Ambling Around Amsterdam

June 26

View from our window

We slept well and got up late. I figured the hop-on-hop-off canal trips wouldn't start too early (they actually started at 0915) so I didn't push too hard to wake up. I had some crackers and an apple that I picked up from the Rotterdam Golden Tuiip and B tried to make coffee in the room. This was a problem because she put the filter and the coffee in the pot and it would erupt coffee all over everything.

Coffee pot

I found out later that she was to put the coffee in the cup, boil water and pour it in. There are no directions at all in this room (even in Dutch) for how to do things. They don't even have the number to dial on the phone for reception. However the personnel are extremely helpful when reached. More on that later.

Granddaughter sitting on the windowsill

The hotel personnel (and indeed everyone) keep telling me that things are 'just a five minute walk'. Well I don't want to walk. I know I will HAVE to walk sometimes, but I'm not going out of my way to walk. I got a large blood blister on my big toe which I've been nursing along since the first day on the boat and it has gone down some but is still tender. So we went out of the hotel and got on a tram that was going to the Central Station where the boats left from.

Oops - I got on the exit door. The conductor reprimanded me, and then apparently felt sorry for us because she let us ride free for the one stop that it would take to go to the Central Station.

Inside the tram

Central Station

Once there, I bought us tickets on the boat. They did not believe that B was only 12 and she did not have her passport with her so I had to get her the 13-17 ticket which was € 8 instead of free. It would have been a lot easier if she had her school ID with her. We got on the boat that was there which was the Green line.

Canal barge

A cat in the window

Mural or graffiti?

Although I expected to visit Anne Frank's house and asked my granddaughter to read the book, Roy (from Virtual Tourist) said that we would wait in line a long time for the Anne Frank house. Plus he also said that it was a bare room and nothing much to see. The stairs would have been a problem for me and I don't like long lines at the best of times, so we just observed the Anne Frank house from the canal boat tour. There were indeed long lines when we passed. I suspect that the value in going to the Anne Frank house is in imagining yourself in her place, rather than actually viewing the little room.

Line from the boat

More of the line?

Westerkerk

"Red Deer" Brewery

Architectural detail

Brickwork

Gymnasium

House with awnings

Architecture

Little power boat

Willow near the Museum stop

so I decided that the thing she would most like to see was the Van Gogh museum, so we got off at that stop (which was about half way around) about 1030. We saw our friends from the Berlin tour on the boat and they got off at the same stop.

We had some difficulty finding the Van Gogh museum - the boat driver said it was behind the Rembrandt Museum,

From the canal boat at the museum stop

Front of museum

which is huge. We walked around to the backside (dodging construction), but we didn't see the museum.

Towers

We kept walking and came to a park area. I did not realize when we were there that we were in Museumplein although I knew that the Dutch Museum was at the canal boat stop. It wasn't until I started reading about the fact that there was "I amsterdam" sculpture that I realized that was where we were.

I Amsterdam sign which has been removed because it was a selfie magnet

Granddaughter in shorts

My granddaughter posed in the sculpture on our way to the Van Gogh Museum. There is also a large shallow pond where they have ice-skating in the winter.There are also a basketball court, skateboard ramp and swings

Fountain in square

with kiosks down the side selling food, and I asked directions there.

Walking through the park

The lady said it was the second building on the right if we kept going straight ahead to the next block, and she was right.

We walked down along the park, passing one of those living statue people all dressed in purple

Statue person

and got to the museum about 1100. It was an extremely unprepossessing modern building.

Entrance to museum

Pictures outside of Museum

No pictures were allowed inside, but they charged B as a child so her ticket was free and I just paid for mine.

Prices when we were there

We got a free wheelchair and went up to the first floor where she would park me opposite a sign to read and then zoom around on her own. She was fascinated by the nude child painting and we stayed a long time at the exhibit that explained how Van Gogh overpainted a lot of his canvases. We went up to the next floor and she sat for awhile at the computer terminal and read some of the letters etc. That website is available outside of the museum, so she can do farther research if she wants. We went down and looked at the shop and bought some post cards, and then turned in the wheelchair and left the museum.

Kiosks on the side

Sandwiches

By this time it was noon, so we walked back along the kiosks and I bought a coke for B

Coke sign

Sandwichs

My granddaughter eating lunch

and sandwiches for €10. I told her she could not buy chips. They would just make her thirsty and she does not carry water with her as I do. Also there is no food value in them. We did buy an ice cream cone for each of us (€ 4 for two small cones) and they were very good - creamy and rich.

Looking up at the Trees

Stall selling ice cream

Then we walked back to the boat. We went the other way around the Rembrandt museum this time but we had just missed a boat so we had to wait.

Museum stop of hop on hop off canal boat

Hard Rock

The boat that came was the red line, and I did not realize that what they did was the green line left from the west terminal and went around to the east terminal in an anti-clockwise direction. When it got to the east terminal, it was re-incarnated as the red line, which went clockwise (on different canals) to the west terminal. So the Red Line was going to take us right back to where we started.

