Amsterdam, The Netherlands

30.08.08

Mannheim, Germany

The ride to Amsterdam took us about 6 hours in total. We had to take 3 trains. One was a local, one was long distance, and the last was a high-speed international. Before we got onto the high-speed train, we had a 40 minute layover in Köln (Cologne). As we were nearing the city, a pair of steeples emerged over the city. Even from the train, I could tell that this was a massive cathedral. Knowing we would have some time, I vowed that I would get to it, even if I had to run across the town just to get a look at it. As we got closer and closer to the station, though, it became more and more evident that the cathedral was pretty close to where we’d be pulling in. We agreed to all four of us go see it once we got in. We left our train, exited the station, and were put out into a town square. I gasped in disbelief as I saw the cathedral rise right in front of me; it made up for about 1/3 of the square’s perimeter. This cathedral was huge. I mean, we’re talking about a monster here. It was tall, thick, dark, and heavily, heavily ornamented. I’ve never seen anything like it. We walked inside (through a transept, we weren’t even at the base of the nave) and were not disappointed. The interior was also humongous. The piers were so thick it probably would have taken four or five of us to reach around one touching. All of the piers were ribbed, only accentuating the verticality of the space. The altar space was circled by double-heighted, thin windows. The place was downright magical. We were able to access the choir space, and walked around the whole altar, peering into altars for various saints. The floor or the choir was beautifully mosaiced, and even showed the plan of the whole cathedral at one point. The ceiling to the underpass (if that’s even what you’d call it) to the choir space was also beautiful: frescoes adorned the tops of the columns and the ceiling. There was even a crypt-like space below the altar that you were allowed to go into. This place went on and on, I could keep talking about it all day, but I think I’ve probably covered enough. Some pictures will follow, although I’m sure they won’t do it any justice.

So Amsterdam is a crazy, crazy town. About half the people there (and I really don’t think I’m overestimating there) ride bikes, and the other half is split between cars, mopeds, trams, and walking. Some of the streets have bike lanes, but many don’t. Also, streets are pretty narrow and not necessarily one-way, either. It’s a miracle there aren’t more pedestrian deaths. I myself had quite a few near-accidents, partly due to the fact that I bike pretty infrequently, but partly because it’s just so hectic. Biking was a great idea though, because it enabled us to travel much further and faster than we would have been able to on foot. We were only in the city for 24 hours (two half days and a night, as it’s a 6-hour train ride once you factor in layovers and delays), but we got so much done and all left very satisfied.

I guess I’ll just go through a rundown of where we went and what we saw. Once we got out of the train station (which is gorgeous), we walked to our hostel, which was very close by. The people running the place were very laid back (“Yeah, if you wanna smoke in your room feel free, just open the window. And we have supplies, so don’t worry about that. You can use our bongs, vaporizers, whatever.”) and recommended a bike rental place nearby. Once we were on bikes, we tried to decide where to go. MJ’s suggestion was “let’s just ride around, see the town, get lost, then figure out where we are and what we wanna do”…so we did! The heart of Amsterdam is built around canals that fan out in a U-shape, with lots of bridges connecting the different sides.

We rode around for a while, dodging pedestrians, cars, trams, and mopeds (those were the worst!) and ended up at the Rijksmuseum. The exhibit was smaller than I expected, but packed with great work. Mom majored in art history and specialized in Dutch paintings, so I had a list of must-see artists from her, including the artist she nearly wrote her thesis on (Pieter de Hooch). I took quite a few contraband pictures of good pieces, including Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch”. In addition to paintings, they also had lots china plates and bowls, and a whole room full of silver goblets, candlesticks, platters, etc. There were also some wooden chests with stunning wood and bone inlays. All in all, worth the 10 €. Once outside we biked through a park on our way to the Van Gogh Museum. We locked up our bikes, walked up to the doors, and discovered that it was 12,50 € to get in. We stood there for a while debating, and decided that the price was too steep and we’d already just seen some great art and would rather save some money. So sadly, we didn’t go in.

At this point we had been biking for a while and were getting hungry, so we found a pancake house and decided to try it, since they had not only sweet, but also savory and pizza pancakes on the menu. We all ended up getting pizza pancakes, which are really just what they sound like: pizza sauce, cheese, and toppings on top of a thin, almost crêpe-like pancake. They were pretty tasty! I did miss the crispiness of a pizza crust, but it was still pretty interesting and I’m glad we did it.

