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Travelogue Amsterdam, Netherlands – Sightseeing in the Old Town

Contents

• Short Overview
• Drive to Amsterdam
• Sightseeing in the Old Town
• Canal Boat Tour

Photo Album

• Amsterdam

External Links

• Amsterdam.Info [www.amsterdam.info]
• Rush on Amsterdam [www.rush.nl]
• Amsterdam Hotspots [www.amsterdamhotspots.nl]
• The Amsterdam Site [www.holland.com/amsterdam/]
• Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions [www.holland.com/uk/]

Amsterdam Weather

Once we had got the travel bug again, we ended up in Amsterdam for a week-end trip. However, the date for our trip couldn’t have been chosen worse … rain, rain and nothing but rain.

Amsterdam – Short Overview

Amsterdam – in comparison with other European metropolis it is a rather small but multicultural city. Covering an area of 219 sq km (85 sq mi) it is home to 727,000 people from 145 nations. The city is located in the north-western Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Amsterdam is the capital city of the Netherlands – seat of government and permanent residence of the royal family, however, is The Hague.

Like a quarter of the Netherlands Amsterdam also lies under the sea level. The metropolitan area includes 53 sq km (20 sq mi) of water ways. A 100-km-long (62-miles-long) belt of canals runs through the city, that was erected on 5 million wooden piles. 2,500 houseboats (connected to the municipal electricity and water network) are registered in Amsterdam. Here the Amstel, running through the city from south to north, flows into the Ij, a bay separated by floodgates from the Ijsselmeer.

Drive to Amsterdam

[8 March 2008] — After a three hours’ drive we take a break at Rasthof Moseltalbrücke. It’s a pity that it is cloudy. If the lighting conditions were better, the panoramic view above the Moselle valley and the highway bridge covering it would be marvellous.

At about 7 pm we reach the Grand Hotel (double room € 70 incl. breakfast) in Amstelveen, a suburb of Amsterdam. After checking in, we go for our first flying visit to Amsterdam by car.

Sightseeing in the Old Town

Parking lots are in short supply, especially at week-ends. We try our luck at the car park at Muziektheater/Stadhuis and join in the queue of waiting cars. To our big surprise it lasts only ten minutes, until the traffic light changes to green and the barrier opens in front of us. As we had expected, the parking fee is pretty steep, € 3.80 per beginning hour.

In the entrance hall of the multi-storey car park we meet a violinist facing a predicament. Obviously, his play was so embarrassing that the ground has swallowed him up.

After a snack, we explore the old town at night. Like fools we forgot our tripod at the hotel room.

[9 March 2008] — The view from the hotel window is disappointing: dismal as far as the eye can see. And constant rain which falls in apparently endless strings out of the clouds. The weather is a real killjoy. Wrapped up weatherproof and armed with an umbrella we go back to Amsterdam – this time by tram. At Brink tram station we park our car and run over the wet pavement towards the platform. First hurdle: the ticket purchase. The information, the high-tech ticket machine spew out, are anything but clear. What the dickens is an OV-Chipkaart? Charging? Isn’t it possible to buy two simple day tickets? Ah yes, it is. We should insert € 14. Where is the slot to put in the banknotes? The stupid machine takes coins (is there anyone carrying this much change in his wallet?) and plastic money, only. Fortunately, we have a credit card with us. Entering the PIN? Of the credit card? We have not the faintest notion of the number.

The tram is approaching. We haven’t made the slightest bit of progress and stand in front of the ticket machine just like fools. Through the closed door I spot another machine inside the train. We decide to get on it. Certainly one of the passengers can change. We are lucky and find somebody who understands us and has small change. Indeed, just five euros. But combined with the coins we have in the purse it should be enough to buy two single tickets. The fares are put up at the front of the ticket machines. To go from Amstelveen to Amsterdam’s city centre, we do need tickets for three travel zones. But at the machine one can get tickets for one or two travel zones, only! The GVB, the public transport company of Amsterdam, is a fine bunch. Are we on Candid Camera?

