Immediately after NATEK in Karaganda, I took the train down to Almaty so I could catch the plane to Amsterdam. The flight to Amsterdam was interesting, while there were not quite as many perks on the KLM flight as my friend Chris had led me to expect, it certainly was better than any American Airline I had flown on. Another nice thing about the flight was that due to the time difference I got to Amsterdam at almost the same time I left Kazakhstan. I know that people always say that it is easier to fly East than West, thanks to the Jet stream, but as usual going west was much easier than the Eastern leg of the journey.
When I got into Amsterdam I headed to my hostel, the Amsterdam Central Hostel, which was near the Liedsiplien, which was apparently the new/hip part of Amsterdam with lots of bars, coffee shops, and clubs nearby. I knew none of this when I booked the reservation my decision on the hostel was simply based on the fact that it was centrally located between several important attractions, and that it was the cheapest. It’s location and its price were ideal, and I quickly met several people my age that kept this lone traveler from getting lonely. Another plus for the hostel was that it was conveniently close to the tramlines. During my time in Amsterdam, I was very careful to take notice of where I was in relation to the tram, because the tramlines were useful when figuring out where you were, and it was often easier to take the tram somewhere than it was to walk. This was because, while Amsterdam is a small city and it is quite easy to walk across it in about two hours, it is also a very confusing city and it is very easy to get totally lost. The problem with Amsterdam is that nearly all of the small, quaint streets look exactly the same. There are a few landmark buildings, such as the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum, the train station, and the Stathaus, but those are few and far between. It is also difficult to use water as a navigating tool, because the canals seem to flow so randomly. However, I did eventually figure out how to get around on foot, unfortunately it was right before I left. Anyway, despite navigational difficulties, Amsterdam was an awesome city, and 10 days was hardly enough time to see all of it, nor did I get the chance to see countryside outside, there was just too much to do.
On my first full day in Amsterdam I hit the two museums closest to the Hostel, the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum. The Van Gogh museum was very interesting and well curated. The paintings were organized by period and location, and clearly showed how Van Gogh’s style developed over several decades, and how various cities and locations influenced his art. The Rijksmuseum was also very interesting but while it was an art museum per se, its focus was much more on history, and the paintings were organized by subject represented and year rather than by artist. This was an interesting twist, and while I didn’t learn as much about the Old Dutch Masters as I originally wanted, I did learn more about Amsterdam politics than I could have ever imagined.
The next day I decided that from then on I would alternate museum days with “fun” days, and to get the ball rolling I went to the Heineken Experience! The Heineken Experience was a lot like the Guinness Factory, but slightly less filling. There was a wort tasting booth, and even a “ride” where you went through the beer making process. There were also several other neat exhibits on various Heineken paraphernalia, including a prototype beer bottle that was supposed to be able to be used as a brick when you were done with it. The best part however was of course, the free beer. Not only did they give you two free beers after you were done, but they also gave you a small beer midway, just in case you got thirsty halfway through the huge complex. I definitely was not thirsty when I finished the Experience, but I sure was tired, so I decide to sit awhile at a coffeeshop. Now before I go further, let me remind everyone that in Amsterdam there are coffeeshops where you actually buy coffee, and then there are “coffeeshops” where you buy marijuana. This coffeeshop was an example of the former (Due to my status as a Peace Corps Volunteer I never actually entered one of the later.) Anyway, both are very prolific within the city of Amsterdam with every block seeming to have least one of each. Furthermore, all coffeeshops and “coffeeshops” in Amsterdam are Wi-Fi equipped making one of the most Internet accessible cities I have ever visited.
The next day, as a return to seriousness and to counteract the frivolousness of the Heineken Museum, I headed straight to the Ann Frank House. The Ann Frank was definitely a sobering experience. Although I had read The Diary of Ann Frank, until you actually stand inside the crawlspace, which is cramped and poorly lit, you can’t really understand what they went through. Interestingly, the rooms are unfurnished because when the Nazis raided the house they took everything and Mr. Frank and the foundation both decided not to replace the missing furniture. While I understand their reasons for leaving the house as is, I must admit that I wish they had refurnished it. It might have made it harder for people to go through the house, but having the house fully set up as it was when Ann Frank was living there would have given tourists an even better picture. I planned to do the WWII/Holocaust stuff all in one day, so my next stop was the Dutch Resistance Museum. Even though the museum was smaller than most of the others I saw in Amsterdam, it was still probably one of my favorites. The museum was basically one big room with several little annexes, one annex for every five or so years, beginning right World War II and ending at liberation. The annexes were filled with interesting artifacts, like a made from scratch bicycle, and a ruined bust of Hitler that clearly illustrated the Dutch people’s heroism in the face of outright deprivation. The most interesting annexes however, were those that showed the Dutch in not such a great light. The first was a small annex about the Dutch Resistance and the Holocaust, which attempted to address why so many Amsterdam Jews were killed. It made the argument that life under the Nazis was so difficult that it was hard enough for people to save themselves, much less their friends and neighbors, but while this argument is plausible, it makes it no easier to understand how so many Jews in the supposedly liberal and open city of Amsterdam were sent to Death Camps. The other annex of note was about the Dutch POWs in Indonesia during World War II. To room begins with the Dutch as the victims but it ends with the Dutch as the violent oppressors as they seek to stop Indonesia’s independence Movement.
