Amsterdam

We met our good friend Marjorie in Amsterdam this last week. Here she is on the phone trying to figure out where her luggage is and WHEN it will be delivered. She was on hold for a long time!

n order to get to Amsterdam, we drove from Umbertide to Florence and then flew from there to the airport in Amsterdam. A few words about the Florence airport. They have totally remodeled it since we flew out of there several years ago. It is modern, with many "Italian" brand stores for no tax shopping. There are places to walk, sit and eat. Imagine! Long term parking was easy. The problem is the number of flights that come in and go out. Even though it is 2 hours closer to Umbertide, we decided it would probably still be easier for us to fly in and out of Rome given the schedules.

This was our first trip to Amsterdam and we loved it. It is a young, free spirited city. Walking is great, the museums and sights are diverse and easy to reach. It is a sexy, cool, city. We will definitely return.

A bit of background about Amsterdam. First of all it is the capital of the kingdom of the Netherlands, although the "seat of government" is The Hague.  In the lobby of our hotel, they had a formal photo of King Willem Alexander and Queen Maxima. (BTW if you are wondering about Holland or the Netherlands,it used to be the Kingdom of Holland but it is now officially called the Netherlands.) Am not sure what the King and Queen do other than get photographed, but it seems they have mainly stayed out of media scandals not a small accomplishment in this day and age.


Amsterdam has more than 60 miles of canals.  It is often called the "Venice of the North." There are 3 main canals, with the city center having horse shoe shape. We took a "canal" tour which was  peaceful and serene.

This is a view of 9 bridges down the canal. (Hard to count the 9, but that's what they said.) Amsterdam has 1200 bridges.

The architecture is brick, solid facades, narrow, straight up.

Something about it reminded me of fall days in Boston, although Amsterdam is its very own special place.

We went to the Rijksmuseum. The building itself is an interesting combination of Gothic and Renaisance styles. It was unpopular when it opened in 1885 as it was deemed not "Dutch" enough. It is a fatastic space for paintings.

This is a photo of Rembrandt's "Night Watch". It is his largest and most famous painting. Rembrandt was the first one to paint people actually doing something. He used light to accentuate details that he wanted raised to the forefront. It is hard to get a sense of how large this canvas is from the photo but you can see there are about 10 of standing across it.

We took a bus to a seaside village of Volendam and then on to see the windmills. Both stops were pretty much tourist traps.

Dutch cheese is good, very different in texture and taste from our Umbrian sheep cheese.

I loved the name of this boat.

There were food trucks with freshly made waffles with whipped cream and fruit. Marjorie tried to tempt me but I resisted.

She reported that the waffles were quite delicious.

On to the windmills....

We didn't get to the Ann Frank house. We needed to save something for next time.