amsterdam, day 2

the second day of our trip was packed full of adventure and tourist activities, with a sprinkling of things we like to think were secrets of the locals, and a good dose of eten en drinken (which is dutch for "food and drink" and is a phrase that makes me giggle inexplicably).

we had heard that getting into the anne frank house was a time consuming process because all visitors to amsterdam go there. online tickets were sold out well before we even bought our plane tickets, so standing in line was our only option. we arrived 45 minutes before opening time, and took our place in the line that was already 3 blocks long. by the time we entered the museum (a short 30 minutes after opening time), the line had grown to 10 blocks. inSANE.

my handsome date in the long line. please note long line extending into the background. it turns the corner, wraps around the westerkerk (west church), and keeps going. 


but the museum was totally worth it, and made real and vivid the words of her well-read diary. the entire canal house, including the basement warehouse, the first floor offices of her father's company, the second floor storage room, and the secret annex hidden behind the book shelf, are all there. the annex is larger than i thought it would be, based on the way anne describes her feelings of being trapped and stifled, but is also impossible to imagine hiding in that space with family, friends, and fear. the pencil lines marking anne and margot's height and growth in their 2 years in hiding are all on the wall, plain to see. it is sobering and surreal. it is a monument to tragedy.


after the museum tour, we rented two sweet granny bikes from the hotel,

 


and headed north. we crossed the IJ river by ferry (departing from the back side of the central station every 10 minutes, free of charge, easy peasy),
 


and started pedaling north along a canal. as soon as we crossed the amsterdam city limits, we were in green pastoral holland. like, boom. no sprawl, no suburb. just cows in pastures. pastures without fences because the grazing land is separated by canals. sheep on one side, cows on the other, horses across another canal.

 

selfie break in landsmeer


it was so pleasant. being in flat below-sea-level holland also means that the biking is effortless. flat flat flat, cruising on the granny bike, and only sweating because of the warm sun in the cloudless august sky. our goal was to reach some big old windmills in the museum-like recreated historic village of zaanse schans. it was very pretty, the lunch was superb, the windmills were working, and the sheep were adorable. it was an absolutely worthwhile 40 kilometer roundtrip ride.

getting closer...


made it!




 

the ride:


on our return to the city, we explored the north neighborhood looking for this little gem of a spot, but sadly could not find it. (we were kind of crippled by the lack of 3G data for google map use on this trip. we should have packed better paper maps prepared with notes, directions, and addresses. lesson learned.) instead, we got back on the ferry, and rode under an out of the way bridge very much in the middle of everything to find this sunny little waterfront beer garden. it was packed with locals, everyone tried to speak to us in dutch, and we were definitely the only tourists there. i like that. our pictures don't capture the sunny friday afternoon joy in this place. do yourself a favor and look at the photos on google's image search of hannekes boom. you'll understand when you see this place.


after a shower and sweet trans-atlantic phone call to the children (whose tiny angel voices made us melt), we found some dinner on the edge of the red light district. the outdoor cafe seats as the sun went down gave us a front row seat to the yucky part of amsterdam, complete with large groups of drunk boys roaming around like packs of dog, red lights over doorways and windows switching on and nearly naked women coyly posing in their window stalls. if las vegas is the bachelor party capitol of the united states, then i suspect that amsterdam is the bachelor party capitol of the EU. it was unpleasant, and we scurried out of there.

red lights



and the much preferred green lights of dutch beer in neon



just a few short blocks west of the red lights and the frantic crowd, we were back in quiet picturesque canal lined streets, and were quickly back to the hotel.