At Nieuwmarkt we get off. In the 17th und 18th century a market took place at this spot. The weigh house (Waaggebouw) with its seven towers is a remnant of the city wall, the former St. Anthony’s Gate (St. Antoniepoort). In 1617, it was rebuilt to a weigh house, where, at that time, besides food also anchors and heavy guns were weighed. In its upper floor the guild house was located. After 1819 the building served as fire barracks, as a local archive and as a museum. In the 1990s it was completely renovated. Today it houses a café/restaurant in the ground floor and in the upper floor a medicine museum is accommodated.

From Nieuwmarkt we go for the Chinese quarter (Zeedijk), where many Chinese shops and restaurants and even a Buddhist temple is located. We proceed in the direction of the railway station (Centraal Station) and stop by at St. Nikolaas Church to see its interior. Next we run up Damrak till we reach Dam Square.

Dam Square is the heart of the city. The representative centre of Dam Square builds the Royal Palace (Koninklijk Paleis) that was the city hall in former times. The construction of the neoclassical building started in 1648, when the first of its 13,659 wooden piles were rammed into the soil. Today it is at the Queen’s disposal and used mainly for entertaining and official functions, such as state visits and other official receptions. When not in use by the Royal House the palace is open to public and can be visited by guided tours.

The New Church (Nieuwe Kerk) on the right of the palace has been serving for coronation ceremonies of the Royal House since 1814. The church is dated to the early 15th century. The location is also used for art exhibitions and organ concerts. On the left of the palace the famous Madame Tussaud’s Scenerama is situated. Opposite to the palace the National Monument, a 22-meter-high (72-feet-high) obelisk, was erected after World War II – as a memorial for the victims of the war and a monument of liberation and peace.

Behind the Royal Palace Amsterdam’s most beautiful shopping centre, the Magna Plaza, is located. The former main post office, built in the neo-Gothic style, is a nice spot to have a look around the shops and the exquisite boutiques. The shopping centre is open daily – also on Sunday. That comes in quite handy as window shopping allows us to escape from the continuing rain and to “defrost” a little bit. Its interior is the purest splendour – countless arcades adorn the atrium, a magnificent sight.

From Dam Square we walk to Warmoesstraat. The street is lined with pubs, coffee shops and sex shops. The air is filled with the sweet smell that emits from the coffee shops, in which marijuana and hashish may be sold and smoked legally. Finally we get to the Old Church Square (Oude Kerksplein). The Old Church (Oude Kerk) – Amsterdam’s oldest church – has its origin in 1306. Today, however, it is no more used in its original purpose as a church. Since a comprehensive restoration in the 1990s the building has been used for art exhibitions, lectures and concerts. Quite unusual is the church’s location in the middle of the red light district Walletjes.

On the romantic canals and in the small side streets of Walletjes the red-light milieu has taken up residence since the 14th century. Lightly dressed ladies self-display in small, red-lit windows to give you an idea of what they have to offer. The strange thing is: even now – in broad daylight at the early afternoon – women do sit in the windows and wait for customers. Most alienate to me is the fact that the “window area” is not left to men (as e. g. in Hamburg’s Herbertstraße, where female passers-by are not tolerated). Here, nestled between homes and pubs, everybody – young and old, female or child – may pass the windows and have a look.

Through Walletjes we stroll to Rokin. Wherever we walk along we come across dozens of bicycles, indiscriminately locked to bridge railings or street signs. I have read in a city magazine that there are more than 400,000 bicycles in Amsterdam – and that 80,000 of them were stolen every year. No wonder that the owners seize every opportunity to protect their bikes from pilferers. Evidently, the peculiar sign I spotted next to a bridge railing seems to be justified.

Canal Boat Tour

Since it’s still raining, we decide to do a one hour’s canal boat tour. Opposite to Spui we board one of the boats. The tickets are € 7.50 each – including a free multilingual leaflet with information about the itinerary. Our tour takes us from Rokin to the Amstel. We pass the picturesque Herengracht, where rich merchants lived in earlier times. Many of the old patrician houses with beautiful fronts and gables are still in their original condition. Past Reguliersgracht and Brouwersgracht we reach the sluice. Via loudspeakers a tape provides us with information about the sights we pass. The taped voice speaks Dutch, German, English … and – lo and behold – even Russian. Finally, we arrive back at Rokin and disembark. In a café opposite the jetty we have a coffee break. Then we stroll along the Amstel to Waterlooplein where we get on the tram back to Amstelveen.

To sum it up: With a handful of sunshine the tour would have been twice the fun.