For those of you who don’t know, my school in France has a
two-week holiday in April from classes, which we are in the middle of right
now. We had decided to travel during this break, and so I spent the first ten
days of my two-week break going to The Netherlands, Prague, and Cannes, France.
I didn’t realize it while planning this trip, but it turned out to be a pretty
comprehensive tour of Europe: we discovered Northern Europe in The Netherlands,
Eastern Europe in Prague, and the Mediterranean in Cannes! Overall, this trip
was absolutely exhausting but amazing at the same time. I love having the
chance to experience new cultures, and this trip did not fail me in this
endeavor.
As ten days, three countries, and five cities would be crazy
to cover in one blog entry, at least detailed enough to actually be enjoyable,
I will be splitting the next few entries up. The first, this one, will focus on
Amsterdam, then Delft and The Hague, Prague, and finally Cannes. So, without
further ado, I will dive into discussing Amsterdam!
Grace and I left Arras Friday the 12th around 1
p.m. to take a train to Lille, where our bus left for Amsterdam. The bus ride
was comfortable enough, but we hit traffic and so didn’t arrive in Amsterdam
until an hour after we expected to. This, in addition to having no idea where
we were going, caused Grace and I to be about an hour and a half from meeting
our friend Megan in Amsterdam Zuid. Once we shared our squeals and hugs from
seeing each other for the first time since December, us three girls had to get
a train to Amersfoort, where we were staying with my high school French
teacher’s daughter, Tiffany.
Amersfoort is about a half hour train ride from Amsterdam,
and Tiffany graciously allowed us to stay with her and her family for the three
nights we were in The Netherlands. They were the best hosts and we had a really
great time! She has a one and a half year old baby, and so we also had a lot of
fun playing with her!
Just a quick side note- we didn’t see much of Amersfoort,
our focus being Amsterdam, Delft, and The Hague, but it seemed like a very nice
town!
 |
A typical canal in Amsterdam |
Anyways, our first full day in The Netherlands was spent in
Amsterdam! I absolutely adored Amsterdam, which kind of took me by surprise. I
was expecting to enjoy it, but I didn’t realize how much I would really come to
love the buildings, the Dutch language, the people, and the overall atmosphere.
Disclaimer: everything that we amused ourselves with in Amsterdam was 100%
legal in the United States of America.
Our morning started by us basically walking around and
getting a little lost. We did end up walking through the Red Light District
when we first got there, mostly by accident, but it was definitely an
interesting walk. It’s always jarring to see prostitutes standing in windows of
a building next to a cathedral, but I guess that that is the way of parts of
the world.
By getting a little lost, however, we did end up near a
flower market, which we then decided to explore. Stretching along a canal, this
flower market offered blooming flowers in pots alongside bulbs of hundreds of
types of flowers, fruits, and vegetables. It was all absolutely gorgeous.
 |
First stall of the market |
We then stumbled upon Rembrandtsplein, a public square
featuring a statue rendering of Rembrandt’s The
Night Watch, including a statue of Rembrandt overlooking his famous
painting. There was also a special treat: Rembrandt himself! Ha… just kidding,
although that would have been amazing. It was actually a person dressed up as
the legendary painter, acting as a living statue. With children running between
the subjects of the painting and around the stone square and families, couples,
and individuals enjoying the fresh, spring air, it was one of my favorite
places in Amsterdam. Later that evening it also served as a place to eat our
delicious Belgian fries – double points!
 |
Rembrandtsplein, with Rembrandt overlooking his Night Watch |
 |
AH! Rembrandt!!! |
After Rembrandtsplein, we decided to go to the Rijksmuseum,
which had been closed for 10 years. However, as Tiffany and her husband
informed us that morning, Saturday the 13th was the opening day of
the museum, and visitors were allowed to enter for free. We arrived around 1
p.m. and the museum was not yet open, so we continued our ventures through the
city.

Returning 5 or so in the evening, we were then able to explore the
museum! The Rijksmuseum features Rembrandt’s Night Watch, The Jewish Bride
(which was featured in a 20-page paper I wrote sophomore year in my Rembrandt
class), and The Sampling Officials.
