Continued Amsterdam Excursions...

Sign advertising a new building next to EYE

Settled into Chantal's cosy home overlooking the Amstelkanaal in Amsterdam, I started to plan additional trips around the city. One of the best things about a long-ish stay anyplace is that I do not feel obligated to run around CONSTANTLY to see everything!(Besides I KNOW I never can see everything, so I return!)

The next day I had to go to the Tourist Information to buy tickets to Keukenhof for next week. My friends Pat and Rich arrive next Wednesday, and we'll go to Keukenhof on Thursday. http://www.keukenhof.nl/en/
This is the SPECTACULAR flower display of the country...wonderful tulips and daffodils as well as orchid displays. It is due to close on the May 20th, so we are "cutting it close"!




Since I had greatly enjoyed the film museum when I was in Torino several years ago, I wanted also to see EYE, which is more than a film museum. You take a two minute ferry ride at the rear of the main train (Central) station, and you have another two minute walk to the EYE.
http://www.eyefilm.nl/en
There are four screening rooms and different exhibitions blending film and art. One of the exhibitions was called Cinema Remake, and it showed different movies which have been reproduced. I also saw an entertaining new Dutch film called Hartenstraat, "Heart Street". There is also a nice restaurant overlooking the harbor, where I stopped for lunch at the end of the film.

EYE is very different from the Torino museum, as it really would appeal more to the real film student for the technical look at a wide variety of films. I am glad I saw it, even though I am not a student of film-just a person who enjoys seeing movies!

Free 2 minute ferry to Noord

EYE

 Saturday Chantal had hoped-as did I-that we could go sailing. However, the rain was heavy, and the wind was windier! But we did go to the boatyard so she could meet with the men repairing her 24' sailboat named "Chelsea" and learn of the details.
Before we met, she had told me about Kroller Muller Museum, which is about an hour from Amsterdam. Friends had also encouraged me to go, so I was very delighted when we were able to go-in spite of the weather! The museum is in the middle of the wonderful Hoge Veluwe National Park, and there are free bicycles which you can use to ride through the park. (We did have a short bike ride, until the rain won!)
The museum was the brainstorm of Helene Kroller-Muller who wanted a place to share her passion of modern art. There is a very large display of Van Gogh's works, as well as Seurat, Rodin, etc. plus temporary exhibitions. We had lunch there, as well as a cup of tea

M. Jacques welcomed us

Collioure by Seurat

and tasty sweet before we headed home. It was a wonderful place, and I have would loved to have had more time to ride around the park!
That evening we went to a concert in the small hall of Het Concertgebow, where we heard Richard Strauss (Pianokwartet op.13) and Brahms (Eerst planokwartet #25). The ticket price included round trip on the tram and a glass of wine. It was a perfect end to a VERY fun day in Holland!!

Sunday was a bit of lazy sleep-in day. Well, it was Mother's Day as well!! Chantal prepared a tasty breakfast, and we went back by the boatyard before we stopped at a quintessential Dutch pancake restaurant-the Pannenkoeken Restaurant "Noord Brabant"-in the most lovely little town of Vreeland.

Cheese and ham pancake syrup optional

...or here?

Picture us having a glass of wine right here!

Sign of the business-this was the Druggist

Town of Monnickendam

Special Dutch boat with this wooden "wing" on each side

We ended our busy weekend visiting Chantal's brother in this harbor here for an hour. It was such a delightful ride through the countryside and stopping to "smell the roses" or rather to enjoy the pancake restaurant or the little towns with hundreds of years of history. Chantal also told me how every winter, everyone just is so anxious to get out skating out on the canals!

Once AGAIN-Couch surfing  is such a plus and has been throughout my trip, MANY thanks, Chantal, hope to see you soon in Boston or?

THIS was my first choice of where to have that glass of wine!!:)

Thanks for traveling along with me on this fun experience I have been having! The end is in sight, as I will return to Boston on May 20th.

New Digs and the Hermitage Amsterdam and ....

Wednesday morning (May 7th) I took the tram and then changed (can you feel how heavy my bags are?) to go to Chantal's, my next wonderful Couch Surfing stop. We had coffee, and she suggested I go visit the Hermitage, which I had seen on the Heineken boat trip.
It was a very pleasant walk along the canal and then along the Amstel River. Expedition Silk Road, a 7,000 km and 1700 year old trade route, was the featured exhibit, and it was fascinating! Starting in 1910 the Russians found a myriad of lost treasures-paintings, silks, Buddhist sculptures, etc.

Spotted this nesting mother duck...father (above) was near by, as I walked to the Hermitage.
Unfortunately no photos were allowed.

http://www.hermitage.nl/en/

LOVING Amsterdam!!

May 5th I arrived at the Pax Hotel, a back-packer budget hotel, for two nights. I loved this too...old Amsterdam with plenty of steps to make skipping the stairmaster okay! AND Philip was kind enough to hoist my bags up (and down when I checked out) to the 3rd floor (2nd in Europe) with more than 50 steps (+3 US flights, but who was counting!?) You have to know that many Amsterdam  hotels-even higher priced ones-all have these steps!

Note the scooter-the better to get around Amsterdam!

Walls lined with different mirrors looking up from the front door!

Canal near the hotel, but canals are everywhere!

Owner of this flower show-like everyone I have talked with-was SO helpful and polite!!

I usually do not buy a city pass, but I decided to buy the Holland Pass, since I am here for two-plus weeks. It offers some free entrances as well as discounts on most of what Amsterdam ( and other places in Holland) has/have to offer. To date I have taken the "Hop on, Hop Off" bus, and visited the Heineken Brewery.
They also have several free walking tours; the one I took was very informative!

Central Train Station

Palace in Dam Square

"New Church" (Nieuwe Kerk) part goes back to 1400

Yellow building part of their Occupy Movement

We walked through a hallway of the Amsterdam Museum during the tour. This pictures the orphanage matrons where these two young boys are about to enter.

We also walked through the peaceful grounds of Begijnhof, a lay Catholic sisterhood, founded in 1346. The last "non-nun" died in 1971, but people still live there. There is a small chapel (below) and a hidden chapel still there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begijnhof_Chapel,_Amsterdam

"Coffeeshops" like these sell pot, and people go there to smoke.

The Heineken tour was really very hokey! It was clever in places with a wide variety of audio-visual presentations, but for the most part...not worth seeing. The 18 euro entry fee did include three glasses of beer. (One women I spoke with while drinking my beer spotted a couple over in the corner taking the abandoned glasses and drinking the remaining beer....) IF you wanted the free gift from their other store (there was one at the museum), you had to take their canal barge trip. I loved the excuse to take this twenty minute trip to see more of the city.And back!

Some of these copper stills had short videos inside explaining the process.

Fun to see the city from the Heineken boat!

Many of the homes still have these hooks like this, as they were used to hoist things.

Hope you will come back as I continue to explore this interesting city!

On to Amsterdam and Rotterdam

I had a night at the Amsterdam Schipol Airport (yeah with points!), and then I took the train to Rotterdam to visit Yolanda, a new Couch Surfer, so I was her first guest. She actually lives outside of the actual city, and rarely goes there, so we stayed in her neighborhood. (We had toured the city on the barge trip, so that was fine.) It was a good chance to rest up before I got into Amsterdam!
We did take a delightful walk so I did get to enjoy some of the area around.

This means you can't do something without a permit; the effing part made me chuckle!

Yolanda on our walk

Small petting zoo loved by the kids!

TOO pretty not to do the close-up!!

We did take a delightful walk so I did get to enjoy some of the area around.