HandS Travel

We haven’t traveled since April since I had exams in June and was frantically studying for them during the latter part of April and all of May. I did have a trip to NE for a friend’s wedding on June 5 but it was a quick trip. So, now we are headed to Amsterdam for the 4th of July. We decided it was best not to celebrate independence from the country we declared independence from in that country. We’re excited to tour the Red Light District, a floating flower market, a few art museums, and much more. Back to studying for a little while…

Day 1
So we arrived in Amsterdam on Wednesday with our flight on-time from Birmingham, UK. We had a smooth, quick flight of only about 50 minutes. Henry suggested we take a taxi, but with me being the public transportation/renewable energy girl, I suggested we take the train since I heard it was fast and cheap. So we bought tickets from the ticket counter at the airport to get to the Central Station in the city. The clerk told us to go to platform 3 and that the next train left in 1 min. So, we sprinted, hopped on the train and 5 min later, a ticket collector on the train informed us we were going the wrong direction and on top of that, we were sitting in 1st instead of 2nd class. No wonder the train was so nice! So, we hopped off on the next stop, got on another train, off to change trains again, and finally got on the right one. Nonetheless, we arrived at our hotel with no more troubles.

We were in awe at how many bikes there are in Amsterdam. We saw canal boats just for bikes, a parking ramp just for bikes, and bikes parked anywhere you can imagine. No one wears a helmet and there are designated lanes for them on the roads. But, you can also easily run into many of them on the sidewalks since they only sometimes have to stop for traffic lights. A local told us that they have the right-of-way. We also read that each family in the Netherlands owns 4 bikes.

We decided to do what we always do and walk around a majority of the city first. Amsterdam has “grown” in the last 2 centuries since there used to be a wall where the sea met the land/city which was about 1 mile inland from where the city now is. Much of it used to be sea but it was built up with wood & soil, with canals running through. There are canals running around the city center in concentric circles, with others running perpendicular to these circles. Thanks to a friend, we had a good map and guide book in hand, helping us locate sights and not get lost.

We first walked to the street called Damrak and hit up our first museum, the Sex Museum. This is what Amsterdam is known for, its related Red Light District which we would visit later that night and its legal prostitution. So, what better way to start our trip but than by getting a history of this occupation from Roman times and different parts of the world – India, Africa, and Asia. Next, we walked by Dam Square (pronounced Dahm) but I always say Dam. Here, there is a monument for peace, built after WWII after the Nazis invaded the Netherlands. It had a depiction of Christ on the cross on one side of it. Also at this plaza area is the Royal Palace but we couldn’t see it because 3 sides of it were under renovation. As we walked further, the neighborhood became quieter than the main street we were just on. We saw some interesting-looking people and animals. Random cats running around, a white dog with a red tail, a moped with grass growing on it, and some dreadlocks. We also walked pass “coffee shops” which don’t actually serve coffee but instead, marijuana. We avoided these places.

The next stop was Spui Square where we saw a male marching band playing in front of a bar. Then, we saw two women come out of a small passageway and decided that must be the entrance of the Begijnhof we were looking for. This is a cute enclosed grassy area with rowhouses surrounding it with English and Catholic Churches inside. Women live here but aren’t exactly nuns but have dedicated their lives to God and have lived here since 1346. They are called Beguines. The last one died in 1971 but they still provide subsidized housing for about 100 women.

Our last stop was the Flower Market which is actually floating on yet another canal. You can buy tulip and other bulbs, seeds, flower pots, tourist items, dried flowers, etc. There were not one but about 20 of these little stores. By this time we were getting hungry and heard of the delicious and cheap french fries sold at little storefronts. We headed to the one by our hotel and got 2 smalls which were still too much for me to eat. The Dutch eat them with mayo although Henry got cheese sauce as well. Delicious! We then rested our feet before probably our most interesting night out ever.