Even though the day after was supposed to be a “fun day” I decided to go to the Amsterdam Jewish Museum instead because I had meant to do it the day before. The Jewish Museum was located at the site of the former Great Synagogue, and of all the museums I went to, in terms of things to do, it was probably number one, and it was also one of the most educational. The first hall was dedicated to Jewish faith and culture. Around the room there were various kiosks that addressed different aspects of Jewish culture and faith, and I learned all kinds of things, such as the basic format of a Jewish marriage ceremony, and the history behind several important Jewish Holidays. The next two halls covered life in Amsterdam from the first immigrants until today. One of the most interesting things about those two halls was how they demonstrated the way that the Jewish experience in Amsterdam changed over the years. The first hall, which covered the period 1600-1900 was filled with various artifacts and even a few portraits, and showed how Jewish life in Amsterdam gradually improved over three hundred years starting with Jews being most unwelcome in Amsterdam, until some were among Amsterdam’s most prominent citizens. The second room was filled with more personal items such as clothing, suitcases and handmade furniture, and demonstrated the much more chaotic nature of Jewish life in Amsterdam during the 20th century. Items such as fine Jewelry and art from the 1910s and 20s showed that Jewish Citizens had begun to achieve a bit of status, but clothing with the Jewish star from the 1930s demonstrated how quickly that was lost. The final part of the room covered the postwar period, and in many ways it was the most interesting and most troubling part of the museum. In particular, it contained several pieces of contemporary art that demonstrated an attempt by Amsterdam’s Jews to readjust to society and their attempts to understand how Amsterdam with its reputation of liberalism and freedom could have given so many of them up so quickly.
The last two museums that I visited in Amsterdam that I want to make note of are the Rembrandt House and the Bible Museum. I really enjoyed the Rembrandt house, and it was filled with some great art. There was one small problem though; almost none of the art was by Rembrandt. It is kind of ironic that the work of Rembrandt is so famous that while it is easy to see in New York or London, it is almost impossible to find any in Amsterdam, even in his own house. Instead the house was filled with the work of Jan Evans, a child prodigy and rival of Rembrandt’s who was actually more famous while they were alive. I enjoyed Evan’s work, though I still like Rembrandt better, and the talent and professionalism evident even in his earliest paintings was rather impressive. The only Rembrandt work on display at the house when was a collection of his prints, which I have to say were in some cases even better than his paintings. It was amazing how much drama and pathos he could evoke with just a few rough scratches on a copper plate. After the Rembrandt House, I had some time to kill so I decided to head to the Bible Museum. When I first heard about it I thought it would have several ancient bibles, maybe even a couple of Dead Sea scrolls, but it was much more than that. The Bible Museum was located in the home of a 19th century evangelist who spent 40 years building and a perfect to scale replica of the Jewish Tabernacle, and this model was the museum’s primary display. As strange as spending half you life building religious models may seem, it was apparently a very popular hobby in the 19th century, and the museum also displayed scale models of Solomon’s Temple and Dome of the Rock built around the same time. While the level of detail and size of these models was a little disconcerting, sort of like my action figure collection gone out of control, they were also very educational. Before I saw those models it was difficult to conceive of what the Jewish Tabernacle or Solomon’s Temple actually looked like, but afterwards it was clear as day. Anyway, it was the perfect mix of the interesting, beautiful, and bizarre to mark the end of my stay in interesting, beautiful, and bizarre Amsterdam. At first, I was a little bit bummed to be leaving. After all, I still had so much to see, and I had just figured out how to get around. Still, I was excited because it was time to head on to the next leg of my summer journey, the United Kingdom!
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