Saturday, we grabbed a tram into the heart of the city and honored Rembrandt by visiting his works in the Rijkmuseum along with other old masters like Vermeer. In one room, they had a great 'light' show which focused your attention on various people or techniques in Rembrandt's "Night Watch". We made our way up to the Central train station and rented four bikes from MacBike for the better part of the week (I've never seen so many bikes in one place!). We wandered past canals, eating at a canalside cafe, through Dam Square, and finally back through the Vondelpark to our hotel.
Sunday, we broke out the travel Scrabble and Carolyn and I tried to stay within shouting distance (score-wise) of the two scholars without a lot of success. Then it was off to the Van Gogh museum, enjoying a snack of Dutch pancakes and fritters, and later followed by a canal tour (homes built on pilings don't all remain vertical). Bicycling with Bryce as our navigator, we made our way around the city, had dinner at Wagamamas, and made it back to the hotel in time to watch the World Cup finals. I didn't cry when France lost.
Monday, we bicycled to Anne Frank's house and toured the 'apartment' where up to eight people hid from the Nazis. It wasn't as small as I'd imagined, but with eight people, covered windows and the need to remain silent during work hours, it was claustrophobic enough. Only Otto, the father, survived the concentration camps. Another canal-side lunch and more bicycling through the city and the Vondelpark was followed by a wonderful (and expensive) dinner at the Blue Pepper, an Indonesian restaurant recommended by Roy from the hotel. A late evening of Scrabble finished the evening with Bryce smoking us with his first word (Allstars) which used all seven letters and was worth 77 points.
Carolyn and I went off on our own to Haarlem by train the next day. Amsterdam is the only place I've seen a multi-story parking structure just for bikes! We walked through the city, visited Corrie ten Boom's museum where we saw the small (24" deep) hiding place that hid Jews and resistance members during the occupation. Dinner was take-away pizza and beer back at the hotel.
Wednesday, the four of us ventured out of Amsterdam by train to Den Haag where we went to the Maurithuis and saw Vemeer's, Rembrandt's, Van Dyck's and Rubens' along with other artists. After lunch, we walked and walked and finally found the International Court of Justice which is only open by prior appointment, but it was an impressive looking building with gorgeous grounds. We bought bread, cheese and wine for a dinner on the hotel's veranda overlooking Vondelpark.
Our final full day in Amsterdam, we set out to the train station to go to Utrecht, a small town southeast of Amsterdam with canals which we were told was quite attractive. With Bryce leading the way, our party of four got strung out a little, and after several turns on various small roads, I looked back and found that Carolyn was no longer behind me. We spent the next twenty minutes or so searching to no avail so we continued on to the train station hoping she had found her way there. Bryce found her waiting in front of the train depot after already turning in her rental bike. After settling down from that episode, off we went. We stopped at a musical instrument museum but when we found it cost more than seeing Rembrandt, we passed and continued past canals, shops and into the large vaulted church.
But it was at lunch, that the day got really interesting. We found a cafe that had tables and chairs right alongside the canal so you could watch the various water craft passing by as you ate. Ashley and I sat opposite each other nearest the canal (about 1.5 feet away) and Bryce and Carolyn sat inboard of us. We had nearly finished lunch when Ashley in trying to adjust her chair, caught a chair leg on the cobblestone, and suddenly her chair was tipping towards the canal. As it tipped, her center of gravity shifted, and there was Ashley doing her best impression of a 1940's musical featuring synchronized swimmers, as both hands raised over her head she practically dove into the canal!! This before either Bryce or I could halt her momentum. In a moment, she was fully immersed; a second later, Bryce and I were pulling her from the water while Bryce shouted at some lady who was taking video at the time (perhaps Ashley will be soon starring in a Dutch version of Funniest Videos).
The waiter pointed Ashley and Bryce to the restrooms while saying that it (falling in the canal) happens every so often. So while Ashley tried to dry off under the hand driers, Carolyn went power shopping, returning in about 15 minutes with a whole new outfit (minus shoes) - skirt, blouse and underwear. Thankfully, Ashley wasn't hurt and actually laughed about it which allowed us to laugh as well. One waiter from Israel told me that when he had first arrived in Utrecht, he had never seen running water and was convinced by a 'friend' that it was shallow enough to walk on, so he tried to do his best Jesus impression and failed faster than Peter.
If this picture had been taken at the right moment, Ashley's head would have been appearing in the lower left hand side of this photo. Needless to say, that finished our adventures and we headed back to Amsterdam to pack for Friday's departure - me to home, Ashley, Bryce and Carolyn for two days in London and then back to Edinburgh through the 25th when all three will be heading back to California.
