de Nederland

Thursday, May 3 – Sunday, May 6  2012

We can’t believe it took us almost 2 years to visit the motherland (if you’re inexperienced at deciphering last names, Dave’s heritage is Dutch… and other than being cheap, the extent of his Dutchness pretty much stops there). :)  Amsterdam has been our preferred airport to connect through on our trips back to the U.S. these past two years—it’s easy to navigate through and the airport officials are typically pretty nice.  Usually once the immigration/security people would see our passports they would make a comment on our last name (“Visser” is to the Netherlands what “Smith” is to the USA).  We were always so embarrassed to say that, no, we hadn’t yet traveled around the Netherlands – but it was on the list! :)  We were happy to follow through on that promise the first weekend in May.  We fly into our favorite airport late Thursday evening and after a quick train ride we were into town.  We found our hotel slivered in between the neighboring buildings (seriously it wasn’t wider than the entry door) and settled in for the night.

Friday morning we started off our tour of Amsterdam by renting bikes of course!  It’s said that Amsterdam is the world’s most bicycle-friendly city.  We checked the facts – as of May 2012 there are more bikes than people in this city (780,000 people…881,000 bicycles).  How could we not join in on the fun?  Below is a little taste of our biking experience and some sites we saw across town (notice the mom with two kids riding along on her bike – that was not an uncommon occurrence). 

Speaking of bike…well, sort of – check out the glimpse of these guys on a pedal-powered pub.  Yeah, there was a keg in the middle of that thing and everyone has a seat at the bar – all you need to do is pedal!  Not sure where the bathroom is though…

One of the museums cool
interactive maps of Amsterdam

After a quick joy ride we tied up our bikes (securely… apparently bike theft is rampant here) and visited the Het Grachtenhuis museum (canal museum), which was recommended on Tripadvisor as a great way to get oriented with the unique layout of this canal-filled city.  Not only was the museum informative, it also had the friendliest museum staff we’ve ever interacted with (we found out later the museum had only been open for a few months so we’re guessing they were still in the aiming-to-please mentality).  What was really interesting about this museum is how they presented the information through creative animation.  We learned all about the planning of the city layout and how the canal system was created for defense, water management and transportation.  It’s interesting to note that Amsterdam is built much like Venice was, on millions of tree trunks that have been pounded into the soft ground below (check out the animation video below).  Unfortunately for Amsterdam, the changing water levels over the centuries have resulted in the wood rotting out from underneath the streets and buildings below, resulting in drooping buildings and a huge (and expensive) headache to solve in the future.

One less serious and easily solvable issue that Amsterdam deals with each year is pulling tons of garbage out of the canals.  Bikes, cars, even horses have fallen into the canals over the years.  So, once a year they bring out this floating barge that pulls all that crap off the bottom – we think that would be interesting to see sometime. :)  Perhaps one reason the canals get so dirty is that they are such a centerpiece of the city.  We were bummed to find out that we missed the Queen’s Day celebration (just one weekend earlier) where all of Amsterdam lines up around the canals and there is a large barge parade that floats through the canals.  Even the kids get involved through something called the vrijmarkt, where they bring all their toys out to the street and sell or exchange them with other kids.  What a great concept to keep toys fresh and in use!

History and practicality aside, the canals are just plain enjoyable.  It was hard not to snaps hundreds of pictures of average, non-descript streets that look perfectly placed alongside the canals.  Here are some of our favorites…

Look at the hijsbalk on that...

Note how narrow the front side of these residences and businesses are.  We learned that property taxes were based on the width of the front side of a house/building, so at some point somebody was clever enough to start a brilliant trend to spare some cash. :)  Not only are these houses narrow, they are STEEP when climbing between floors – seriously, they would not be considered ‘up to code’ in US safety standards, haha.  The staircases are so steep and narrow that most people have to hoist furniture and appliances up via a hijsbalk, which is a pulley system on the outside of the house, and through an upper window (seen in the photo to the right).  Some say that the reason many of these houses are noticeably leaning forward is due to the sheer amount of weight that has been hoisted up and into the house over the years.

Check out the “coffee shop” (marijuana café).  These are scattered all over the city.  No, we did not partake (we could almost hear you asking that question just now, haha).  We did however smell marijuana smoke every 10 minutes or so while walking around the city—not a pleasant aroma, and in our opinion a negative stigmatism for the city. 

We continued our pleasant morning by biking to a couple different markets.  The first was the Spui book market where we found a few antique gems to take home.  We didn’t, however, spring for the 495 Euro oversized Dutch bible.  :)

We followed the book market up with a short stop to the popular Albert Cuyp food market.  We picked up some famous Dutch gouda cheese, some “brood” (bread), and some olives, but resisted the “extra groot” fish… there just wasn’t enough “groot” for our taste... ;)

Our next stop took us through some WWII history – a side of Amsterdam that we knew very little about.  The Dutch Resistance Museum (Verzetsmuseum) tells the story of life in Amsterdam when the Germans occupied the Netherlands from May 14, 1940 to May 5, 1945 (keep that date in mind for later).  An interesting fact we learned is that Germany saw the Dutch as a clean race and someone they wanted to ally with.  Unfortunately for the Germans, the Dutch as a whole were really not into that plan.  Even with Germany’s positive attitude towards the Dutch, it was still a very oppressive place to live.  Those that opposed the Nazi rule had to be careful, otherwise they would find similar fates to those that were targeted.  To that end we saw displays of secret radios (built once Germany banned all radios), hidden food vouchers (starvation became a problem toward the end of the war), and even hidden weapons – check out the surprise in the stroller!  It was encouraging to see the steps that people would take in the face of such opposition and really made us ponder how far we would go if faced with the same situation.

