Many of the doors in old Amsterdam are inset in the building so that there is a little stoop in front. This one has a beautiful wood door and lovely decorative tile next to it.
Here is a closer look at the tile--very Arts and Crafts and possibly dating back to about 1900.
This is classic old Amsterdam--narrow lanes, bicycles, and old houses. The numbers on the front of this one say "1627."
One of my favorite discoveries in Amsterdam was that they have real automats. I have seen these in old movies but don't remember every seeing one like this.
They served a number of items including burgers, sausage rolls, and something called Steak American--steak tartare to us--on a roll! I found the name rather amusing since almost no one in the U.S. eats steak tartare.
This place made me think of my niece Emily. I wonder why?
The Beer Temple has this sign posted by their outside seating area. While cannabis is legal in Amsterdam it does not seem to be kosher to smoke it just anywhere. We figured out that "coffee shops" were the place people went to smoke marijuana. These "coffee shops" are not to be confused with koffie shops like Starbucks.
I love architecture although I really don't know much about it. The buildings in central Amsterdam are just fascinating. The roofs are where a lot of the interest lies. The original style usually involved quite a bit of definition and decoration. It is also one of the easiest spots to see renovations and changes. Quite a few old buildings (none shown) had bump ups and roof top decks added.
One of the canals near where we stayed at dusk.
Car2Go (which just launched in Seattle) has a big presence in central Amsterdam. We saw a number of their electric Smart cars parked at charging stations along the canals. It is a great concept--$35 lifetime membership, $0.38 per mile, one way rentals and you find the closest available car using a smartphone app.
After we dropped Peter off at the airport (and waited there until his plane left) we took bus and tram back to the Amsterdam Central Station and then took another tram out to the Hermitage Museum. This is a daughter museum of the famous Hermitage in St. Petersburg. While the Van Gogh Museum is being renovated much of that collection is on view there. However, we had visited the Van Gogh Museum before. We saw signs around town for an exhibit on Peter the Great, also at the Hermitage. It was a wonderful exhibit detailing his life and his relationship with Amsterdam. Peter the Great is credited with bringing Russia into the "modern" age. He was certainly the epitome of a Renaissance man with a powerful intellect and wide ranging interests. Many of the works shown were from the main Hermitage collection.
On our way back to our apartment we picked up some cheese, salami, crackers, olives, peanuts, cookies, and red wine. Rather than go out to dinner we vegged in front of the television and noshed on the food we had picked up. It was nice to have a lazy evening after the hectic pace we maintained with Peter.
The next morning we got up and went to breakfast. We found a place that made passable eggs, bacon and toast. Afterwards we packed up and checked out of the apartment. Our bus to Eindhoven did not leave until 6:30 pm so we wandered along the canals to the Central Station where we placed our bags in a locker and continued exploring Amsterdam.
Along the way to the Station we passed this bar. The reason I took this picture was the couple lounging on the "seating" that the establishment had placed over the low windows (possibly doors) below. It made perfect sense to put this space to use and somewhat decadent use at that. If you look closely you can see the little ladder that is used to climb up to the lounging area.
After we stashed our bags at the Station we headed over to NEMO (the building shaped like a ship's prow in the picture above), a museum we had heard covered science and technology. We learned two things when we arrived. The first was that it was a free museum Sunday. The second was that the museum was actually geared towards children. Because it was free it was a mob scene! We wandered around for a while (avoiding the strollers) but were glad we had not paid to go in. It is a great looking children's museum but not quite what we were looking for.
NEMO is built over the entrance to the automobile tunnel that goes under the bay to North Amsterdam. Along either side are moored old boats and yachts. When we got far enough away we realized that there was a walkway up to the large deck on top of the museum. We had gone outside there but did not see that we could have walked out that way. There is also food service up there on top. Lots of people were up there enjoying the first really warm day of Spring.
We headed over to the nearby maritime museum (the white building on the right in the above photo) along side which is moored an old Dutch East Indies trading vessel. Again the museum was free to enter and a lot of people were taking advantage of it. We really enjoyed this museum. It had lots about Amsterdam's maritime tradition including a large exhibit showing the workings of the modern harbor and the 25 km. North Sea canal that was originally built in 1825. There were also exhibits of ships models, the history of navigation instruments, and some lovely maritime art.
This picture was taken from outside the maritime museum. There really are windmills in Amsterdam!
Every time we went by the Central Station I was amazed at the number of bicycles parked around it.
This sign indicates there is covered parking for 1,200 bikes plus bike repair facilities. The multi-story facility with ramps between levels was on the other side of the Station.
By 6:30 we were more than ready to get on the bus to Eindhoven and catch our plane to Pisa. It proved to be a "hurry up and wait" kind of night. The bus was about a half hour late arriving and departing. Since a fair share of the bus passengers were on our flight we were not terribly worried about missing it. It felt like it was Dom and I and about fifty people under the age of 30 on the bus. There were a large number of American students from university programs in Florence returning after a weekend in Amsterdam.
Once we arrived at Eindhoven we checked in (slowly!) and made our way to the departure gate. Dom and I grabbed sandwiches to eat on the plane only to have said plane be postponed an hour. So we sat down and ate. By this time it was 9:30 pm. We finally took off (after a change of planes) at about 10:45. The flight was smooth and we arrived in Pisa after midnight. It was about 1 am by the time we were in bed in Capannori.
Dom and I are split on our opinions of Amsterdam. I loved it but he thought it was dirty. I would go back and he had done it. We will see if we ever end up back there except to change planes at Schipol airport. I still want to visit the Rijksmuseum someday.
Back in Capannori it was time to tackle the pigeon problem. My next post will be all about that gross and disgusting topic!
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