The Venice of the North: Amsterdam

The Train to Amsterdam was about a 5 hour ride, and we had to switch trains in Brussels. We had reserved our seats that morning and found our train pretty easily. We were seated in four seat pods, two facing two. The woman facing me, who incidentally was in Jane's seat, was very rude when I accidentally stepped on her foot trying to get into my seat. She probably shouldn't have her legs out stretched so that I have no where to be. I really didn't like her at all and the fact that she was in Jane's window seat made it worse, so I put in my iPod and read the whole trip. Poor Jane slept some, which was good since she was feeling so crappy. We got of in Brussels, thank god!, and raced to find the bathroom before boarding the second train. The bathrooms are palatial but you have to pay to use them. Oh well. We found our train in time, but our tickets had no seat numbers and said we paid 0 euros. This would have been fine if the train also had no seat numbers, but this was not the case. We looked up and down the train for someone to ask, but didn't find anyone so we got on. I left Jane with the bags and started looking for someone to ask with in the train. Eventually, I found some American or Canadian kids that didn't have reservation tickets at all. They said it was fine and that they wouldn't fine us or through us off the train. Also, I had noticed that people were sitting where they wanted to for the most part, so I wasn't too worried. The ride to Amsterdam wasn't so long from Brussells. We arrived in Amsterdam at around 9pm. We wandered around the train station and found the info point, which was closing. We asked about trains to Berlin and the guy told us about the night train (gets there at 4:30 am) and the day train, which doesn't need a reservation. We were scarred from missing our last train, so we asked a lot of questions, but he said it doesn't fill up and it should be fine. We left the info station and went to figure out the tram, whose information point was across the street. It was closed, and we had a bit of a hard time figuring out where to go and how to buy a ticket. We decided you can buy them from the driver and had just about found the spot to get the right tram when some guy came over and started talking to us. He seemed normal at first and was helpful about the tram but then he launched into this tirade about Madoff and all sorts of conspiricy theories about the governments tracking people though the public transport system. He just kept talking and thought was had beautiful minds, bodies, and souls, and wanted to meet up the next day. We were nice but said we didn't know if we could, and he seeemed understanding at first but then would ask again. When we parted ways with him, taking his number as he insisted, we walked  VERY quickly in any direction. We crossed a busy intersection and walked to a bus stop and looked at the map and figured out where our hostel was and had to double back and hope he was gone, which he was. We were staying at a hotel/hostel right next to the concert hall and museumplein, a really nice park. We were right near the Rijks and Van Gogh Museums.

We checked in and went up to our room, which was a hotel room with four sets of bunkbeds, not really a hostel. There was a guy there reading who we talked to named Brian and he was from LA but had been studying in Spain four weeks and was traveling now. He's in law school and his parents are Dutch so he was going to visit some family he hadn't seen in a while. Jane showered and put in her hear plugs for the first time in an attempt to beat the cold. I stayed up talking to him and a girl from Scotland for a while before turning in.

The next day, we got up around 9ish. I wanted to let Jane sleep, but we had a lot to do. We got ready and headed over to the Rijksmuseum, grabbing a prewrapped sugar waffle along the way. We started at the beginning, as usual. It was sort of about Dutch history through art, but it was pretty cool. They had this awesome model boat that some guy made in the 18th century, and some really cool inlayed furniture and painted ceramics. Lots of detail. There was also some sick silver work, where these guys essentially created images like paintings with depth and everything just using silver. Miniature silver work was also big, and they had some awesome doll houses with crazy detail and tons of tiny detailed silver pieces. Up stairs, the paintings. Rembrandt takes center stage, and his students too. Portraiture was very important then. Rembrandt got away from strict realist painting and sort of seems like the beginning of a turn toward more impressionistic style. The Vermeers where cool too, a similar time frame. Lots of interesting use of light. Jane wasn't doing so well and had a coughing fit in the middle that we had to deal with. After a while, we went back and finished the exhibit, but I didn't know how well she would do for the rest of the day. We went to check out the line at the Van Gogh museum, since it was late morning and the Rijks was getting crowded. Since there was a line at Van Gogh, we elected to get sandwiches from the vendors around the museum and eat them in line. Ham and cheese, shocking.

The line wasn't so bad, and soon enough we were inside. Rick Steves recommended the audio guide, so we bought that and headed up to the beginning of the exhibit. The Van Gogh is small, and very manageable. It was a bit too crowded for my tastes, and it was FRIGID in there. I had been cold at the Rijks but this was just insanity. The A/C was so bad that I could barely handle it. Jane gave me her scarf, even though I was in a long sleeve shirt and she was in tank top and shorts, that's how cold I was. We did the 2 floors of Van Gogh. I didn't realize he only painted for 10 years. Very interesting. They didn't have some of the biggies I would have liked to see, but it was still neat. It had been hyped up to us a lot, so I was a little underwhelmed by the collection, but it was still really good. We skipped the last floor, or more so ran through it, since we were tired and I was a Grahamsicle. The last floor had a temporary exhibition of drawings by other famous guys from Vincent's brother Theo's brother-in-law's collection. Whatever. And so we had done both museums, which was our goal, and Jane had lived through it.

