On this day, I crossed off another one of the seven Age of Discoveries ports on my bucket list. I had high hopes for this city, and it didn't disappoint. Lovely streets and canals, friendly people, and new finds at every corner. A photographer heaven by day and even more so at night!
Itinerary of the day: Den Haag Centraal → Amsterdam Centraal → Ons' Lieve Heer op Solder → Oude Kerk → Red-Light District → Dam Square → Bloemenmarkt → De Krijtberg → Anne Frank House
After a short 50 minutes train ride (great thing about small countries!), we left the very quiet The Hague and arrived at bustling Amsterdam Centraal station. We would be spending the rest of our vacation in Amsterdam, and making several day trips outward, hence returning to this station multiple times.
We didn't see a real bike park, until we saw the ones in Amsterdam.
It was of utmost importance to stay near Amsterdam Centraal, and we found the perfect B&B to do so - B&B Barangay, which is just 5 minutes walk away. Do trust their almost perfect score on TA, because this place is impeccable. If you can book a place here, don't hesitate! Just do it!
I will start my praising for this B&B all the way from our booking process. The business is owned by a couple, Wimmo, a Dutchman, and his partner Godwin, a Filipino. At first we were not able to book a room for the entire eight nights (and this was three months in advance!), so we settled for changing rooms halfway. A couple weeks before departure, Godwin notified me of other guests cancelling their stay, so we had the option stay in the same room throughout. I inquired back if staying all eight nights in the bigger room will increase our cost. Godwin, without saying anything more, upgraded us to the more expensive room without changing the original quoted price. So awesome!
Despite how close the B&B is to the train station, it is located on a quiet residential street. One block away is Haarlemmerstraat with many shops and restaurants, which was also convenient.
After we checked in, Godwin first sit us down in his apartment unit and gave us a quick overview of the B&B and tips on touring Amsterdam. We didn't need most of his sightseeing tips, but many of his restaurants recommendations were excellent. From this chat we found him a very humorous and levelheaded man.
When we settled our bill, Godwin delightfully remembered that I was the girl who asked about the free room upgrade. He thought I was hilarious! Yes Godwin, when it comes to saving money, I will out-cheap you guys any day of the week.
The B&B is refurbished from a 17th century building, so essentially we were living in a UNESCO World Heritage site! No elevator available, so not suitable for those with mobility issues or big luggages.
Not sure if this photo shows how steep these stairs were...
We loved our room! Not only fully functional, it's also harmoniously decorated.
Phallic figurines looking over our beds.
Mini-fridge and kettle for those late night tea/coffee/hot chocolates!
Washroom looks a bit old but all the hardware are new and functional. Outside the photo there's also a spacious tub that we didn't get to use.
So happy that we would be staying here for a week! I haven't stayed in a city for this many nights in a long time, it's great to not drag luggages around.
For a first half day in Amsterdam, we managed to hit a lot of the tourist basics. The entire old part of Amsterdam inside the inner canal belt, made up of "Prinsengracht" "Keizersgracht" "Herengracht" and "Singel" canals, is a UNESCO World Heritage.
The area right across from the Centraal train station is the oldest part of the city. Armbrug, looking over the Church of Saint Nicholas, is a popular photo spot. Here it looks great under daylight, but wait until you see it at night!
The historical centre is quite small and I found it easy to navigate (still, it pays to do a little bit of planning and cover one area at a time).
We visited Ons' Lieve Heer op Solder (Our Lord in the Attic), also included in Museumkaart. This is by no means a church for grandeur architecture or aesthetics, but rather we delved into a part of history. After the Protestants came to power in the 17th century during the Eighty Year's War, the Catholics were banned from worshipping in public. This church, built in the attic of a private canal house, served as a place of worship for Amsterdam's Catholics, until the ban was waived two hundred years later.
The first and second floors of the house were the owner's living space.
The church space in the attic.
Kitchen. The tiles were the original ones too!
Next we head to the Oude Kerk (Old Church).
Yup this place looks pretty old alright.
I don't exactly recommend this place if we had to pay full admission, as in terms of architecture or atmosphere it's a bit meh. Since we had the Museumkaart, we didn't feel it was a waste to pop in and look at their ridiculous choir stalls.
What am I looking at. How are these carvings suppose to suit a choir stall?
Raven man?
Who made these and is that shit I see coming out from there
Lion head owl thing
This doesn't even seem to fit the theme or time period!?
I really wished there were some explanations as to when or how these carvings were made, but the Old Church in general lacks any sort of guidance for tourists. We were only handed a sheet mapping out where things are, but no other background information were provided.
Right by the Old Church is the renowned Red-light District. Once within the streets of the district, it's common sense that no photos are allowed. Godwin warned me that the window girls could easily "grab my hair" if I dare to take a photo. This picture was taken right before we entered.
