Amsterdam
We finished our holiday with four nights in Amsterdam at the Hotel Clemens, with Richard’s brother and sister-in-law from the UK.
The weather was a bit of a shock after the heat of Singapore – we dropped about 25 C to 6C!
We had a busy museum-filled visit, walking everywhere!
Nieuwe Kerk Amsterdam – interesting special exhibit on Rome and Constantine at.
Amsterdam city museum – local history
Rijksmuseum – Rembrandts and more Rembrandts!
Van Gogh – an interesting special exhibit comparing Van Gogh with Munch
Canal museum – Het Grachtenhuis – Amsterdam’s expansion was planned back in the 1600’s by a town architect. Amsterdam is different from Venice. The base is sand so it isn’t sinking and the houses are built with pilings driven down into this sand layer. If needed they add more concrete pilings, but they don’t remove the old.
Rembrandt’s house – atmospheric and worth visiting. We saw an interesting demo about paints.
Stedjilk museum with 20th C art
We took a train trip to Naarden to see Naarden Vesting, the best preserved star shaped fort which dates from 1350. This is one of the few fortified towns in NL and the only fortified town in Europe with a double set of walls and moats. The fort had been used up to WWI and had some features we had never seen – underground corridors that were used for listening to what was happening above ground. There were little “ears” on the top of the bunker to help hear any movements nearby. And a waterway that could flood the surrounding area and protect that part of the countryside. Evidently they used it in WWI to avoid invasion and to stay neutral.
Dioramas, equipment, etc in the underground rooms. We only saw one bastion but it took some time. Unfortunately the only English info were the two brochures we were given.
We did a lot of walking, especially along canals. We also enjoyed a visit to the flower market and an Indonesian meal. And we were enchanted to see Groenburgwal canal and the view of Zuiderkerk (“southern church”) that was painted by Monet.
We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Amsterdam with Chris and Anne. The weather wasn’t great, but it prepared us for our return to Toronto!