Amsterdam

We arrived at about 10pm local time, took the train to Central station and found our hotel. The hotel was made up of three canal homes (not actually on the canal, but same Amsterdam architecture). We were in the very top, in the roof!!

On Saturday morning we had breakfast at the hotel and then went wandering to the Reijksmuseum. We had bought I-Amsterdam cards for the three days we were there, which gave us entry into many museums (as unlike London the big museums are NOT free) and access to public transport, and a canal cruise. Bargain! We took the tram to the Reijksmuseum. Only the masterpieces on were show, as they are doing major renovations to the building. Amazing stuff there though. I thought I may see "Girl with a Pearl Earring" but I didn't see it. I read the book the film was based on (never saw the film though). Then we walked to the Heineken Experience!! A bit touristy, but we learnt how beer is made, why their logo is such (they chose smiling letter e's!) and got free beer tokens. I gave my tokens away to some nice people sitting at the table with us, as I don't drink beer. It was fun to "be a beer bottle", which was basically a ride that took you through the bottling of the beer, with all the necessary and approriate bumps etc. From there we headed to the Museum van Loon, which is a canal home owned by a wealthy family. The home and the items in it are well preserved, and they had modern art pieces slotted in as well, which didn't stand out too much. From there we walked back to near our hotel, and found some dinner. We had Indonesian food, which was super cheap and really tasty.

Our hotel was a street or two away from the Red Light District. This may sound bad, but in fact it was a great location, as it was central. The red light district is interesting, there are throngs of toursist going through it, and of course prostitution etc is legal there. I became desensitised to the many red windows and the sex shops very quickly - it's amazing how quickly one becomes used to it. They just became part of the scenery.

Sunday morning we headed to the Maritime Museum. There were heaps of people there, all dressed up. We had no idea what was going on. We found out that it was a Christmas celebration (as the date for that is 5th December), and that Sinterklaas http://www.thehollandring.com/sinterklaas.shtml came from Spain. As for all the kiddies dressed up, they looked like this:

From the Maritime Museum we caught a bus to Central Station and then hopped on a canal cruise. It lasted about an hour, and it was a lvoely way to see Amsterdam. It gave a new perspective on the city - a perspective that a great many people have had over the years.

On Monday morning, we checked out of the hotel and stowed our bag in their luggage room. We headed to the Jewish Historical Museum where they had an exhibition on Rembrandt and his connection to the Jews. Apparently Rembrandt (which I always thought was his surname, but it is his first name) lived on the very edge of the Jewish quarter. For this reason, he was a regular in the local shops etc. It has often been said that the local Jewish community were used as models for his paintings and sketches, although up to now nothing has been proven. Only one painting in conclusively of a Jewish man, and where did it end up? It was taken by Hitler for his art collection - ironic huh? After the museum, we checked out a local flea market, then a photographic exhibition on the street, then it was back to the hotel to pick up our suitcase and off to the airport. We arrived incredibly early and spent time wandering, spending the last of our euros and had some dinner. The flight back was uneventful. I was hoping we would fly over my work, but we didn't. :-( Slight hiccup with customs, but all sorted. Lesson learnt.

Favourite part of the trip: being treated to very musical church bells every half an hour. It really made the city that much more romantic.