Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Every Lane Is a Bike Lane! or, Amsterdam


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
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



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