A Beautiful Day in Amsterdam

June 14, 2013

I woke up and ran to the window only to see the Silver Cloud apparently docked.  We were against a wall with rubber bumpers; I could see brick paving but not much else.  I told Michael that we seemed to have arrived at Amsterdam several hours early.  He told me I was imagining things.  By the time I emerged from the shower, we were motoring slowly upriver (?) through a very industrial part of Holland, no city in sight.  Michael deduced that we must have been in a lock when I first looked outside.

Amsterdam, it turns out, is on the much-modified Amstel River 30 miles from the North Sea.  The Hollanders turned the river into a canal from the city to the North Sea, protected from the tides by a set of locks that keep the seawater mostly out of the river for most of its length.  The name Amsterdam is a corruption of Amstel Dam.  The city was built where the river had been dammed.  There are smaller locks in several places on the canals that ring the old part of Amsterdam. Hydrology is big with the Dutch; the old city is mostly slightly below sea level.

Our ship shared the wharf at the brand new cruise terminal with a much larger Princess ship that was making a "turnaround."  That means one set of passengers were getting off having completed their cruise and another set were coming on-board to begin another cruise.  Consequently, Michael and I had to make our way through a large crowd of people and their luggage to get to the exit into the terminal building and then to the street.  The shore cruise manager told us to "turn left at the cow."  This cryptic instruction became clear when we reached a plastic cow statue.  We probably would otherwise have become lost.

As in so many cities in Northern Europe, the central railway station was within easy walking distance of the cruise terminal.  Michael and I admired the station, got a good tourist map, bought an all day transit pass and headed for the Rijksmuseum, newly re-opened after a ten-year refurbishment.  We looked at paintings by the Dutch Masters (17^th – 18^th century) and the Dutch Impressionists (mid to late 19^th century) influenced by Van Gough.  We saw the Rijksmuseum's Rembrandt masterpiece "The Night Watch" masterfully displayed at the end of a long set of galleries as well as the same Van Gough self-portrait we had seen at the Van Gough exhibit at the Denver Art Museum last winter. Amsterdam's Rijkmuseum is the painting's permanent home.

We walked back to the central railway station passing through a number of distinctive neighborhoods and crossing many canals.  The red light district had many windows in which bored looking women clad only in skimpy underwear beckoned to passing men even at midday.

We were later told that the Russian Mafia controls the legal sex industry and that the women are Russian.  It is possible. Certainly, we heard Russian spoken by many of the young men prowling the neighborhood in small groups.  The red light district is confined to a few blocks; coffee shops (the term for legal marijuana shops) are all over the place.  Since marijuana smoke makes my eyes tear, my nose run and causes me sneezing fits Michael would warn me every few blocks to hold my breath as we passed a weed shop.

Amsterdam is a walkable city.  The weather was pleasant, mostly sunny, little wind and warm. Michael and I took back streets and main thoroughfares.  We admired the flowers, the pretty canal vistas and enjoyed looking at our fellow pedestrians while avoiding the ever present bicyclists.  I noticed that bicycle paths are marked in red brick or concrete all throughout northern Europe and it is advisable to stay off the red portion of the sidewalk.

We had decided to take a canal boat ride and found a good assortment to choose from near the central railway station.  We passed up the Grey Line boats for a local operator.  We had an excellent tour narrated in Dutch and English.  I took more photographs from the canal boat than I did during our walk.  Many of the centuries old historic buildings are still in use as residences and businesses today.  Most of Amsterdam is built on landfill.  The old buildings sit on wooden piles driven into the muddy soil and over time, the buildings have started to sag.  Many lean on a neighboring building.  There appears to be an entire industry devoted to shoring up these old buildings.  The narrow Dutch buildings with their various tall rooflines including a beam for a block and tackle (needed for moving furniture in or out of the upper stories) were most picturesque. A good Dutch beer in a local tavern, another tram ride, a walk to Rembrandt's house and an accidental discovery of Amsterdam's Chinatown finished off our daytime shore adventure.

The Silver Cloud spent the night in Amsterdam, sailing at 8:00 am the next morning.  Michael and I ventured out again after dinner in hopes of seeing the city bridges lit up at night.  We took another tram ride and walked back to the Silver Cloud passing through some different and equally attractive neighborhoods. Even though we stayed out until after ten-thirty pm, it did not become dark enough for the bridges to light up.  Something to do with northern latitudes and the approaching summer solstice.  We will not be seeing Northern Lights this trip; not even a dark nighttime much longer.

Amsterdam is a wonderful city.  I could easily spend days here visiting the museums and strolling the streets.