands. Getting out into the country areas and you start to see the real Netherlands - the "low lands". We pass by large wetland marsh areas, with many canals, dikes and pumping machines. Such an interesting country in the way they have to constantly manage the water level. It's like they're constantly battling it. I guess it defines them as a place and people. 

 

We arrive at Zaanse Schanns and it's quite crowded with tourists. In a small area on the river Zaanse we see about 6 windmills. We're told there's only 16 left from more than 600 original windmills back when the city was thriving. The windmills are another fascinating part of Dutch history and culture for me; an important part of the city's constant fight to regulate the water level, but also a key contributor to the prosperity and development of the city.

 

We start our visit here by checking out a clog making workshop. A young guy demonstrated how they're made. He starts off with the wet piece of poplar timber as if he's going to start doing it the old 3 hour hand crafted way, but then cheekily locks it in a vice and let's the machines take over. After its initially shaping into a rough block resembling a shoe based on a jig, he uses a template of another clog on another machine to further shape it. He repeats this again but with a different template to create the hollowed out section on a different machine. A quick hand cut of the stump at the front and it's ready for polish once completely dried of its inherent moisture. I was quite impressed at how quickly he produced one clog. 

Our next stop was the cheese shop. Really nice cheese too, with lots to sample. Was nicely arranged so you could try them all. Quite like Dutch cheese. Apparently it's really good to cook with. Although you should never cut the cheese in a Dutch oven! 

 

 

We then head into one of the windmills. The windmills were used for lots of purposes; spices, paints, timber, oil etc.

We checked out the spice mill. Inside was really interesting as you get to correlate the turning of the blades outside with the workings of the wheel over the mill stone below. It was windy too when we were there so it was really working hard. 

 

After wandering the cute and slightly bizarre area some more, checking out the little green houses with their quaint gables and window detailing, we headed back on the bus and into town.

 

 

 

The most interesting part of visiting the windmills for me was seeing the landscape of the country. The windmills themselves are interesting, but at the same time they are kind of like a museum and a relic now, just a tourist attraction. The landscape however is still doing what it did all those years ago. Fascinating to see the low land levels being retained by the dikes. On leaving the Zaanse Shance I saw a large map, a sectional diagram really, that showed the levels of the city in relation to sea level. Crazily, the airport is nearly 5m below sea level. 

Arriving back at Damrak we stroll along the harbourfront. We first check out another Amsterdam school building. This one is now the a hotel but it used to be a shipping house, Scheepvarthuis. I'm really enjoying discovering these Amsterdam School buildings. I like how they were intent on creating works that embodied the Gesamtkunstwerk concept. 

 

 

We then check out the NEMO building by Renzo Piano from afar. It's a boat shaped building on the inner harbour with a huge stepped and trafficable roof terrace. 

We head back for a bite to eat and a drink at the hotel lobby bar. I try the Dutch fried snack food of beef and butter balls known as bitterballen. It's ok, nice with the mustard. The Dutch seem to do s lot of this fried small snack stuff. 

 

We have a rest for a while before heading out in the evening back up to Damrak. We take a 1 hour canal cruise around the town for €10. It's a slightly different perspective of both the city and the canals, but to be honest it doesn't allow you to see too much more than what you can see on the street level already. Nonetheless it's a nice boat ride. It is interesting however going under all the bridges. So low. The best part was heading out into the open harbour though. We hadn't as yet explored this part. Was an interesting view back at the town and getting a grasp of the city's relationship with the river.

 

 

 

 

Arriving back on dry land at 8pm we headed out for dinner. We wandered Centrum for a bit before finding a place on the eat street Nes. In keeping with the international culinary flavour of Amsterdam the place was called Cafe de Paris, but strangely served a lot of pasta and Italian food also. After a nice dinner we headed out for a drink at the nearby bar to watch the euro semi final between France and Germany. Was a good atmosphere, and the craft beers were great but sims wine was dreadful. 

Another big day of exploring. It's starting to take its toll. Will we survive the next two days? I hope so.

mat + sim