After a great first day in Rotterdam and finally a good nights sleep, these two ladies have only three full days left to explore Amsterdam. They have tickets for Anne Frank house museum, the Gardens of Keukenhof, Van Gogh and Rijksmuseum.
Debbie went on line randomly and found two tickets for Anne Frank on Friday April 5. We walked them to the museum on a rainy windy day. This is looking at the Anne Frank museum on the corner with the crowds out front. The actual Anne Frank house is four houses down from the museum.The middle house of these five buildings.While Debbie and Peggy were in Anne Frank we explored a bit of the Jordaan neighborhood and then went into Westerkerk when it opened at 11 am as we wanted to see where Rembrandt was originally buried. When he died in 1669 at the age of 63 he was a pauper and was buried in an unmarked grave, in a plot owned by the church. After 20 years, as was customary for those who died in poverty, his remains were dug up and discarded. In 1909 the memorial stone you see below was finally fixed to the north wall of Westerkerk.This is the grave (#143) of Rembrandt’s son Titus who succumbed to the plague at the age of 27. He preceded his father in death by only 11 months.Titus was the only child from Rembrandt’s first marriage to Saskia that survived to live to adulthood. The other three children lived only days or weeks. Titus died without offspring so the Rembrandt’s line is extinct. For Rembrandt, his son’s death was the final devastating blow to a life marked by personal tragedy and financial uncertainty of his final two decades. It is unknown what he died of and there is no record of any illness. The poets say he died of grief. He did have a “love child” with his common-law wife. Her name was Cornelia and she had two sons who died of malaria or the plague in their teens and Rembrandts bloodline once againe died with them. Westerkerk was built in 1620 to 1631 in Renaissance style according to designs by architect Hendrick de Keyser who died before it was completed. His son Peter finished his work.The high nave is flanked by two lower aisles. The three-aisled basilica has a rectangular plan with two transepts of equal dimensions, as a result, the plan for this church was given the form of two Greek crosses connected with each other.This was the recently lit Easter Candle. We enjoyed sitting in this peaceful church escaping the wind and rain outside while we waited for Peggy and Deb.It was such a nasty day that Sandy bought a poncho to wear over her rain coat as it was too windy to use an umbrella. Here is Debbie posing for a photo with her granddaughter’s plastic toy named Dan ( BFF of Harry Potter) on a bike. Each evening she would delight her granddaughter Lily of pictures where Dan has been.Their next stop was a tour of the tulip museum since it was in the same neighborhood of the Ann Frank House. Did you know the name “tulip” is thought to be derived from the Persian word for turban because tulips are native in Central Asia and Turkey and were first cultivated in Iran. In the 16th century they were brought to Holland from Turkey and quickly became widely popular.To Muslims the tulip is considered the holiest of flowers. The word literally means the flower of God. The Turkish word for tulip is written in exactly the same letters as Allah. While advances in horticulture have allowed tulip flowers to be grown in a variety of places around the world, tulip bulb production continues to be dominated by Dutch growers.This is Rembrandt’s painting entitled “Flora”. At the time of Tulip mania he painted his wife Saskia as “Flora” with tulips drooping from her floral headpiece. According to myth the real Flora had been a notorious courtesan in the earliest days of Rome and left much of her earnings to the city who in return deified her. She became the goddess of flowers and prostitutes. Flora made a practice of selling herself to the highest bidder and her price had ridden so steep that no man could afford to keep her for long. Dutch painters delighted in drawing parallels between Flora and tulips. Tulip mania was a period during the Dutch Golden Age when contract prices for some bulbs of the recently introduced and fashionable tulip reached extraordinarily high levels. It accelerated in 1634 and dramatically collapsed in 1637. As an analogy Rembrandt’s fee to paint The Night Watch was 1,600 Dutch guilders, typical earnings of a well-off merchant was 3,000 guilders, the highest attested price for a tulip bulb in 1637 was 5,200 guilders.which would have been close to $3,000 USD.Since the day went from windy cold rain to sunshine we walked along the Prinsengracht, Princes canal, to Vondel Park and then through a fancy shopping area to Museumplein. This is an Algerian restaurant and market that we passed. we could not resist taking a picture of this fresh colorful produce.Back of the Rijksmuseum, looks about the same as the front. Maybe this is the front?Maybe this is the back.This is museumplein which is surrounded by the