Red Light District – please note that this blog post is not rated R but probably PG-13
So we had pictures in our minds of what we thought the Red Light District might be like, but I think we both were a little surprised by certain things. The area is fairly large, not just a few streets but they are scattered throughout many alleyways, larger streets, and along canals. Henry was surprised when I pointed out that for each “room” there actually is a red light and a red curtain. Tourists and tour groups and groups of guys, with a few police, were walking around between 9-10:30 pm when we were there. Girls in underwear and bras or 2-piece swimming suits are standing in each window. We saw a few guys negotiating prices with the women and saw one come out of a room in a basement, still dressing himself. We got pretty grossed out seeing the girls and women (some of them were much older) and imaging their lives. Apparently most of them are self-employed and rent rooms on their own time. They also have a union and have received grants from the Netherlands government for various things. The government bought a few of the “storefronts” and is converting them into art exhibits and has tried to keep this trade in the Red Light District since prostitution is probably present in other areas of Amsterdam as well.

We also passed by a daycare where some of the children go during the day or night, a church right in the middle of the District, people of all different ethnicities, and many bars nearby, outside which you could smell heavy marijuana smoke seeping out. We wondered where the blue lights were that we read about in the travel book (which meant transvestites) and when we were leaving, we saw a narrow street with about 3 windows of them. By this time, our feet were hurting from so much walking and as Henry said, my disgusted face described it all so we headed back to the hotel.

Amsterdam178 pictures

Day 2 – Flower Market and Cheese
So the Netherlands are known for their flowers and cheese. On my run, I (Sheila) went to one of the main cheese stores near the flower market in a cute row house with red shutters. The employees spoke good English and let me try up to 8 different kinds. I ended up buying a round block, about 3 inches high by 4 inches in diameter. It’s called Baby Gouda and apparently tastes very different from Gouda in the US, sort of similar to a light cheddar with a creamy taste. I also bought some things for wedding gifts at the market and continued my run along a busy shopping street, trying not to get lost among all the canals and trying not to get hit by bikes, vehicles, mopeds, and trams. Unfortunately, as I was coming up upon Vondel Park, I witnessed an accident. This 3-way intersection had all forms of transportation you can imagine going through them but no real pedestrian walkways. I saw a girl on a bike who had gotten hit by the front of a van. All traffic stopped and two ambulances came to the scene right away. She seemed unconscious.

Since there were many people stuck in the intersection, I finally got through and continued along my run, through the park and then to the Museum Quarter where the Rijiksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum are located, both art and history museums. There was also a small reflecting pool like the one in DC and the US Embassy was also nearby. Later that night we ate at a small cafe. It was pretty warm inside with no air conditioning but the food was good. We had some cheese fondue, pasta, and bread. We finally headed “home” at 11 pm when it was still not 100% dark yet, with the sun setting only within the past hour.

Day 3 – Friday
I did some reading for my dissertation and then went out for another run, this time along the same canal and then to the Waterlooplein area to the flea market. I didn’t buy anything but there were purses, hippie clothes, Amsterdam tourist items, Holland soccer shirts, hats, and much more. I ended up getting a little sunburn on my shoulders since I had “laid out” on a park bench watching tourist boats navigate the canals. The funniest part was seeing a 60 ft. boat come through one canal, turn around with only a few inches to go from hitting two walls, and push a couple and a kid in a paddle boat back about 20 ft. because the paddle boaters couldn’t move out of the way fast enough!

In the evening, we watched the Netherlands play Brazil in the quarter-final World Cup soccer game. They won and the whole town went crazy. Since the game was at 4 pm and they had started drinking earlier, everyone was loud, clapping, honking horns, dancing in the streets, playing loud music, etc. Over ½ of all people in the city were wearing orange Holland (another name for the Netherlands) gear and I even saw one guy with Elmo dressed in orange on the front of his bicycle. Since it was so crazy, we decided to go to the Van Gogh Museum which was about a 2 mile walk away from our hotel. It is one of the 2 most popular art museums in Amsterdam so we wanted to go at night when it would be less busy. We first walked through Vondelpark, similar to Central Park but more crowded. There were people with small, portable grills, bbqing hot dogs and sausages everywhere.

The Van Gogh Museum was really nice and not too overwhelming. He grew up in the Netherlands and worked in France and elsewhere in Europe. When he was younger, he was fired while working for a store selling art. He had no training as an artist but began to draw and now his works are some of the best in the world. Neither Henry or I are big into art but we liked his paintings. Most were of the outdoors, specifically wheat fields, quaint houses in small towns, fields, farmers, haystacks, sheep, and also some still shots of beautiful vases and flowers. There were also some works by other artists who based their art off his. Van Gogh admitted himself to a mental institution, then released himself, but later, committed suicide thinking he was a failure. Some of his paintings reflected his pain, like one of his last which pictured a wheat field with black crows flying above.