We then set off in search of “The Whale”, a famous housing complex by CIE that I studied sophomore year and became quite fixated with. Navigating Amsterdam by bike is a bit difficult, because you can’t look at a map while you’re moving, the street names all sound somewhat familiar and are hard to remember, and most of them aren’t straight. We eventually got there though, and saw some other cool projects on the way. I took tons of pictures of the building, had fun walking under it (two of the four corners are very high off the ground, I’ll post pictures), and was just generally drooling. Right down the street from it is the Python Bridge (designed by West 8), a pedestrian bridge that Jeff has always been smitten by. It’s only a pedestrian bridge, so we walked up to the top, got a pretty decent view of Amsterdam (despite all the haze setting in, it later drizzled), and took tons of pictures, because it’s a very photogenic bridge and I’m a bit camera-obsessed (which is great when you’re travelling for architecture!).

On the ride back into town, I discovered that biking with one hand isn’t as scary as I thought it’d be and discovered that if my camera’s in a loose pocket, I can take pictures while biking! A bit scary, but a good skill, because making everyone stop their bikes just so I can take one picture gets tedious, and I hate feeling like I’m slowing down the group. We headed back to our hostel and rested for a bit (I think some of us almost dozed off), and then headed out in search of a club.

Before arriving there, we walked through the Red Light District, mostly just to be able to say we’d been there and to witness the ridiculousness. There were hookers everywhere, a “Porn Supermarket”, and window displays with blowup dolls in full leather gear. It definitely lived up to its reputation. After leaving, we got a bit turned around, but eventually found a club and went in. Marianne said that the music they were playing was very typically European: American music, definitely not recent, and set to ridiculous techno beats. We heard everything from Jackson 5 up to Flo-Rida, but had a lot of fun hanging out together and dancing all night.

The next morning we had breakfast at the hostel, which was included in the price for our room (30 € a person, not bad) and headed out straight for the Anne Frank Museum to avoid lines later in the day. It was all very well done; you begin in the warehouse, and can see where her father and the other workers did their business (selling spices). You weave through the rooms, looking at relics from the time (letters, ID cards, etc.) and eventually climb the stairs to the annex where she and her family were in hiding. The rooms were unfinished, per Otto Frank (her father)’s request, but they had 3D models in one room that were very detailed and fairly accurate. There were plenty more items on display in the bedrooms and living room: school work of her sister Margot, books they read, etc. In Anne’s room, all of the decorations she put up were still there in their original state, covered in plexi. She had postcards, pictures, magazine clippings, etc. One of the walls showed tick marks the family had made of the two sister’s growth. Walking through these spaces was very powerful and made it all so much more real than I ever could have imagined. Later, there were also video interviews with friends of the family who had survived. The whole exhibit was extremely well done and well worth the visit.

We then pedaled our way over to Renzo Piano’s Nemo Science Center. We didn’t feel like going into the museum, but had heard that it was possible to walk up to the roof (which is angled), but it wasn’t open when we were there. We snapped some photos and set off. On our way to lunch, we also passed the ARCAM architectural info center, which is a small but very cool building. Again, didn’t go in, but I took some pictures. We went out for lunch to a little café under a huge windmill. They served tapas, sandwiches, and homemade drinks. I got freshly squeezed lemon/limeade and a sandwich with soft goat cheese, pears, walnuts, greens, and pear vinaigrette. It was delicious! We were also situated right on one of the canals, which made for a nice setting.

We were running out of time before our 2:30 train, and still had to return our bikes and pick up our bags from the hostel (they were nice enough to let us store them there after we’d checked out). I’d made it clear that I wasn’t leaving town without seeing MVRDV’s Silodam, though, so we set out for it. It’s situated a bit north of town and was a bit of a poke with not much else around it aside from other housing, much of which was still under construction. I was leading the way and searching fervently for the project, because I knew everyone else was getting a bit impatient (it was a further out than I’d expected and we were on a time crunch). We finally found it, but it’s a little way out on a pier and we really didn’t have time to go up to it. I snapped a few pictures from the street we were on and then we had to leave (such a shame, but at least I found it).

I think that about covers everything we did! As a general note though, it’s a beautiful town. All the buildings get reflected in the canals, making for some gorgeous views. A lot of the buildings are extremely narrow too, maybe no more than 15 feet wide for some. Tall and thin, you can still see the hooks and pulleys extending from the roof used to haul up furniture too wide for the stairs, which I’m sure are narrow. Many of the tie backs on the buildings are very decorative as well, which is always fun. We got a ton done in 24 hours, but I’d so love to go back!

PICTURES: Exterior and interior of the Köln Cathedral, a typical Amsterdam canal/street way, “The Whale”, and Jeff’s favorite bridge.