Rijksmuseum, MOCO, Van Gough, Stedelijk Museum and The Concertgebouw. A great area for culture in Amsterdam. We became friends of the Rijksmuseum for only 75€ for both of us which gives us unlimited access to everything and skip the lines for one year. We also bought a Museum Kaardt for 75€ apiece which gets us into hundreds of Netherlands museums either free or discounted. We will definitely be museumed out when we leave here and move on to London and more museums.These girls found this fancy gourmet restaurant Vanoost and treated us to the most wonderful six course meal. We started here in the bar with two different complimentary small bites from the chef. Vanoost is housed in the 5 star Pillows Grand Boutique Hotel Oosterpark. The building was originally a university dissection laboratory.We then moved to the dining room for an extravagent six course meal which was presented over about three hours. We all savored each course and had a very special time together. Thank you Debbie and Peggy for your generosity in treating us to this very memorable meal.Oyster and caviar. We could have made a meal of just this.We purchased these tulips at the floating Flower Market in Amsterdam which consists of multiple flower shops that are actually canal boats connected together and floating along the canal. So here is the secret to how to vase tulips properly; first buy the ones that are tightly closed and quickly as possible after you buy them cut them on the diagonal and fill a vase that has a small narrow/tight opening in only enough Luke warm water so that the tulip leaves are not in the water (about 1-2 inches) then the most important thing is to take a needle and puncture the tulip stem at the base near the flower as this allows the water to travel up the stem thus preventing them from drooping as some tulips have air bubbles in their stems. We took them to an Indonesian Restaurant after their long day at Keukenhof Gardens. This was our first time to Rembrandtplein which is not too far from home for us.Rembrandtplein in one of the busiest squares in Amsterdam. In the Middle Ages the site held a gateway to the city. By the 17th century, it was known as the Butter Market because farmers would sell dairy and poultry here. Today it is known for nightlife and clubbing. In 1876 the square was renamed and a statue of Rembrandt was placed there.This is the largest interactive video screen in Europe. It dominates one side of the square and can be interacted with using bluetooth mobile phones.After enjoying Rembrandt square we took them by Rembrandt’s house in our neighborhood just for a photo op. Deb knocked on the door but there was no answer! I guess she was a few century’s late for the owner to respond!Heading out on Sunday, another beautiful day. This is their last full day in Amsterdam. We walked them to the Rijksmuseum and they took an English tour of the museum while we spent an hour or so exploring some of the special exhibits in the museum and then had lunch at the Rijks Restaurant. Peggy and Debbie went to the Van Gough Museum after their lunch.They then took a canal tour on a Lovers boat, here it is sailing by our window.After their big day we had dinner at a small local Italian Restaurant Frenzi. The food and service was quite good. We will definitely be back and can recommend this place.They enjoyed the spectacular sunsets each night that we could see from our living room windows while relaxing on the sofas or window seats.They never did get to experience our favorite coffee house other than a photo outside on the morning they were to leave since it opened too late. One of Peggy’s favorite things is enjoying time in quaint coffee houses despite the fact that she does not drink coffee.This is a photo of the front of the coffee house. We call it “our coffee house” because we have only had coffee there but it is actually more of a bar, hence it’s later noon opening time. Its old name was Café de Sluyswacht as it used to be the home for the man who operated the adjacent lock. Sluyswacht means lock guard.Before they left for the airport we had a nice brunch at a lovely cafe with a view of the canal and one of our favorite pedestrian streets. This photo was taken from the deck of the coffee house looking down the canal we are living on.They say quality over quantity and that exactly sums up this short 4 day visit with these two gals who clocked at least 23.7 miles in 4 days and hit many of the Highlights that Amsterdam has to offer.They look just as fresh on the last morning as they did on the first. Thanks for the memories and we look forward to more in the future.
Looks like you had some great Dutch weather for those 4 days.
And some fabulous Turner style sunsets. Makes me nostalgic for a northern European spring.
Bill
Thank you Sandy and Jim….you gave us such wonderful memories, both photographic and physical! We enjoyed every minute of our time with you and felt we got to know Amsterdam well; a lovely 4 days!!!
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