At first I didn't see much of a difference, but suddenly a window girl opened up her curtain and bam bam bam, all the girls appeared at once. The streets are very narrow so we were a slab of glass away from them. They obviously were not paying attention to us, but soliciting to the potential customers walking by. In general I found the standards to be fairly high (/shot). Toronto working girls dress in fishnets and platforms, here they looked more pageant with brightly coloured bikinis.
I've heard about locals trying to get rid of this reputation of drugs and prostitution, but they're still attracting lots of tourists as of today. We were asked by guys to take photos of them standing in front of the Red-light district, probably to show off to his peers!
Dam square and the National Monument commemorating casualties of WWII. Centrally located, we walked past by here many times without even trying.
Bloemenmarkt (floating flower market), kind of a tourist must-do. The only of its kind in the world, it's a series of flower shops built on the Singel canal. While touristy, it was kind of fun to go through the cluster.
For the hobbyist gardeners reading this, it is possible to bring bulbs back to Canada! These bulbs have health certificates attached to the bag, and my friend had successfully (and legally) brought them home.
For lunch we took Godwin's suggestion and ate at Sampurna Indonesian restaurant right on the street of the flower market. Toronto's got great Thai and Vietnamese food, but I've never had Indonesian. I figured Amsterdam is the next best option to do so before getting my sorry ass to Indonesia.
Sampurna's dinner menu is not cheap, but their lunch is reasonable. We ordered Piring Sate Siang (4 skewers of beef and chicken, plus sides of spiced egg, cucumber salad, spiced coconut, and vegetables in coconut milk).
It's love at first bite with me and Indonesian food. I wouldn't know how authentic these are, but they were delicious! First thing I noticed was the diverse aroma. I can't name all of them, but I was sure that there were a variety of spices in there. Great blend of spicy, sweet and sour flavors, none of which are overpowering another. Such multitudes of tastes! The peanut sauce and the coconut rice were to die for!
Highly recommend this restaurant (in fact we returned again because we loved it so much). Best to come for lunch, and make reservations for dinner!
We made reservations for Anne Frank Museum at 18:00 (I will show you exactly why that was necessary), so until then we simply wandered around the western end of the inner canals.
Did a quick visit to De Krijtberg, and it was surprisingly the prettiest church of this trip.
Westertoren, the tower that I've drawn as one of the Amsterdam landmarks with no basis whatsoever. Great to saw it in person!
In Canada, the most you would see bike parents is them lugging their kids around in a child trailer, and that already would draw attention (OMG SO DANGEROUS!?!?111). Dutch dads put their kids in plastic storage box in front of their bike like it's nothing.
Near Anne Frank House, we grabbed a quick bite at Wil Graanstra Friteshuis.
The fries were a bit on the oily side, but those delicious, delicious mayo.
Does anyone know the name of this bridge? Googled but no avail.
We timely arrived at the second most popular museum of the Netherlands - Anne Frank House. Many visitors to this museum were only staying in Amsterdam for one day, or even just transferring at Schiphol. I 100% recommend booking the tickets online, as the lines were crazy! When we tried to book a month earlier, some of the time slots were already sold out. With the Museumkaart, we only had to pay 1€ of booking fee online, and this one Euro saved possibly an hour of queuing time.
The crowd on the right are the usual visitors, and the small group on the left were in front of the separate reservations entrance.
The museum was expanded from the building where Anne Frank and her family hid, so there wasn't a lot of space. The exhibition items, such as the original diary, the letters to and from Otto etc., are also small, so we couldn't move until visitors in front of us do so. After a while it became irritating, and some people started to push, but aside from this slight annoyance the museum was excellent. The pathways through each room were really well laid out, with great storytelling by the curators. Before you visit you just need a basic knowledge of Anne's story, but you don't necessarily have to read the book to enjoy the museum.
No photos were allowed, but photos wouldn't really do much good anyways. It's much better to be there in person for the time traveling experience. It's so cliche to say the museum was intense, but I couldn't find other words to describe it. For me the most dramatic moment was walking through the bookcase entrance to the Achterhuis.
(a page from the museum pamphlet)
Anne's statue near the museum.
Dinner was at Moeders, which means "mothers" in Dutch. As the name suggests, the restaurant specializes in Dutch homecooking. The walls are decorated with photos of someone's mom. We just barely got a seat, which showed the popularity of this place.
I ordered the Suddervlees (stewed beef) served with potatoes and red cabbage.
突然有一種滷牛肉的FU!? It was a lot like Chinese style stewed marinated beef?????? Give me a bowl of noodles and some pickled cabbage and we're good to go! Comparisons aside, this was a hearty meal that I can imagine someone making at home, but not enough variation in taste to make me passionate.
As we were heading back to the B&B, the sun had set and Amsterdam revealed another face. It was night shots on steroids and the possibilities were endless!
We would be doing a lot more night photos in the next few days in other locations, but today we were in dire need of some rest. We needed to get ready for a full day of unprecedented challenge to our physical abilities.
