Sept 10, Amsterdam

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We rose early once again as we were off to visit Amsterdam, but we thought we would do a quick visit to The Hague to see the International Court of Justice. All this before a 12 noon check in so we could get to the Rijksmuseum for 1:45 pm! Phew!

After a hearty continental breakfast we were ready to tackle the road once again. We decided to charge our car before we went into Amsterdam to save us time when we were ready leave. Charging can be a challenge in Europe, as many charging stations do not accept North American Credit cards. The best thing that you can do is get a Charge Pass ( both card and app). The card / app let you go through their system to pay for your charging, giving you over 1,000,000 stations in Europe and the UK. I found out about it ten days before we left, and no time to have a Charge Pass deliver to my Canadian home… fortunately I could forward it to a friend who lives in Germany!

Well that was a lot, however, when you are traveling “green” its worth knowing that there are things that can make your lives mush easier when abroad.

Here’s our little chariot with Dan getting ready to disconnect! Lots of charge for the next few days! (FYI at the time of writing this, Fastnet is a charging brand that does accept NA credit cards.

We beetled into The Hague and found this city to be quite extraordinary in its architecture, making the most of every square inch, while also preserving a very rich and influential history. Although Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands, The Hague is the seat of government, and as such has many embassies and consulates.

Office building spanning highways while the centre around the international court was very green and posh. (Sorry no photos here, but the courts were luxurious!)

With a very quick blow by tour we were off again to Amsterdam! Our B and B for the night is located on the Herengracht Canal. We have a great gps system, but it didn’t take into account some construction. Needless to say, our drive to the B and B was an adventure indeed!

We made it, and lucked into a temporary parking slot. ( not legal, but at least we could unload our bags and get checked in before heading to a parking garage about a 10 minute walk away)

Getting our bags into our room was exciting to say the least. As you can imagine, real estate is at a premium and our room was on the second and third floor of the house! ( and the first floor is above the ground floor)

One of two flights of stairs to get to our first floor of the B and B. Regular suitcases don’t like doing the stairs!
Our cozy sitting room and kitchenette. Plenty of space for us!
Our top floor bedroom. Our suitcases will stay in the sitting room as there is an additional flight upstairs to get to the bedroom. And those closets that you see are actually the toilet and shower. As Dan said, you need to step outside to change your mind!

It’s easy to complain about the tight spaces, but the location is everything! We can walk anywhere from here, and we did!

Our first stop was to drop off the car in the parking garage, for the reasonable rate of 50 Euros per day! ( we could have parked outside of Amsterdam and taken the train into the central station ( only a 10 minute walk from our place), but the garage is only a ten minute walk … and it’s located in one of the coolest buildings I’ve ever seen!

Yes, go down to the left of that wedge and it’s our parking garage! I thought the flat iron building in Toronto was impressive, but it ain’t anything compared to this one!

We parked, and walked along the wharf to the central station, and discovered the docking station for many of the river Cruises.

Check out the building across the Harbour! An amazing architectural feat!

Ok, we were finally on our way through central Amsterdam to to Rijksmuseum ( ticket time of 2 pm! We made it with 10 minutes to spare!

A huge museum with an amazing collection. The Rijksmuseum has a great app with tours. Given the time and energy, we opted for the highlights tour and weren’t dissapointed!
The original “Milk Maid” by Vermeer. (Sadly, the Lady in Blue reading a letter was on loan to the museum in Rome)
Rembrandt’s “ the Night Watchmen” was currently being analyzed and restored. The barricades in front are actually moving platforms that restoration specialists can use to do their up close analysis.
Here is one person from “Operation Night Watchmen” studying the paint and coating of varnish. While it was originally thought to be a painting at nighttime, it was discovered that the varnish has darkened the original substantially
This painting by Ruisdael (1668) depicts a setting that we experienced on Kinderdijk… excect for the era, the sky was equally dramatic!
This doll house by Oortman (1686-1710) shows just how much money these Dutch merchants had! The china in the lower left hand corner was ordered to be hand made in China ( the voyage alone was 9 months one way!). The painting, linens, handmade furniture and inlaid wood, all to scale, all gave the impression of extraordinary opulence.

As much as there was to see in the museum, there is only so much you can digest in one go. We decided to head out and off to our next adventure… a canal cruise! Time to sit down and take a load off! We toured the canals for an hour and saw some extraordinary sights. Ones we’ll want to visit again on foot tomorrow!

Getting ready to cruise!
Incredible old architecture as a backdrop to modern canal living!
Beautiful Canal vistas!
“The Dancing Houses”. Look closely and you can see them tilting this way and that. They are not allowed to be corrected, only braced from further leaning. Because they are built on silt, homes can settle unevenly. Today the builders are well versed in building on piles… much better than hundreds of years ago,
The canal of seven bridges. If you look closely enough, you can see 7 bridges all aligned down this canal.
And here is the narrow bridge. It is said that if you kiss someone under this bridge they will be your mate for life! Choose wisely! Luckily, I already have!
More beauty and history along the canals

Our journey was soon finished on the canals, and it was time to walk back to our B&B for the night. Because of the stairs going up to our room, we chose to have dinner before returning. Tired and ready for a nice meal, we picked a spot not far from our place. We went for Italian for a change and it was wonderful once again!

A tiny restaurant only 5-10 minutes from our lodging. A perfect dinner of shared eggplant parmigiana with a pasta course for each of us! Wonderful!

With full tummies and tired feet, it was time to head home and treat ourselves to a nightcap! We need to get rested, for tomorrow is another day in Amsterdam. Until then!

Categories: Northern Europe: Beer, Birthdays and Battlefields

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