Amsterdam

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Day 8—Amsterdam

Welcome to Amsterdam

Today we are in Amsterdam. It is unusually Antarctica-like here for the month of August. Wet and rainy! We woke up around 9:15, and got ready fairly quickly to be able to meet my grandparents (who were here on their river cruise through northern Europe) at 10:30 in front of the Royal Palace! We were late because we got caught in a monsoon and we could not find out where we were going. We kept stopping to ask people and we were so unbelievably confused! The thing is that the maps here are the most confusing thing the world has ever seen. The canals are all named and there are more canals than roads, so I was basically clueless as to where to go. Finally though a lady drew me directions on my map, and we made it. I saw my grandma and grandpa from afar and they looked SO cute just standing there and looking around. I ran up to them, because I was just so excited to see them and the four of us found a place to eat. We went to a little sandwich café, and grandpa (bless his soul) treated us to lunch! I doubt he will understand how much we appreciated that, but we were seriously so grateful. Every pence and euro counts. We spent our lunch talking about our journeys so far, me losing my phone, and Morgan’s job in Salzburg. They are seriously two of the cutest people ever, I’m so glad I was able to see them. They told me that my dad had informed them about my blog on Facebook and that it was really awesome and they had to read it! So grandpa said that he went to my Facebook and read my posts but didn’t click the link to the blog. Grandma was very confused why my dad thought it was so great when I barely wrote anything. She was very disappointed with it, so I told them how to open it and now they can (hopefully) read this post and be embarrassed. Regardless, they are the best and it was so cool to be able to meet up with them here in Amsterdam. I can’t wait to move home in about a week and be able to go over to their house more often to eat grilled cheese and make donuts.

My sweet grandparents! Love them!

After lunch, they had to find their way back to the ship to leave! As a parting gift grandma gave us chocolate donuts (typical grandma always filling my belly) that she had smuggled off the ship (God bless her)! Morgan and I walked around the corner to go to another free tour of Amsterdam. The tour was led by a guide named Rocco. The tour took us all around the city of Amsterdam, and it started in the square in front of the Royal Palace, which is only about a hundred yards from the exact spot where the city first started, and some fisherman built the original dam. The tour took us to see an old prison under a bridge, a cheese shop (where we had a sample of 2½ year old cheese…yum), and to the smallest house in Amsterdam which is about 4.7 meters wide. We went to an old neighborhood where all of the religious women (kinda like nuns) of the city used to live, called the Begijnhof. Inside this closed neighborhood there were two churches, one that was Protestant that obviously looked like a church, and one that was Catholic that was made to look like a house on the outside. The people were not allowed to have the Catholic Church so they built it conspicuously in order to still have a place to worship for those that were Catholic. It was well hidden, but absolutely beautiful inside. We also saw a grave, where a woman made a request to be buried in the gutter. So, just as she had asked, her grave was right there in the gutter.

Woman buried in the gutter.

We also learned about the reason for the leaning and crooked houses. The guide said that all the houses were built purposely leaning forward because people needed to get things to the top floors of their buildings, but couldn’t fit them up the stairs. Each house still has a hook at the very top where a pulley system is in place. If the house leans forward, nothing hits the house’s front on the way up! We also learned that the symbol for the city of Amsterdam is three crosses on top of one another. They are unsure why, but believe that it came from the three great dangers to the city: fire, flood, and disease.

A famous coffeeshop where
George Clooney and
Brad Pitt filmed a scene in
Oceans 12.

We walked through a portion of the Red Light District which was partially unbelievable, and partially heartbreaking. Our guide talked a little about The “coffeeshops” where everyone smokes marijuana. Everyone knows that pot is legal here right? Yeah well our guide told us that it isn’t actually legal, but it’s tolerated…apparently there’s a difference. Our guide said that the officers here just look between the fingers. So basically they don’t care that people are breaking laws and that stores are selling hash pops. I guess it’s because Amsterdam is the “undisputed capitol of freedom.”

An example of tilted and
leaning houses. You can see
the hooks at the top of the
house, they stick out.

We also learned about a company, whose name I cannot spell or remember, that played a huge part in bringing the golden age to Amsterdam and growing the city so rapidly. They controlled trade internationally for two entire centuries, and became extremely wealthy because of their brilliant idea on dividing the risk (a principle that was originally Dutch, but is now used all over the world). Back then if a merchant wanted to make money, he would buy a ship and send it to Indonesia to collect goods and valuables. If it came back, he would be rich, but it was very risky because of the potential that the ship never came back, was destroyed by weather, or taken by pirates. And this company decided that what they would do is send a fleet of twenty ships and people could buy a certain amount of each ship to divide their risk. If one ship went down they lost five percent, but they still had ninety five percent! They became unbelievably wealthy because there were so many people that wanted to make money without such an uncontrollable financial risk. The tour was great and showed us so much of this amazing city, and we got a free mint at the end (a Dutch specialty). Also, I would just like to state that there are bikes everywhere!!! Literally, everywhere. There are coffeeshops everywhere too. The city is beautiful though, with all the canals, and bridges, and boats in the river (originally called the Amster River, and they built a dam on it now it is called, Amsterdam).

After the tour we used one our coupons from the free tour people to get ice cream and… big surprise, a free waffle! We got great directions from someone and had no trouble finding our little Christian shelter. We camped out at the hostel for several hours (because our tour guide gave us a tip that the Anne Frank Museum had the shortest lines later at night) resting, journaling, and trying to stay warm. We ate a cheap dinner at the hostel because it was burger night. We got fries and salad with our burgers as well as some pudding and juice.  

We left for the Museum around 7:30, and stopped in a few souvenir shops along the way. Once we got there we saw the line stretching away from the house and then down the street a fairly long way. A man told us that we might not make it in in time to have a full hour to tour because they close at 10, but we decided to risk it. We made it in and had a little less than an hour to walk our way through the museum before they closed. We were not able to take photos, but it was an amazing tour and definitely a must do in Amsterdam. We saw the original bookcase that was placed in front of the door, and all the things that Anne had pasted to the walls in her room to brighten it up. All of the original wall paper and flooring is still there so we even saw the markings on the wall where Anne and her sister Margot’s heights were recorded. It was unbelievably powerful to walk through the house and hear live interviews, to see what had happened to each member, and the lengths that they had gone to in order to hide. It really was an emotional experience and one that I will never forget. Of course I couldn’t go there without thinking of Mackenzie and the way she wrote an essay relating to Anne Frank and saying that she understood her having to be quiet upstairs (because at the time we lived in the Funeral Home) much like Anne, who was hiding from all of Nazi Germany. Even though it’s not the same at all and she was being dramatic for the sake of a good essay, we still moved. Oh my sister. 

We ended tour time for today, there at the museum. We walked back, choked past some “coffeeshops,” and came to bed. We are friends now with the girls that put the alcohol in my bed, and we found out that they are from France. We also met a couple of American girls who are from Pennsylvania and our very own OHIO! These hostels are better when you know the names of the people you are sleeping a few feet away from. Imagine that.

 

Before I pass out, let me just say thank you for taking the time to follow along with me on this journey! I hope that these posts are enjoyable for you, and that no one is TOO jealous. If it makes you feel any better. I've been wearing the same pair of socks to bed each night for a week.