Day 8 - Amsterdam

We toured the Rijks Museum and the Anne Frank house today.

In Front of the Rijks Museum

The Rijks Museum is enormous, reminding me of the Louvre.  Its focus is on Dutch artists, such as Rembrandt, Hals, and Steen, with a few Van Gogh works.  Jeff spent a lot of time admiring the weaponry and model ships.  There is a whole room full of early handguns and rifles (one is over 9 feet long).  We both admired the miniature silver creations and doll houses.

Then we toured the secret annex where Anne Frank and her family hid from the Nazis for over 2 years.  We learned a lot, and the descriptions of Anne by her classmates reminded me of my daughter Emily.

Then we wandered around Amsterdam for the evening, looking at houses, stopping for snacks, and checking out the large park that had tulips (we saw some at last).

Tulips in Vondel Park

 

Amsterdam 2013 Sign in Vondel Park

The houses are almost all 4 or 5 stories tall and crammed together.  In the past, taxes were based on width of the house, so most houses are skinny, sometimes extremely so, although still tall and deep.

Very Skinny House

The weather has been cold so far this trip, with a few rainy days.  We always bundle up.

We were surprised at a few things:
1.  Even though marijuana is legal, we never noticed anyone using it or acting stoned.
2.  We never met any beggars.
3.  The city was clean everywhere we went.
4.  Bicycles are everywhere, vastly outnumbering cars, ridden by all types of people.  You have to see it to really understand.  Don't ever accidently step into the bike lane.
5.  We only saw police once and never saw any accidents, even though traffic routing is crazy downtown.
6.  We didn't know there was such a vast network of canals here.
7.  Our host's mother said that her sons wore wooden shoes all day long when they were young, but they don't remember.