Microfilm with
secret message

Is that a man or a woman... or both? :)  
This Jewish man disguised himself as a woman and made a 
fake passport so as not to be deported to a concentration camp

We spent the rest of the evening riding our bikes and enjoying the sites around town before meeting a co-worker (who is based in Amsterdam) for dinner.  We stopped at De Gooyer windmill-turned-brewery for a mildly tasty and rudely served beer (even worse, we missed the tour, too), so we only stayed for a few minutes.  We also rode by the zoo and saw a whole flock of flamingos (if you call it a flock?).  And, we spotted our first “Visser” sign! 

One quick note about dinner – it was May 4^th – known in the Netherlands as Remembrance Day.  Every year at 8pm, there is a tradition that everyone across the country observes 2 minutes of silence to honor soldiers and civilians who lost their lives in World War II.  So, at 8pm we were summoned to observe the silence (they dimmed the lights) and we were surprised that the entire large, loud restaurant honored the request.  Imagine an entire country in silence – even the trams stop dead in their tracks – pretty amazing.

We kicked off Saturday with a very early morning to visit the Anne Frank house, one of the most popular sites in Amsterdam (you should see the line).  Although small and somewhat modest, this museum was extremely interesting because it was the actual home that was the setting of The Diary of Anne Frank, the hiding spot of the Frank family from June 12, 1942 until August 1, 1944.  It’s probably been years since you’ve read the diaries so here’s a quick summary (taken from Wikipedia):

The Frank family moved from Germany to Amsterdam in 1933, the year the Nazis gained control over Germany. By the beginning of 1940, they were trapped in Amsterdam by the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.  As persecutions of the Jewish population increased in July 1942, the family went into hiding in the hidden rooms of Anne's father, Otto Frank's, office building. After two years, the group was betrayed and transported to concentration camps. Anne Frank and her sister, Margot, were eventually transferred to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they both died of typhus in March 1945.

(Note that the girls died less then two months shy of liberation, had they only been able to hang on.  Otto Frank was the only one to survive the Holocaust.)

A moveable bookshelf covered the secret entrance into the hideaway.  (Unfortunately no photos allowed inside...)  There were actually eight people who lived in the annex during that time – none of which saw the light of day for two years.  They had to sit completely still during the day so that workers in the building didn’t hear anything.  A few employees of Otto’s company secretly helped by providing food, clothing, books and newspapers – this in itself was extremely risky.

It was interesting and surreal to walk through the annex and all of the rooms that made up their “home” for that time of hiding.  It was during that time that Anne wrote her famous diary, which documented that horrible time in history, events that occurred and how the young girl coped with it all.  We were actually able to see original pages of her diary at the museum.  We also learned that Anne dreamt of being a published author when she grew up – little did she know she would indeed become world-renowned for her writing.

The story of the Frank family was and continues to be one of the most famous and tragic Holocaust stories.  It was extremely interesting to visit the amazing historic monument and can see why it’s such a popular site to visit.  Unfortunately pictures were not allowed inside so you'll have to visit this special museum for yourself. 

Afterward we needed a little comfort food and the perfect place was a café named Winkel – recommended to us by a local friend as the best Dutch apple pie in Amsterdam.  No exaggerations, this seriously was the best apple pie we’re ever had… it was phenomenal… perfect with a glass of cold milk! :) 

Afterward we needed to walk off all that goodness so we decided to climb Westerkerk (West Church), one of the tallest in Amsterdam and perfect to get an eagle’s eye view of the city and canals.  It was over 245 feet tall and since the climbing area was so confined they only allowed one group of 6 people to go every 30 minutes.  The small group tour turned out to be really nice and the views from top were great.

After the church we made our way out to Zaanse Schans on the outskirts of Amsterdam, just a 20-minute train ride away.  This cute little neighborhood is referred to as an ‘open-air museum’, which basically means a collection of small outdoor museums.  It actually just looks like a quaint little village but you need to pay to go into certain buildings.  

 

 

 

While a little touristy, we thought this was the cutest little “town,” complete with a pancake house (yeah, it was delicious)... 

wooden shoe museum...

Some obviously well-loved shoes

cheese making...

...and of course some infamous windmills. 

Color pigment which is added to the
powder in order to make paint!

 












Look below for two videos as well – one demonstrates how to make a wooden in about 5 minutes (edited down for your enjoyment) and the other shows off a windmill that grinds up paint materials (there were about 6 windmills here – all had different functions from oil press to saw mill). 

