Amsterdam - a tapestry of moments

Amsterdam. I am not sure how to describe this city. I could begin with the fun fact of the origin of the name (named after the 13th century dam of the Amstel river) but I will perhaps start at my introduction to the city which was not a good one. I arrived and it was extremely crowded with bicycles going every which way and the smell of weed permeating the narrow streets I needed to navigate to get to my hotel. My hotel is very close to the central station which is good but my room was tiny. I had a shelf with that was my bed, a shelf for my bag, some room to stand and a shared bathroom at the other end of the corridor. I had a moment of feeling disappointed and feeling especially annoyed because this place was going to be my home for the next four days. I decided that the only way forward was to be thankful for what I did have and things started to turn around...

Let me tell you all the wonderful things that did happen...the shelf bed turned out to be incredibly comfortable, the shower was great and I am now organised enough with travelling that it is not a big deal to take what I need to the bathroom. It was ace to meet up with Zayda and her friend - we had lots of fun having cocktails one night and then a canal cruise and dinner the next night. 

On recommendation I went on the Anne Frank Walking Tour (thanks Stephen!) and I was able to do this before going to the Anne Frank Museum which gave me a really good context for the museum. A fun fact was that during the occupation of the Netherlands, the women in the Resistance used to pretend to be pregnant and built wooden bellies to transport food and supplies. It was confronting to see the experience of the Frank family (and the others who were with them in hiding) and to see this tiny annex that they called home for over 700 days but also to be reminded of the terrible restrictions that they were under before they had to go into hiding. One in five Jews in the Netherlands did not survive the war. One in five. 

It was really fun spending a day with Jamie before he started at the conference - we went to the Rijksmuseum and had very decadent but overpriced stroopwafels but mainly it was just really nice to catch up - it felt like a lovely reminder of home and so it was a little sad to say goodbye.

My last day in Amsterdam began with a fabulous leisurely brunch with Gilly and then strolling along some of the streets to the Van Gogh Museum. On the advice of some people I met in Haarlem, I booked a ticket early and I am pleased I did because it was booked out. The museum was AMAZING. I absolutely loved seeing his artwork and while I loved seeing the more well known pieces such as the paintings of the sunflowers and the irises, I particularly loved seeing some of his earlier paintings of the town where his parents lived. I thought they handled his suicide sensitively and provided a context for it, showed the grief of his family and friends and used it as a way to encourage people who are struggling to reach out for help. It was a really good museum. I loved so many of the paintings.

So this was a long post but it was a very full few days filled with friends, food, museums and an elderflower cocktail! To quote Anne Frank, "memories mean more to me than dresses". I hope that's not inappropriate to use this in this context but I feel like I have at this stage in the trip a very full suitcase of memories. Tomorrow I leave the Netherlands to return to Germany but this time to the south of Germany. If you have got to the end of this long post - well done. See you in Germany!

Netherlands...Haarlem

My next stop was Haarlem. I won't make this a long post because I have got a little behind and want to catch up. I was only there for two nights and it is not a big town so to have basically two days with no museums (they are closed on Mondays) gave me plenty of time to explore and rest. My hotel was on the main square so while it was a pain to drag my suitcase there from the Hauptbahnhof, it was brilliant when I arrived. I just missed a jazz festival but they assured me it was a good thing because most of the residents had trouble sleeping because of the noise. I was surprised to find something so cheap in such a good location but it was because it was pretty basic which suited me because I was out most of the time. I did a self guided walking tour that only cost 1 euro. I know it was a good tour because I saw interesting things and only got lost once! It is a very pretty city with small cobbled streets and lovely houses and of course everyone riding around on bicycles. I met a range of different people - the first night I had dinner with a local and the second night had dinner with a couple from Queensland - which was fun. 

A highlight was visiting the Corrie ten Boom house on the last day of my stay. For those who don't know, her family hid various Jewish people during the war. It was fascinating to learn more about her and see the house. I have a photo below of me in the hiding place and I got to know a Canadian girl who was also doing the tour and we agreed that it was probably inappropriate to be smiling in the photo but then to look serious would look strange! I opted for smiling. 

