Last Saturday morning I shook the dust and glitter out of my inter-railing backpack and woke up Liam. We needed to leave my house at quarter to five in the morning, headed for the first train to Amsterdam from King’s Cross St Pancras station. The journey from there took around four hours. I crashed out for the first two and then read a few chapters of Stephen King’s The Shining whilst the countryside flashed by beside me, growing increasingly gloomy as we reached our destination. We arrived into a black Thundercloud. I like storms but sighed – does it have to rain the entire time whenever I go to Amsterdam?
We checked into the Olympic hotel near to the Olympic stadium which is around 25 minutes by tram from Amsterdam Centraal station. The hotel is an extremely comfortable and good value stay, with panoramic views across the city. From our room we could even see into the stadium and watched part of The Ajax vs Panathinaikos game on Monday evening. It is a little far out of the centre, but this gave us a chance to explore some new areas.
Around the Olympic stadium there are many public sculpture installations, some related to sport like lovely balancing athletes and others not such as giant balloon dogs and colourful glass tunnels. My favourite was a bizarre splash park made to look like the inside of an apartment. Water spurts at random from the toilet and shower, sink and radiators. Rather than opting for the hotel breakfast, we raided the nearby supermarket and had picnics in the park each morning.
On Saturday evening we had a look at Amsterdam’s world famous floating flower market before heading out to dinner and the storm cleared! Obviously we had to sample a few local beers to celebrate.
Sunday’s goal was to make it to the Pianola museum in the Jordaan district built in the early 17th century. It turns out the Jordaan is an area of surprise and discovery and the locals decorate their balconies in fun ways. We stumbled across The Mouse Mansion which is the shop and studio of Karina Schaapman. She has created an intricate model world that has been photographed and turned into a children’s book series.
The Pianola museum itself was as fascinating as it was eccentric, a knowledgeable guide showed us around and explained the rich history of the piano and pianola in detail, demonstrating several pianolas to us. One of the more surprising things to learn was that the Pianola was used to compose music that is impossible to play with human hands, and experiment with new sounds – almost like a precursor to the music software we have today.
That evening we got on board a 90 minute Canal cruise. Although a bit of an Amsterdam tourist trap cliche’, canal tours are a delightful way to see the city. Personally when touristing, I can get a little caught up with staring at google maps or through my camera, so It was lovely to be off our feet for a while. The boat had an audio guide – which was on the irritating side, but I did learn some new facts about Amsterdam and its growth. It indicated various gable stones on the fronts of buildings that have different meanings, some have religious significance and others display the original occupation of the person who lived there. I searched everywhere for these on the last day of the trip – there are Milliners, dentists and all sorts to see – just look up. I also learnt that the Amsterdam flag with the three X’s was originally made to symbolise the three dangers of Amsterdam – Floods, Fire and Plague.
On Monday’s itinerary, we had booked tickets to visit the Van Gogh museum. As well as a permanent display featuring an enormous collection of Van Gogh’s paintings, drawings and personal letters – even including pieces stolen and recovered, the museum had two special exhibitions on. One was called dreams which had several 3D pieces inspired by Van Gogh’s work in an attempt to explore his troubled mind and inspiration from nature. The other was an in depth look into his groundbreaking Sunflowers paintings from their conception to the way they are now preserved.
We then headed to Rembrandt Square for our final evening to meet some friends of Liam’s for dinner and drinks. A bartender in one of the bars thought we hilarious and decided to have some shots with us – off the bill. “NOT Tequila or Sambuca because I don’t like any of those.” We told him to surprise us and he bought out Dropshot – a dutch spirit that tastes like liquorice mixed with banana liqueur. It was a sweet way to end the holiday.
Recka's Cabinet of Curiosity 