As we came to the third floor of the museum and looked over the green grassy area between museums, we couldn’t believe our eyes! A woman was commenting to an employee about all the trash lying around. He said that lots of fans were watching the soccer game there earlier on the portable big screen. It was the most trash we have ever seen! There were orange signs, orange balloon hats, cigarette buts, beer cans, chip bags, just about anything you can imagine, lying on the ground, spread over an area larger than a football field. Henry took pictures of three men walking around using leaf blowers to put the trash into lines so a tractor with a suction auger & a wagon attached. They were making progress but still had a long way to go. Henry then wanted to check out the twenty or so colorful public urinals nearby. They looked new but smelled pretty bad. Our last stop here was checking out the “I am Amsterdam” letters, like the o’s in Omaha. They were placed by a reflecting pool in front of the other art museum, the Rijiksmuseum which we didn’t visit.

As we walked back to our hotel, we were amazed at how crazy the people were on the streets. They were dancing and shouting to each other in Dutch. We even saw a drunk guy on a moped, with a beer in one hand. He almost ran over us. People were not only partying in the streets, but also on the canal boats. We decided to sit, rest our legs, and people-watch near a canal bend that went towards the Red Light District. We saw people standing on the front, back, and on top of house boats. We saw one guy moon another boat full of older women. One Asian guy tried to get my attention with a strange-looking hot pepper thing. Another guy asked us if we wanted to hop on. We thought about it but it was just too crazy! People were making out, practically flashing other boats, stealing beer from other boats, cutting in front of each other, and more. It was pretty comical. Apparently the speed limit is 4 mph on the canals and each boat must have lights on all sides.

Our last stop was again the Red Light District. We wanted to see the difference from a Wed. night to a Fri. night. Henry commented there a much better caliber of women out and many more out as well. We saw a young boy, maybe 17 years old, get coaxed into a room with a woman with a bunch of older people watching, maybe his aunts and uncles?!? We weren’t really sure. We also saw an older guy in business clothes walking with a younger Asian woman up to a room but we weren’t sure what they were negotiating. After the next World Cup game ended, we got out of the area. There were just too many people around and the crowd was a little sketchier than night. On our way out past the church, we saw an older guy walk into a girl’s room. It looked like he had been there before and knew where to go.

Day 4 – Saturday
On Saturday, we slept in and started out by visiting a Catholic Church which was turned into a museu, called Amstelkring. It is located on the 3rd and 4th floors of three row houses near the Red Light District. It served as a secret place of worship between the 1700s and 1900s when Catholicism was banned from being practiced in the Netherlands. It was being renovated so we couldn’t see the altar in its original form, but could imagine what it used to look like. It was a small church but had a small sacristy, holy water font, etc. On the first 2 floors were quarters where the family lived who built the church and after it became a museum, living quarters for the museum caretaker. Since 1800′s, Catholics have worshipped at St. Nicholas Church and they are now allowed to openly practice their faith. We visited this church which wasn’t far away. It was beautiful inside with black pillars, detailed paintings of the stations of the cross, and large baptismal font. Since mass was starting when we walked in, we stayed for it even though we couldn’t understand what they were saying. The order was the same though so we could understand what was going on. The kneelers were wooden and didn’t fold up but didn’t hurt my knees too bad.

