Amsterdam Street View
Finally I’m sitting down to write about our very enjoyable trip to the Netherlands. It’s a lovely country and we had a wonderful time. We started out with 3 days in Amsterdam. I found Amsterdam to be wonderful, but a bit dirty and touristy. I regret that we didn’t rent bikes and ride around the city. We planned to, but it rained on the day we were going to do that. The weather was gorgeous when we first arrived, but we were somewhat brain-dead from jet lag and were practically useless that day.
This was my first trip to mainland Europe, and my first trip to a country where they speak a language other than English. Language was not a problem, however; it seems that everybody in the Netherlands speaks both English and Dutch, especially in Amsterdam.
It was wonderful to be in a place with old architecture and old city layouts. I really enjoyed the architecture in the Netherlands. We visited a lot of museums in Amsterdam; the Van Gogh museum, the Rjiksmuseum, and NEMO, a science museum. Both the Van Gogh museum and the Rjiksmuseum were excellent. I saw a lot of Van Goghs that I had never seen before. The Rjiksmuseum had some construction going on, so the display was smaller than normal. I did manage to see some Vermeers in person, however; they were small and exquisite. I also saw some Rembrandts and I found I enjoyed the work of Frans Hals. Those Dutch masters really knew how to paint.
NEMO, the science museum, was another thing entirely. We walked in and immediately realized that this was a museum primarily for kids. There were a lot of brightly colored, interactive, educational displays, and the place was swarming with children. We shrugged and decided that we’d paid our money, and we should just check it out anyway.
It didn’t take us long to realize that the museum would prove to be more interesting than we expected. After watching a live demonstration of a Rube Goldberg machine, built to demonstrate the idea of cause and effect, we wandered around to check out some of the other exhibits. The first thing we saw was an exhibit that you won’t find in an American science museum for children any time soon: an exhibit on evolution. There were real baby fetuses in jars at various stages of development, displays explaining how genetics determines things like eye color, and other interesting displays. But the real eye-opening exhibits were on the third floor, in the “Teen area”.
The photo you see here is part of a display on sex. Here, you see various sex positions being demonstrated by the wooden dolls. In the bottom of the picture, you can see a number of novelty condoms on display. This was just part of a many exhibits on sex, including one called the “french kissing” booth, which had two large tongue puppets. Children could stick their hands into the tongues and waggle them around like two giant tongues french kissing. It was very surprising! Like I said, you’d never see displays like that in the States
We also visited the Museum of Torture, which has a dimly lit display of torture devices. It was a moderate step up from a carnival display. The notes on the items on display were on yellowed and peeling bits of paper. It was extremely dark in the Museum of Torture, either because the curators were trying to evoke a spooky atmosphere, or because they were trying to prevent people from taking photographs. There were a variety of devices of torture, mostly from the middle ages. I didn’t see a single waterboarding setup there. I must say, people did find many clever ways to cause pain and suffering to one another, and there did seem to be a lot of women tortured because they were “witches”. I think, in those times, the term “witch” was code for, “woman who knows too much/is too strong willed for her own good.”
In addition to the museums in Amsterdam, we also strolled through the red light district. We didn’t see any naked ladies on display, though. I’ve been told that they are toning things down in the red light district these days. There are still plenty of places you can go to buy and smoke marijuana, however. And there were many little pastry shops all over the place. We certainly enjoyed them. Mmmmm chocolate croissants!
So, after 3 days in Amsterdam, we took the train to Utrecht. Neil spoke at a conference there, so it was the “business” end of our trip. I enjoyed Utrecht a great deal; I liked it more than Amsterdam. It’s smaller, cleaner, less touristy, and I think it’s more of an authentic example of what the Netherlands is really like. Utrecht has a lovely canal area, with lots of charming little shops. Our hotel was a block from the Dom Tower of Utrecht, a very old and interesting piece of architecture. Everybody rode bicycles everywhere.
This part of the trip was dominated with the conference. We spent a fair amount of time in the Florin, a bar where the conference was held. Apparently, in Europe, professional conferences are held in bars. I’m ok with that. I drank my fair share of excellent european beer. I’m really not big on beer but the beer there was fantastic. On a casual stroll through Utrecht we also stumbled upon Wilhelmina park, which was lovely and a nice peaceful place to sit and relax for a while.
All in all, we had a wonderful time. I enjoyed the Netherlands and would like to return sometime. Thanks to all who made the trip possible.