After studying this artist, it was truly amazing to be able to see some of his
works, even if just for a few moments. We were also lucky enough to get to see
a few of van Gogh’s paintings as well, especially one of his self-portraits
(another fun fact about me: freshman year I wrote a 20-page paper on van Gogh
titled “Van Going, Going, Gone” – it explored his mental health decline through
his paintings). The Rijksmuseum also features some of Vermeer’s works, notably The Kitchen Maid. Vermeer is one of my
favorite painters and his Girl with a
Pearl Earring is my favorite painting. I was planning on seeing this
painting in The Hague, which we were visiting Sunday, but irony of all ironies,
it is currently touring the States while I am in Europe. However, the surprise,
free opening of the Rijksmuseum definitely made up for this slight
disappointment!
 |
The Night Watch |
 |
The Sampling Officials |
 |
The Jewish Bride |
 |
Vermeer in person! |
 |
The Kitchen Maid, not in person |
_-_The_Girl_With_The_Pearl_Earring_(1665).jpg) |
Girl with a Pearl Earring, I had to throw my favorite in here |
 |
Good ol' Vincent |
 |
Napoleon; I just had to find some way to represent France in this entry! |
The Rijksmuseum was truly the highlight of the day, besides
just physically being in Amsterdam. There were a few other places we enjoyed,
such as the great green behind the Rijksmuseum and close to the Van Gogh
Museum; we had a fun photo shoot and enjoyed the sunny day! In addition to the
sights, we were treated to a traditional Dutch delicacy of sorts: the Dutch
pancake. To use Tiffany’s description: if a French crêpe and an American
pancake had a child, it would be a Dutch pancake. I nommed on a banana pancake,
which was about a foot in diameter and truly was the lovechild of a crêpe and
American pancake. In other words: DELICIOUS.
 |
You can see the Rijksmuseum in the background, but this "I amsterdam" statue was just so cool |
 |
The pretty green between the museums |
 |
Part of our photo shoot, and again the Rijksmuseum in the background |
After our day in Delft and The Hague, we ventured back to
Amsterdam on Monday the 15th to have a few hours in the city before
our overnight train to Prague. As Grace wanted to stay in the train station,
Megan and I ventured on our own for about an hour and a half.
Again, we pretty much wandered around in a circle, taking
pictures and enjoying the sights. Our one goal was to see the Royal Palace
(they have a QUEEN!), which we found rather easily as it sits on a very popular
and crowded square. Here we saw many street performers, including a man making
giant bubbles, and tons of pigeons. The atmosphere in the entire city that
night was festive, despite it being a Monday evening.
We were also lucky enough to find a shop that made fresh
stroopwafels. “What are stroopwafels?” You may ask, and I am here to spread the
word. Stroopwafels are a type of cookie with a syrupy/brown sugar filling
squished between two circular, thin waffle cookies. Again, DELICIOUS. The Dutch
know what’s up with their food, I swear. So we indulged and inhaled these
delicious, fresh, warm cookies while walking around and taking pictures,
generally being tourists.
 |
Awesome street performers |
 |
Dam Square |
 |
The Royal Palace |
 |
The royal stroopwafel |
I actually hugely embarrassed myself in this tourist respect
outside an apartment building, where I was in the middle of taking a picture of
the decorative gate when one of the inhabitants rolled up on his bike.
Tourists. Sigh. And speaking of embarrassing moments, a few minutes later I
embarrassed myself yet again. “How in the world did you do that, Katie?” Some
of you may be asking. Well, I was running across a street and tripped, falling “gracefully”
(according to Megan) in front of several pedestrians and cars. As a result, I
have a nice little scrape, still healing, on the palm of my right hand. I’m
really not surprised that this one boy in middle school nicknamed me “Clumsy.”
 |
The pretty gate that made me into the most obvious tourist |
Monday night we left at 7 p.m. for Prague! But! There is
still Delft and The Hague to discover in my upcoming blog entry before we
arrive in Prague!
 |
The Red Light District |
 |
What I see as the essence of The Netherlands, if we want to get philosophical/artsy |
No comments:
Post a Comment