Amsterdam..the land of bikes

Hey everyone,

I just got back from Amsterdam today. It was an incredible experience. The city is absolutely beautiful designed in a circular shape with canals running every few streets. The language of Dutch is interesting very difficult to read and understand although some words are almost completely the same as English. There was only 2 people I met while I was there that did not speak English, which I was beyond grateful for. We stayed on a hostel that was located on a house boat, so although the room was tiny it was a crazy experience of sleeping in a canal in Amsterdam.

The first day we were in Amsterdam we decided to do as the locals do and rent bikes. Now you have to understand in Amsterdam, bikes have the right of way for everything. Cars will stop for bikes, people better unless you will get yelled at, and have their bell going off, and most likely get run over. There are also tons of bikes everywhere, so once on a bike it can be really intimidating. I have not really rode a bike since my freshman year of high school when I broke my shoulder on a bike, even then I was not an avid rider. So I will admit, I caused a bike accident my first day because I didn't understand the hand signals for biking. No one was injured in the process but it was a bit embarrassing and a little funny as well.

The first day we fell upon the Heineken factory. We decided to take a tour of the factory which was really interesting considering the fact that I had no idea how beer is even made. We got to see each of the steps and well as see all the ingredients. ( I am convinced hops smell like rabbit food). And of course everyone's favorite, learn how to properly pour beer and last but not least, drink some.

Saturday night we ventured into the well know Red Light district, which isn't a misnomer I will tell you that much. The alleys and streets glow red at night. I was told there is about 200 windows and yes their are girls in just about all of them every night.

Sunday we were up and out early. First stop was the Anne Frank house. It has been a long time since I read the book, but I honestly think I am going to re read it this summer. We were able to see the original bookcase and walk through the door into the old part of the house. In fact on display is her original red plaid diary with all the note papers that Anne had written her diary on. The rooms in which they hide in our kept empty at the wish of Otto Frank, her father who was the only family member to survive the war. His wish when he made the foundation to open the house as a museum was to make it a place of solely remembering the Frank family, but a place that would educate future generations about the hatred both against the Jewish people during World War 2, but also current acts of hatred and loss of freedom in the current world. The whole place was done with such respect and honor for all those who have died it was breathtaking.

"To build up a future, you have to know the past." Otto Frank

Our second stop on Sunday was the FOAM museum. I had seen while biking by an advertisement for the FOAM museum, which is a Photography museum, saying they had some Richard Avedon work on display. For those of you who don't know I wrote a term paper on him last semester and quickly became obsessed with his work. He is most well known for his many portraits of famous politicians, artists of all kinds, and well known people all with a solid white background behind them. It turns out the museum was solely a traveling collection of his life's work. There were close to 200 photographs on display. To see these works at their vast size at which he has printed them was speechless. Many of his works are nearly 3 feet tall with some even bigger. AMAZING!

"There is no such thing as inaccuracy in a photograph. All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth." Richard Avedon

Last but not least Carlene and I got the idea to listen to my travel guide and go find some tulips in the countryside. My book made it seem easy, just take the train to Haarlem (15 min away) rent a bike and bike through the fields. Yeah right. Instead we ended up on a adventure to the train station then a 40 min bus, at which point the sun was starting to set. At this point we realized it was a little early for them all to bloom (first week of April is the peek) and so we walked to an arboretum type place. Where the informational lady let us sneak in for free and not pay the 13 euro because we were late and ran around everywhere just looking for TULIPS! We had less than an hour before it was dark and we didn't see what we came for, no fields and fields of tulips but hey it was an adventure, we saw more of the country and headed back into the city for one last round of the night time in Amsterdam.

I will post some pictures from the trip up here either tomorrow or Wednesday since I have over 200 photographs to sort through first!

But first, a few random facts about names in New York, from the the Dutch!

-Brooklyn was originally Breuckelen, named for the town in the Netherlands and authorized by the Dutch East Indian Company and was the first municipality of what is now New York State.

-The Bronx was named after Janas Bronck, a Dutch sea captian.

-The origin of Yankees is Jan Kees or John Baboon since Kees is a shortening for Cornelius which in Dutch means monkey or baboon. It was used to nickname Dutch speaking Americans in colonial times.


vaarwel (farewell),
Erika