Map of the canal boat routes from their website

The only way to get from east to west was by walking. ACK

There was so much construction at the Central station that it was hard to find our way. We went the wrong way at least once as the directions were - go across two bridges and turn right, and we didn't find the second bridge right away because all the construction hid it. At one point when we were trying to find the Blue line dock, and were stumbling through multiple construction zones, B said to me "If I were having as much trouble as you are, I would have given up by now"

Central Station surrounded by construction

This station was designed by the same person that designed the Rijksmuseum, and I can see similarities. There are two large clock towers but only one of those is a clock. The other is like the 'clock' on top of the town hall in Bermuda and tells you the wind direction from the wind vane that sits atop the station. The weather vane is said to symbolize the maritime trade on the waters of the Netherlands while the clock symbolizes the railway industry.On the 2009 visit I don't think we went into this station, but we were there a couple of times in front of it because the hop on hop off boats left from there and also the trams and buses came in to this point. Eventually we found it and got on the red line boat which was next.

Inside of Boat with the cover off in good weather

Another boat

Amsterdam symbol (three crosses)

Crane at the top of the house

Bridge and boat

Gereformeerd Gymnasium

I had really wanted to ride the blue line which starts AND stops at the same place, doing a complete circuit. So we got off at the City Hall stop and waited for the Blue Line.

Clock tower

Short round tower

East Indiaman Amsterdam, a replica of a Dutch trading ship

Scheepvaartmuseum (Dutch Maritime Museum) aka NEMO

Cruise ship dock with Celebrity ship

train from the canal

Van Limmik Foundation 1895 in neo-Renaissance style - part of the Amstelhof nursing home (now Hermitage).

Magere Brug Bridge or Skinny Bridge over the Amstel River

Het Huis met de Hoofden (the House with the Heads) Dating back to 1622, the facade of this building boasts gargoyles, pillars,and heads

Flower pots

Denizen of the canal

Granddaughter on the boat at the end of the day

Gassan Diamonds

Me on the boat

Knight with Shining Armor near the Central RR Station

I had thought we'd get off at City Hall again and take the red line to the Rembrandt stop and get on the green line and complete that, but B was tired, so I gave up and got off at the end of the blue line about 1640. Now to get back to our hotel. I went to the information desk that was there and took a number to buy a tram ticket at about 4:45.

My number to be waited on

Granddaughter waiting for me to get a tram ticket

When I was finally waited on at about 1700 the lady said I could go on any tram except 26 to get back to our hotel. NOT. I really needed to find the specific trams that were on my map as the ones that stopped there. But relying on her directions, we got on tram 9 and that wasn't one of the ones.

Trolley seat

The driver indicated that we must walk back several blocks after his stop.

Commemoration monument

Watch for bikes

This was not going to happen. So I found a pedicab guy

Wielertaxis

and he pedaled us back to the hotel by 1512 for € 8.

From inside the pedicab

Our Wielertaxi

B immediately went to bed. We are able to find a lot of English shows with Dutch subtitles to watch on the TV. We've seen Oprah, Dr. Phil and the Cosby show - also Monk. After awhile B got up and took a long shower. We ordered room service for dinner from Humphery's the restaurant next door. They would deliver it to the hotel room and put it on our bill. This is apparently a Netherlands chain.

Humphrey's sign

Their on-line menu has a 3-course menu at a fixed price. On the menu are eight appetizers, eight entrees and eight desserts. These three courses only € 22.50.I don't remember exactly what I had except that I had a steak and it was good.

My steak

Granddaughter's dinner

I asked the front desk if I could have a box to mail some of the heavier stuff home to myself and she said she would call DSL for it in the morning. However it appears that DSL won't come on Saturday so I will have to go to the Central PO to mail the box and that opens at 1000 on Sat. (which is tomorrow). I also got a shuttle bus reservation to the airport for us at 1335. I wanted to print out our boarding passes but I could not get the SAS website to respond with our reservation at all. So eventually I called Expedia. After 20 minutes on the phone, she said that she had put in our information on the SAS site and I should wait for 5 or 10 minutes for it to get there and try again.

When I tried again, I could check us in for the Amsterdam to Copenhagen flight, but couldn't print the boarding passes from the room. So I went down to use the terminal in the hotel. I tried and tried, but each time I would get to the place to print out the boarding pass, I could see them for a minute or so and then the terminal would kick me out close the window and send me back to the hotels main page. After two trips to the desk, one of the girls at the desk went with me and tried and it did the same to her. So it wasn't just me. She finally went into the hotel computer and printed the boarding passes out for me.

Planning to get up and shower tomorrow morning and pack some so I can go to the post office and mail this package and get back in time to check out and get the shuttle.