We went over to Leidesplein, which is a square with lots of restaurants and street musicians etc. We found food there, and a pubby type place. We sat outside and just chilled for a long time. Jane got some potato leek soup and fruit salad that was really good, and I demolished my fish and chips. From the Restaurant, we decided to walk up to the Anne Frank house and see the Leidesstrasse (a big street) and find internet to book Berlin. We were looking for an internet place Rick Steves recommended, but we couldn't find it and decided to head straight over to the Anne Frank House. Just before we got there, we found internet, and we looked for places. Hostelworld.com is a painfully slow site, and I fell asleep in the place. We went out and across the street was a statue of Anne Frank and around the corner was the museum. We had to wait in line for a few minutes, but it was worth it. The building looks quite modern now, which I think is unfortunate, but inside its the same as it was. When the Nazis came they emptied out the house, and Anne's father, Otto wanted it to remain unfurnished. We were a little confused about the layout until we got to the secret passage, and then it all became clear. They had quite a lot of space up there, but when you can't leave and there are so many people living there, it doesn't matter. Anne was quite the writer, and there is a book of her short stories out. She wanted to publish a book about the secret annex. It was really interesting and sad and depressing. Personalizing the holocaust is important, but its hard. I decided Berlin was going to be rough. They had a video of a friend of Anne's that found her in the concentration camp and tried to through her food over the fence and she said if Anne had known her father was alive she might have lived. It was so sad, since she died right before the liberation.

We left and took our pictures at the statue and decided we were too tired to do a canal cruise. We walked back down to Leidesplien to get a snack, since our lunch had been early and tiny and our "dinner" was more like lunch at 4.. Since Jane had just had soup, she was hungry, which was GREAT since she hadn't really been hungry much in those few days. We went to this awesome place called Wok to Walk. Its made to order stirfry. You pick your noodle or rice, your "favorites" like chicken or tofu or broccoli or whatever, and you pick your sauce, and they make it for you and you can get it to go or to stay and to go has a fun box it comes in. We split a peanut rice noodle one, which was ok, but the teriyaki smelled better. Then we went across the street to the Australian ice cream shop for a waffle. We had amazing sundaes with waffles, chocolate, and mocha ice cream. It was so good and they were playing Michael Jackson on the speakers and TV. It was fun. We walked home and felt lame for not having any nightlife in Amsterdam, but Jane was a sicko and I was exhausted. It was about 11pm and still quite light out. Crazy. The museumplein was so nice at dusk, or whatever it was then. I wished we could play but we knew we had to go to bed.

The next day, we woke up at about 9 again and got packed up to leave. There was a baggage closet we could use, but the man had said it could get full, so we wanted to get in early. It was nearly empty when we put our stuff in it. We went across the street to the grocery store, which was under the park which sloped up to accommodate the entrance. Very cool. We got a bunch of juice and yogurt and some snacks for the train and ate our breakfast on a park bench just outside. It was very nice in the morning, but I was really sick now too. We decided to try to check out the Heineken Brewery, as planned, but first went to put our groceries in the closet. I navigated us to the brewery (it wasn't as close as I was lead to believe by the maps), and we checked out the shop. It was 15 euro for the "experience" and we were too sick to want a beer tasting at 11 in the morning. We were happy we at least saw the place though. We made our way back to the hotel and found the closet more jammed with stuff than I could ever believe would fit. It was crazy trying to get our stuff out. I literally had to climb in the closet on suitcases and haul stuff out, and then Jane's water bottle was missing so I had to dive in with my feet in the air. It was so funny and exhausting. We trekked with our packs to Leidesplien for some more Wok to Walk, and this time we each got Teriyaki. It was really good, but I saved most of mine for the train. We took the tram to the red light district so that we would see it before we left. Its located in the oldest section of the city, and has been up and running for as long as Amsterdam has. Its interesting but very strange. The women weren't attractive, and the whole shop window thing is sort of gross. Anyway, we wandered down a street or two and then headed to the train station, which was very close by.

We executed our plan brilliantly, getting to the brewery and the red light district and the train station with minimal trams and minimal pack-carrying. We got to the train station at about 2 which was great because our train was at 2:57, and we were nervous about getting on.  We went to the ticket office and they told us we didn't need a reservation and to switch at the first stop to go to Berlin. We went to the platform but were so early we didn't know where our train would be. The platforms have a and b sections, and we were supposed to go to 14b. We sat and I ate some more noodles while we tried to figure out the transfer. We were scared because if the 2:57 train left then from the transfer point, then we'd need to get there by then. Jane ran down to ask again while I guarded the bags and panicked that we would miss the train. She got back and it was all set, the 2:57 train would take us to the first stop where the train to Berlin would be across the platform. We prayed that it would work.

Amsterdam was beautiful, and FILLED with bikes. I've never seen so many bikes in my life. They have their own lanes in the road. Its so cool. The canals are awesome, and the city is really fun and young, just like we had heard. Its really touristy though, and full of college kids that just want to party. The architecture and language were very different from what we had experienced. We really liked it, but felt a little lame for staying in all the time. We were sick and didn't have much time there, but I feel like we got a good sense of the city and saw a lot.

Finally, the train came and we got on and it was SO HOT that we both passed out for the 20 minute ride. We switched trains and and found a spot. It was really empty so we spread out and sat across the aisle from each other, hoping to be able to sleep. Sleep didn't happen though, and the train ride was pretty long, about 6 hours. I was bored and emailed home. Jane tried to learn some German words. There were a pair of creepy older guys with a beautiful Husky dog. A nice woman asked us for help on grammar. She lectures in linguistics for a university and was working on a paper for a conference. It was about the difference between auch and noch in German, and I worked on it with her for a while. I think I was helpful. She was really nice and told us about Berlin and showed us where to get the S-Bahn (train) to our place. And so, we had made it to Berlin!