More Amsterdam

This was supposed to be at the bottom but accidently deleted it... they have things like this in corners to prevent men from peeing there... backsplash isn't desirable.

We started in the middle of the night getting there because our flight was at 7 am from Luton airport which is about an hour north of London. Since we needed 3 buses to get there it was a long night. I don’t think we’ll fly out of that one again since the last bus there cost 27 pounds. The flight was very short, like flying from Austin to Dallas. It was amazing being in a plane for an hour and then we’re in another country! From that airport we just had to take a train to Centraal Station in Amsterdam. Centraal Station is at the top of the Old Centre of town, next to the water, from there going out are canals forming layers like an onion. We stayed at the Flying Pig Uptown hostel which is in the Museum and Vondelpark Quarter, a pretty good walk from Centraal Station. Near the train station is St. Nicolaaskerk (kerk means church). It is one of the cities only Catholic churches. The majority of Dutch people are Calvinist.

St. Nicolaaskerk (kerk means church)

(canals in Amsterdam too!)
We went on a basic tour that met in Dam Square which is where Amsterdam, originally Amsteldam, got its name because in the 13th Century the river Amstel was dammed here. The square has a war memorial on one side and the Royal Palace or Koninklijk Paleis on the other. Unfortunately the palace was being restored and was mostly covered in scaffolding. Originally the palace was a town hall (Stadhuis) built during the city’s Golden Age and was the biggest in Europe at the time. When Napoleon took over he made it a palace for his brother, Louis Bonaparte. We then walked to Oude Kerk (Old Church) where there has been a church in this spot since the 13th Century. We were told a story about the Amsterdam miracle. A dying man in 1345 was being visited by priests and nuns and given the Host many times. He couldn’t eat it all and regurgitated it. After he died it was thrown in the fire but did not burn and when the nun reached in to grab it she also didn’t get burned. Also it apparently would move on its own. Eventually it was put in a silver box and placed in Oude Kerk. However a thief stole the silver box and threw the bread into a canal. There is still a march every year from the old man’s house to the church. Outside the church is an odd sculpture of a hand on a breast on the ground. The church is the start of the Red Light District. At some point the sculpture was removed by the city but people protested and it was put back. The church used to make money off all the sailors that would dock in the city because they would come and confess after visiting the cities prostitutes. Prostitution was made legal in 1911 but pimping/madams are not. The women rent out the window space from landlords and are able to charge whatever they decide. Most of the windows are more like glass doors so they can open them to negotiate and let the men in. There is a little room behind the window so they just close the curtain. It was very weird seeing half naked women standing in windows as we’re walking around. They are there all times of day and night.

Oude Kerk

In the middle of the Red Light District is the Nieuwmarket, an open square, which has the Waag in the middle. In the 1480’s the Waag was the city’s gate and then became a weighing house (waag) for goods brought in by sailors. After that one of the rich families in Amsterdam changed to have each tower for different trades. The most famous one is the tower for the surgeons guild where lectures and autopsies were held. This was the inspiration for “Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp” by Rembrandt. I think this was my favorite looking building.

Dampkring, a coffeehouse made famous by being in the movie Ocean’s 12. Coffeehouses have strict rules to stay open and many of been closed in the past few years. The Dutch decriminalized marijuana so they could focus on other hard drug problems and this has worked for them apparently. Coffeehouses are allowed to have up to 500 grams of marijuana in there at a time. The government doesn’t really look in to or seem concerned about where the marijuana comes from.

We then walked by the Begijnhof which is a square of beautiful homes around Engelse Kerk. It was founded in the 14th Cent for the beguines, Catholic women who lived as nuns but without vows.

We also passed by Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) built in the 15th Cent, not so new anymore. It isn’t used as a church anymore but shows exhibits. Its next to the Royal Palace. Amy had told us that when the town hall (palace) was being built the church was upset by the size saying government was getting bigger than God so the government agreed to build the church a taller tower when the town hall was finished but ran out of money. We ended the tour at Anne Frank’s house in the section of Amsterdam called The Grachtengordel “girdle of canals.” The homes and canals here were built in the 17th Cent after a big growth in population. The homes and shops here are very pretty. We even saw a corner that had a Dutch cheese shop across the street from a Dutch chocolate shop. Two of my favorite things. After the tour we went back to the Dampkring to look inside. It was red and orange in there. It was weird because they actually have a bar and menu just for marijuana. We then went to Centraal Station to meet for our Red Light District “Exposed” tour.

