Essence of Amsterdam 12-13-25

Our day started out brilliantly, interpretation: we had strong sunshine. Yesterday we talked about taking a boat trip around the canals and then went to see the Brancusi exhibition. Today with the sun shining so brightly we hustled out and found one of the boats that leaves from a dock just on the other side of the Rijksmuseum. It was a one hour tour and cruised along several canals in the heart of the city. We had a very witty young woman as a tour commentator and she provided great information and very funny anecdotes about life in Amsterdam. For example the average number of bicycles owned by someone in the city is three, two are carefully looked after while the third is a “beer bike”. A beer bike is one that you take when your meeting your friends for beer, so if it get stolen, or ends up in a canal or bushes you just go out and buy another one for under 30 euros to replace it.  She also informed us that there are only 2500 permits for having a houseboat in the city. The only way to get a new one is through a private sale or through an estate. Our route took us back and forth along 3 canals. She would talk about the architecture 

and how the houses were built. Why there were the beams at the top of the houses (to raise merchandise off the streets for storage in the attics) and how they are still used today for moving furniture into apartments. At one point we passed a corner with three houses and she asked which one was a fake. So i ventured a guess as did a couple others. As the boat turned the corner she had us look back. One was just a facade with almost nothing behind it. Evidently the city council had an empty lot and they couldn’t get anyone to buy it. So they had a facade constructed with about 6 or 8 feet behind it for support. However they don’t  want it to look abandoned so they hire actors to go out on occasion and do “home oriented” tasks in the windows and front stoops. Like watering a tree or washing windows or ironing clothes. They are still trying to sell it but thus far no takers. Our particular boat is somehow sponsored in part by Heineken and as such there were free drinks for customers. Our tour began at 10:30 am so the takers were pretty few;

the Irish and the youngsters (don’t judge me harshly I’m Irish on my father’s side). I did have an alcohol free Heineken and I’m not a big fan. Our boat captain, when not piloting our boat, was a pilot for Easyjet, a budget airline in Europe.  It was a very nice way to spend a peaceful Saturday morning and we enjoyed ourselves.

Upon leaving the boat we walked back to a little supermarket we noticed that was next to the canal. We wanted to pick up some little snacks for the evening. But it was more like a combination liquor and convenience store. Not what we were looking for, so we walked through a nice park over to a much larger boulevard. We walked a couple blocks back in the direction of our hotel and found a very big supermarket hidden in the basement of a building only a little over a block from the hotel. So we bought our little goody stash

and went back to hotel. At that point we had 20 minutes before our tickets to the Rijksmuseum became active, so we walked over there.

Deb had done some research on overlooked sections of the museum which were to be our goal for the day. Sort of like the Mona Lisa and the Louvre, in the Rijksmuseum people flock to the “Nightwatch” by Rembrandt so we planned that for early tomorrow. Today we focused on Medieval and Renaissance works from Northern Europe. While there were many highly accomplished painters in Northern Europe it is in sculptural wood carving that really outstanding work was created. (My opinion only).  We saw carvings all the way from 3 inches up to life size. Some still had their polychrome coatings 

as well. They were all religious in nature, but that’s how they rolled in those days. One doesn’t have to be religious to appreciate the level of artistry and dedication that those artists brought to their works.  So we worked our way through the medieval area and enjoyed our encounters with the works contained therein. Another little known aspect of museum is the library (primarily for research) so we navigated our way over to where the library was located and went in to the reception area. It turned out that we couldn’t go in because it’s for accredited researchers only and one must apply and receive permission to use it. In addition you have to cite the particular books which you wish to peruse. So we couldn’t get in but the receptionist was extremely courteous and forthcoming in her help. So licking our wounds we made our way down to the museum cafe for lunch. 

It was a Spanish lunch today since it was nearly 3:30 when we went in. They have two eating venues in the museum; one is the cafe and the other is a Michelin starred restaurant. We opted for the cafe for a couple reasons. The first was that the offerings in the fancy restaurant were not particularly appealing and it would have been very expensive for marginal enjoyment. The menu offering that killed the deal was a plate of ‘chicken tails’ , it turns out it’s the bit of meat at the back end of the chicken that we always discard. I called it chicken butt, who’s going to to pay premium dollars for chicken butt?  I might try it on a street in Bangkok for a few bucks to see if I like it or not, but not in Amsterdam. I digress. The cafe sits in the covered courtyard of the museum and is very informal. Deb read that their mushroom soup was outstanding, so we each ordered a bowl of that and also a ham sandwich to split. I think due to the nature of the business

our drinks were much slower being delivered than our food. We were practically finished with our food by the time our drinks showed up, not ideal but not the end of the world either. I did have my beer at that point in the day and I finished my portion of the ham sandwich. Many many years ago that was a go to lunch for Deb’s mother and me when I would visit them for lunch. It was pleasant memory. 

Following lunch we went over to another gallery to look at models of boats that were on display. There were perhaps 30 or so completely detailed models sitting in a large central case and on the side walls were models of hulls that were presented in a half model, the basic thought being that the other half is a mirror image of what you can see on the wall. Bu alas time was running out and they announced that the museum was closing very shortly so we made our way to the cloak room and collected our coats. 

It was dusk when we got out of the museum. On the way back to the hotel we walked through the Christmas market again, but it was a madhouse so we left pretty quickly. Only pausing to look at the skaters on the ice rink and compare the scene to a Bruegel painting; not nearly as rowdy but certainly as crowded.. Our young guide this morning mentioned that there had not been any skating on the canals since 2003.