By the end of my stay they had cleared the main square of all the Jazz Festival equipment and I loved seeing how big the square actually was and see all the tables and chairs spilling out into the square. Having the square cleared also highlighted how huge the cathedral is. It is also massive inside and at the end sits a big organ which Mozart played at the age of 10 when he was travelling through the town with his father (fun fact!). 

Netherlands...Amersfoort

I am a little behind in my posts, as some of you may know, I have since left Amersfoort, and Haarlem and am now in Amsterdam but I want to keep the posts a little bit separate so let's go back to Amersfoort...

The reason for visiting this town was to see Pieter and Jorin but the town itself was definitely worth it as well. Seeing friends (and in this case actually meeting Jorin!) is a highlight of travel and we had a wonderful weekend of exploring and long conversations ranging from the funny to very deep. I loved this side of the trip but we also fit quite a bit in. What I am discovering is that the Netherlands is small so we were able to do more than I expected. The first night we went to a local ballon festival with some of their friends (who were so welcoming and I really enjoyed talking to!), followed the next day by a visit to Delft, The Hague and then the beach. Delft was pretty and had a market where I was able to try various local Dutch specialities including fried fish, Dutch waffles (thin ones unlike the the thick Belgian waffles) and krokets plus Heineken beer. The blue and white china was everywhere and so were the bicycles. People ride everywhere and while it was strange to see so many people riding with helmets, I think the difference is they have their own proper bike paths, they are given priority with everyone looking out for them and they don't ride too fast.

After Delft we went to The Hague and that had a different feel as the canals had mostly been paved over and there were more restaurants and cafes. You could tell it was the city with the palaces, the parliament and basically where there was more money. We were able to walk around the streets and just soak up the atmosphere and admire the architecture. Finally we went to the beach which had cafes right on the beach and it was a nice way to end a busy day. 

On Sunday after church (a great service!) we went for a bike ride into Amersfoort centre. Here is my fun fact - I can still ride a bicycle after many years. We were able to easily ride into the town where they were having a jazz festival so we watched some jazz, had a drink in the square and I could soak up the last few moments in a place I loved with people who have become dear friends!

Germany: A rest in Muenster before leaving the country for a little while

Before I begin talking about Muenster I will tell you a fun fact - if ever you are in a situation when you want to write a german word that has an umlaute (two dots over the letter) you add in an 'e'. I discovered this in Berlin when I was trying to book a train to Muenster without an umlaute function on my phone. It saved me from accidentally booking a train to the wrong place and it was a fun thing to learn. So for the blog I will be writing about Muenster so get ready...

I really like Muenster. It is a very small city but was a good stop as I head west towards the Netherlands. I really enjoyed wandering around. It was certainly less touristy than Dresden and Bremen and while I certainly wasn't the only tourist, I enjoyed the more authentic feel and the stronger university presence. The day I arrived was market day and I bought the most delicious strawberries for lunch and wandered around enjoying the atmosphere. The shops were fun to visit - there was the most amazing cheese shop with flavours such as lavender, cumin, basil, garlic and you could sample all of them. They were also slicing cheese like a flower and you could choose what 'pearls' you could have. I choose goat cheese and red wine pearls and it just melted in my mouth in this explosion of deliciousness! I have been trying to have local foods such as fish sandwiches and currywurst etc. and I was so tempted to buy a wheel of cheese from the shop until I saw the price and decided that less is more. 

The wasps, just like in all of Europe, were in full force but I prefer having to swat away a polite wasp than deal with mosquitos. I spent a little more time walking in parks which was restful. 

  

  

Germany: Bremen, Becks and Barrels

I returned to the north, but this time a bit more northeast, to visit Bremen. I think the motivation for going here is that I had been with my family when I was young and I wanted to see it again because I had a vague recollection of liking it. I still like it. It took a couple of trains to get here but it was worth it. I walked around the old town and enjoyed the atmosphere. I thought I was galleried out but as I started to explore beyond the old town I came upon a gallery and it was excellent. I hate to say it but when a gallery has an IKEA style arrangement, where they tell you exactly what order to visit the rooms, suits me so well. Finally, someone just telling me what to do rather than me trying to work it out and this gallery was organised chronologically from the renaissance to modern day. The most modern was a bizarre performance work on fashion and the early renaissance was also a little weird but the works in between were worth the visit! 

