The “botel” turned out to be a little nicer than I expected, in fact the slight movement/rocking may have been the reason I slept so soundly last night! The accommodations are similar to an older mid/low end cruise ship, but tolerable for a few days.
Apparently this “botel” was docked in a prime location in Amsterdam until new construction forced it to move closer to the main port area and away from central Amsterdam, so now its guests must take a 15 minute ferry ride to/from the city. It’s definitely something to consider when planning activities; the ferry runs on a different schedule depending on time of day and day of week.
I am completely blown away with the thousands of bicycles in Amsterdam. I have heard for years about Amsterdam’s extracurricular activity offerings, but what I had no concept of is how popular bike riding is here. There is more bike riding than pedestrians, car, trams or buses, in fact, it is almost dangerous to be a pedestrian, and you must always be on the lookout for bikes. I have had close encounters more than once and have only been here about 30 hours. With so many canals, there are streets and intersections everywhere, and residents literally chain their bikes even to street signs in the middle of the road. It is one of the craziest things I have ever seen! When crossing the street you look for bikes, then cars, then trams as you make it across several lanes of traffic. Bike traffic isn’t at strolling leisure speeds either, they are zooming and many have earphones in, are talking on cell phones, have dogs running beside them or are engaged with a friend riding on a bike beside them. Every kind of bike you can imagine is here, and parents sometimes pile two kids on bikes, large crates are built on to the front and back of bikes, and I even saw a guy yesterday with an upright bass in a hard case strapped to his bike as he pedaled down the street! I know, enough about bikes.
We took a canal tour of the city upon arrival Saturday afternoon. It was a great way to get a feel for Amsterdam and the amount of water versus land, and how the city has made the most of the real estate. There are house boats everywhere, the most dilapidated old boats sit right beside the plushest of water accommodations. A city challenged by water constantly deals with deterioration of foundations and it is not uncommon to see significant slanting of buildings.
Our group enjoyed Dutch pancakes at The Pancake Bakery, which are not as sweet as American pancakes, and are topped with everything from fruit, ice cream, and chocolate sauce to Mexican, Brazilian, Canadian, French varieties that include hot combinations including cheese, peppers, chicken, liver, bacon, and most anything you can imagine. I chose the English pancake, with pears, vanilla ice cream, whip cream and chocolate sauce. It was delicious! This place gives Nashville’s famous Pancake Pantry a good challenge!
Some of the group decided to head back to the botel after pancakes and get dressed for an evening of Amsterdam nightlife. Because it doesn’t get dark until about 10:30pm, it’s hard to keep up with how quickly time is passing.
Since I’d been up since 6am I chose to take a stroll with some others in the group, through the legendary “red light district” of Amsterdam, something that is absolutely unbelievable unless witnessed firsthand. These women definitely take advantage of the opportunity to be an entrepreneur! By the time I crawled into my “botel” bed Saturday night, I had walked a few hours in addition to my early morning run. Needless to say… beat!
Sunday morning was our only morning for the next week to sleep in, so I took advantage of the opportunity and slept until 9am. Late morning, I met up with another Belmont student, Chris, and we headed for the Van Gogh museum, a must see when in Amsterdam. On the ferry ride to the city, there was a young guy with an Emory University sweatshirt on. Being from Atlanta, I was familiar with Emory, and struck up a conversation with him. He had been in Amsterdam for three weeks assisting one of his professors from Emory with his political campaign, as the professor ran for a seat in the European Parliament, which had elections last weekend, as mentioned previously in my blog. The guy’s parents were from Holland and still owned a home here, though they all live full time in Charleston, SC. He was quite helpful in giving us tips on how to get around the city and also answered my inquiry regarding the history of the Netherlands using windmills. Though modern wind turbines generate energy, the historic windmills with the larger paddles are based on the sail concept from sailboats. The Dutch have always been expert seamen due to the country being surrounded by water. They applied the sail concept to create windmills which enable pumping water and thus draining water to create more land. Originally, individuals lived in windmill quarters attached to the mill and were responsible for its functioning. To this day, the Dutch still pump water constantly to drain and create more land.
The VanGogh museum was a wonderful experience. It is the largest collection of works by Vincent Van Gogh, housing more than 200 paintings. Unfortunately, we did not get to see his most famous work, “Starry Night”. We just missed it by a week, which was quite disappointing. It had been on display in an area that is now under renovation, so the painting is now on display elsewhere. However, the exhibit on display was fantastic, and as a creative, artistic person, I loved the opportunity to fully immerse in the history and artistic journey of this talented contributor to art history. Amsterdam is known for its museums. Visiting the Anne Frank museum is on my agenda for one evening this coming week.
The weather was beautiful for most of the day, though it started out cool, gloomy and drizzly. We did some shopping and visited Amsterdam’s flower market with so many beautiful fresh cut flower varieties and bulbs of every variety you can imagine. Tulips are my second most favorite flower, so I especially loved the massive collection on display. Species you certainly can’t pick up at Home Depot in the states. The downside was that I couldn’t pick out some special varieties and bring them home, due to custom restrictions. I may try to have some shipped home.
For dinner we enjoyed nice, custom pasta dishes from an Italian restaurant at the base of the new city library, an amazing work of architecture. The sun was beginning to set, the seating area was outside in the open air, and I truly felt absorbed in the European experience. It was nice to sit and reflect in a beautiful. Our schedule is so packed during the week; a day without a schedule was a welcome relief. I do like Amsterdam much more than Brussels. English is the dominant language here (though Dutch and German are quite common), and though the movement is much faster paced with bikes and trams going all directions at once, it is a tourist attraction, therefore the service staffing is friendly and accommodating.
I am grateful to be snuggling up for a night’s rest. Our week ahead will be full, back to studying tomorrow, and starting the day early with a visit to the flower auction at 7:30am before heading to InHolland University, in Harlem, Holland, about an hour bus ride from Amsterdam.
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