We started the tour at a bar where we were told a story about a sailor who kept building up a tab there and when asked to pay before he left again was always out of money. One time he was asked the owner said he had to give him something so the sailor gave him a monkey he had gotten from the Caribbean. The rumor spread and other sailors started paying tabs with monkeys too. Walking down our first Red Light District street we passed four places with no windows and black and blue striped flags with a heart on them above the doors. These were apparently men only gay bars. The flags have something to do with S&M so there are supposedly whips and things lying around. Joe (our tour guide) tried to get one of the men to volunteer to go in just to see what it was like but there were no takers. Most of the prostitutes have red lights in their windows however there are a few that have blue. These are male transvestites. I know a lot of the this stuff about the Red Light District isn’t clean and nice for most people reading but it’s such a unique and interesting part of Amsterdam that I wanted to include it. Amy had told us earlier that the city has cut down on the number of windows and that the current laws about prostitution expire in 2015. I’m not sure if it will be illegal then or just no more windows. Joe also told us about his conversation with a cop explaining how there are issues with sex trade and illegal pimping happening that have been new concerns for the women’s safety. The original purpose for legalizing was to give more power to the women since they believed there isn’t a way to get rid of prostitution but could at least keep the women safer. We were also told about the security for the women. Each room has a camera on the door and an alarm button. Here there is also an issue of sort of pimping where the landlords higher young men to be “security” and make sure the women are working. The buttons call the security and police. The women also do not want to be photographed understandably and have been known to throw cameras. There was a time when Amsterdam decided to try male prostitutes out. They opened 5 windows and received 2.5 million applications. On the day they opened women were lined up down the street, however this also brought news people with cameras into the district and the women prostitutes did not like this and started protesting and beating up camera men. So that didn’t last long and the men’s windows were closed.

The next day we walked through part of Vondelpark, the city’s largest park, and through a beautiful neighborhood before getting to the little park surrounded by museums. The Concerntgebouw (Concert Hall), Stedelijk Museum, Van Gogh Museum, and Rijksmuseum were in this area. I also would have liked to go to the Van Gogh and Rijksmuseum but there wasn’t enough time. The Rijksmuseum is a Dutch art museum. It also was being restored and was covered in scaffolding. The “I Amsterdam” sign is behind the Rijksmuseum.

Another one of my favorite buildings... Travis called it the Dixie cup house

We then walked to the Bloemenmarket or flower market. It’s along the Singel canal and lies right on the water. There are multiple shops that had hundreds of tulips. There were also other flowers but the tulips were the best. You could get 50 tulips (tulpens) for 10 euros. My mom would have loved it. There are tons of bikes in Amsterdam! The population is about 750,000 and there are about 500,000 bikes! I really loved that. It seems smart for a small crowded city to think there just isn’t room for cars lets go for bikes. Lots of bikes end up in the canals too, along with Smart cars. We then went to Anne Frank’s house for a tour.

(Anne Frank's room)

Visiting the house was amazing. The front part is Otto Franks jam business and in the back is where the annex was built. There were exerts from her diary on the walls throughout the house. We saw a star patch with “Jood” on it and a sign in Dutch that said “No Jews Allowed.” The annex the 8 people lived in was bigger than I expected however nothing would be big enough to never leave for two years.

The children's heights marked on the wall

Part of Anne's diary

We also visited the Hemp Marijuana Museum. That was pretty interesting. They had information on how different parts of the world used marijuana. I really liked the part about hemp. Apparently it can be grown without growing marijuana and can be made into tons of things. 1 acre of hemp can make as much paper as 4 acres of trees.

There was also a section about the war on drugs. There were about 20 different patches for different law enforcement agencies but this one is funny.