Our next stop was the Neuimarket, the New Market, which was mainly a farmers market. We came back later after our diamond tour at Gasson Diamonds and got the cheese called Brie and a baguette. During the Diamond tour, we saw a technician polishing a diamond, sat a foot away from diamonds ranging in price from 200 to 98,000 Euros! Henry already knew about the sizes, cuts, and quality measures when he bought my ring, but I learned about the differences and admired my gorgeous ring once again. Next, we walked to the Prostitution Information Center. We read that you can ask questions and obtain booklets about prostitution in Amsterdam. We were too afraid to ask questions but learned that each “service” costs about 35-50 Euros, that any woman can refuse service, that bouncers and security officers are always a button-push away, and they can earn from 500-2000 Euros each day. Some are forced into prostitution while others choose the profession for quick and large incomes. Taxing prostitution as income tax is required by law but hard to enforce. We bought a few postcards and carried along to the library. It was built in 2007 and was the nicest one we’ve ever seen. It was on an inlet of ground near the ferry terminal and Central Train Station. We took escalators up to the 7th floor to the terrace for a beautiful view of the city. Henry got some great pictures of computer stations on comfy chairs, round bookshelves and DVD holders, the architecture, “fresh look”, and more comfy red chairs on the 1st floor/kid’s section. They even had toys for kids and a climbing area. I got up and picked up a book quickly just to see if they had any in English or other languages. After a minute, I found a book with title with some English in it – “For Boys Only.” I opened it up and found pictures of an 11 year old boy “talking” about sex and terms that truly shouldn’t have been in the kids section. Again, we couldn’t believe it but I guess they believe in a free and in-depth education on all levels for all people. No wonder we think of Europe as liberal.

Our last destination on the trip was the Anne Frank House, a museum of the house where her family and other Jews went into hiding during WWII when the Nazis invaded the Netherlands. They lived in the upstairs of their jam business, HISTORY HERE ******** for 2-3 years during the war, hoping to wait it out. Anne and her sister and parents weren’t allowed to go outside or make any noise since the workers downstairs didn’t know there were people living upstairs. Another family would sneak food to them and they couldn’t flush the toilet all day. Anne wrote about their days in hiding and rewrote most of her diary in essay/book form when she heard on the radio that the Netherlands eventually wanted to publish stories of the Jews. Unfortunately, someone (still unknown) leaked their hiding place behind a bookcase in a living room and they were sent to ****** NAME HERE Bergen concentration camp. Anne lived until only 2 days before the camp was liberated by US troops when she died from an illness. Her sister and mother also died. Her father, Otto, returned to Amsterdam where his friend returned Anne’s diary to Otto. Her diary had fallen on the floor when SS troops took them for deportation from their house in Amsterdam. Otto pushed for it to be published and was two years later. Now available in 60 different languages, the book is used in school history classes and is an important reminder why the world should combat discrimination. The museum was well-organized, had all exhibits in English and Dutch, and had several quotes from her diary on the walls.

Day 5 – Never again airport extravaganza
Wow, so when we arrived at the Amsterdam Schipol Airport we had a relatively smooth walk from the gate to the ticket counter and our train. But, on the way out, we didn’t expect what was coming. Nothing horrible happened but we now understand why someone trying to get to the US to commit an act of terrorism on an airplane would fly through Amsterdam. We first got to the airport, walked through a giant queue line longer than those at London’s Heathrow Airport we imagine, checked in at a kiosk, left our bag off, and went through customs with our passport and boarding passes. But, then we were free to roam the airport, go to the shopping area, get food, go to the bathroom, go to the gates, everything, WITHOUT, I REPEAT WITHOUT!, going through security of any kind! We couldn’t believe it! We found our gate and saw that passengers didn’t go through security until they get to their gate. At Heathrow we have to go through security twice, sometimes three times, once when you first check in and two or three times near and at the gate. But here, you could do almost anything until the very seating area at the gate. The problem, though, is that the gate areas don’t open until about an hour before the flight so you are stuck going through narrow, long, and busy lines (not one but two!) to even get a McChicken at McDonalds. Then, we finally went through security at the gate, waiting in a giant line with crazy Spanish teenagers all around. Then, there were about ½ the number of seats for people at the gate and you are stuck there and can’t leave to go to the restroom or anything. Then, after two more passport checks and going through yet another holding area but not security, you get to board the plane.
We just couldn’t believe that you didn’t go through an initial security check to get into the airport. Yes, it’s true that you can’t bring any liquids on the plane since you go through security at the gate, but still, this seemed strange to us and something we hadn’t seen at any other airport and we seem to think we’ve flown a lot. We decided we wouldn’t be going back through that airport ever again and that the queuing system may have been worse than what we experienced at Heathrow in December. Oh Europe… Oh, and, as Henry just reminded me…to make matters better, I was chosen to get felt up by the TSA-equivalent employee after walking through the metal detector. She literally massaged my boobs. Awesome. Oh Europe…

Amsterdam178 pictures