Later that evening we had the opportunity to immerse ourselves in Dutch culture a little bit more.  Back in October, Ang attended an external training course for work and met Chris, who was from Haarlem (just outside of Amsterdam).  They hit it off so we told him if we ever made it to Amsterdam that we’d give him a call.  Ok, recall again May 5, 1945 – Liberation Day.  There is an annual celebration of this day across the Netherlands, known as the “Liberation from the Evil Nazis” Day (no joke), and we were lucky enough to be in town for it.  So we headed to Haarlem to meet Chris.  Haarlem itself is a great little city dating back to pre-medieval times, still maintaining a lot of that character.  We unfortunately arrived at an hour when most attractions had just closed (such as the Corey ten Boom House) —so we would really like to get back to this town and explore it thoroughly someday.

 

"Move that gigantic cotton candy!" (name the movie...)

Haarlem's Red Light District... right next to a church!

The festivities began with a free music festival, where Chris and his friend Bobby were keen to see a group called De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig (aka The Youth of Nowadays).  We were told that they are a hip-hop group that doesn’t take themselves too seriously and makes fun of lots of topics.  We wouldn’t know because it was all in Dutch!  Yeah, straight up Dutch rap music—who would have thought, huh?  It was still a fun time and a treasure hunt to try and find repeating patterns in the song and then ask Bobby and Chris what the lyrics were.  You can get a taste from the video below…

Even more interesting was the age range of the fans in attendance - we saw young kids all the way to people in their 60s - even parents who had brought their young children along.

Another interesting aspect was how the concert organizers encouraged recycling of empty cups.  The way it works is simple – drink a cup and take it back to the cup recyclers for a small monetary refund.  The interesting part is that only people under the age of 10 seemed to actually demonstrate this desired behavior. :)  They must make a killing because they pick up all the empties off the ground for those that don’t participate.  They do it in record time, too – check it out…

After the show we went to hang out at Chris’s place, enjoying some great company and learning more about Dutch culture – while also sharing more about the good ‘ol USA.  One fun fact we learned – the term “Holland” actually only refers to a region in the western part of the Netherlands, not the entire country, so the terms aren’t as synonymous as we previously assumed.  We thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with Chris and his friends—they were incredibly hospitable—we hope to someday be able to return the favor if/when they come visit the US!  Afterward we took the 30-minute train ride back to Amsterdam and called it a night.

We started off Sunday with more delicious Dutch pancakes before stumbling across a couple gems - small cars and funny words - a perfect way to start the day. :)  

We followed that up with a pleasant canal ride to get more familiar with the city...

The sites were nice, but the highlight had to be the “park and ride” outside of the main train station which consisted of, literally, thousands of bikes.  Crazy!

Another funny thing was when we rode past the Booking.com office, Expedia's biggest competitor - and one of the big reasons our company opened the Geneva office!

After our boat ride, we hopped on a train and then a bus to head out to one of the Netherlands' most famous attractions... 

One of the main reasons we chose the time we did to visit Amsterdam was because of the infamous tulips!  Keukenhof Gardens is the place to see tulips in April/May near Amsterdam, just 20-30 minutes outside the city center.  This place was crazy about tulips – roughly 7 million of them in all sorts of shapes and colors.  There’s no point in trying to describe them, just enjoy some of our favorites below…

After watching countless people pose for their glamour shots with the flowers, we couldn't help but stop and do a quick "Senior Photos" photo shoot for Dave.  C'mon, any of you who graduated high school in the last 20 years did each of these poses in during your senior photo shoot... don't deny it. 

Part of the tulip experience is getting outside of the Keukenhof Gardens and into the surrounding tulip fields.  What better way to do this than riding bikes?  We tried to replicate our fantastic tandem bike experience from Bruges last June, but this time around the bike was a little smaller (Ang couldn’t really see over Dave’s shoulders but she also wasn’t big enough to take the front seat) and less comfortable to ride.  As awkward as the ride was, it was totally worth it to see thousands of flowers in such a serene setting.  We rode over 20km all throughout the countryside – saw beautiful flower fields, some incredibly quaint old homes and just great scenery in general.  

Seeing as it was our last day in Amsterdam, we knew we still had to experience a couple of traditions.  The first we did earlier that day at Keukenhof, taking down some herring in the traditional manner – pickled, but still raw, with diced onions all over it.  YUM (disgusting).  It was slimier than it looked and even less enjoyable to say the least.  It was worth embracing local tradition, but not sure we need to do it again. :)

And of course what trip to Amsterdam is complete without a stroll through the infamous Red Light District?  More than anything, it was both strange and kind of sad walking through there considering the life those girls have chosen for themselves, but hey, to each his own… we guess.  Of course no pictures are allowed of the windows or the girls in the windows (they have bouncers that will “throw you into the canal”), but we took a couple pictures of the red lights for your curiosity.

That pretty much wrapped up our time in Amsterdam - we left really early the next morning to get back to work in Geneva.  Before we came we had heard from a few friends that Amsterdam was one place they could see themselves living in besides Geneva – we can now see what they meant as a result of our enjoyable weekend.