Consistent with my 'just tell me where to go so I don't have to make a decision' attitude at the moment, I opted for a walking tour which was well worth it. Walking tours specialise in fun facts and tour guides quickly realise that they have an enthusiastic listener in me so they say lots of stories and I am happy. Another advantage of the walking tour was that they took us to a part of the old town called the Schnoor which is the oldest part of the city. I had tried to find it and failed so it was great to go and I revisited it afterwards because I enjoyed walking around it so much. The houses were so narrow because the taxation was based on the width of the house so they tried to make them as narrow as possible (fun fact) which makes for picturesque streets now. 

Now, the reason for the title of this post, aside from the obvious advantage of alliteration, was that Becks is brewed here and is everywhere and delicious to have with a traditional german fish sandwich or a currywurst (both of which I have sampled) and they are also famous for manufacturing barrels. They are also famous for aviation manufacturing but that didn't work with the alliteration! I am really pleased I included Bremen in my trip and even though there was so much I didn't see, I was happy with how much I was able to explore and discover.

 

More of Germany...Dresden

It was sad to leave Berlin but I had my ticket booked so I headed south to Dresden lugging my now very heavy bag with me. It was a crowded train trip but I was sitting next to a really nice English couple who not only helped me put my bag in the overhead compartment. The polite greetings turned into an animated conversation for the whole two hours as we chatted about travel, AFL (he is a Collingwood supporter but still very nice) and teaching as they are both teachers in Newcastle. Travel opens up these opportunities to have great conversations and then you just go on with your lives as I don't actually think I even found out their names! The advantages of travelling alone is that you end up falling into these interactions and it is such a bonus. 

Dresden was an interesting city to visit. It was rebuilt after getting heavily bombed in World War 2 and there is a mix of new and old but it has an interesting feel to the place. There are obviously references to World War 2 but limited references to the history of Eastern Germany that I could see. I did see one mural that reflected this past but not as much as what I saw in Berlin. The warm weather was good but also the humidity has started to kick in so after spending the day exploring (including seeing the largest porcelain tile artwork in the world as included in the pictures below and that is my fun fact!) I took refuge in the cooler art galleries and museums such as the porcelain museum and other associated museums. While I was in Dresden there was a summer festival and I took part in Salsa Night! So, those of you who know me well would know that me taking part means watching it, enjoying the music and then making a quick getaway when there was a whiff of audience participation! The packed two days also included a boat trip along the river and just sitting and soaking up the atmosphere. 

Hello to Germany...Berlin

Berlin is a familiar city to me. I have had the privilege of visiting before so it was an opportunity to explore some different parts of the city. One of the familiar things about Berlin is being able to catch up with my very dear friend Stephanie. We have been friends for many years but we have not seen each other for perhaps 10 years but it was wonderful to catch up and have long and deep conversations about life, politics and everything in between. This time in Berlin I spent more time in the west of the city and enjoyed exploring, visiting galleries such as the Neue Nationalgalerie designed by Mies van der Rohes (the glass building below) and walking along the river. 

My one trip to the east was visiting the Stasi Museum. It was a well constructed museum but quite confronting. The museum was in one of the original Stasi buildings (it originally took up an entire city block). For those who don't know, the Stasi is the name for the State Security (police and intelligence) for the East German government during the Cold War. At one point in the 1980s, and this is my interesting fact (I can't call it a fun fact because it's not really fun), the Stasi had 90,000 employees and 180,000 informants. People were cajoled, manipulated or intimidated to inform on co-workers, friends and family members. Some of their tactics even included breaking into people's houses and simply shifting things around to make them paranoid or they might discreetly sabotage their work or relationships to isolate them. Nobody has been charged for these crimes and I admire how the German people have been able to emerge from such a dark time and can talk about it as a warning of how easily a modern government can become so corrupt. 

I don't want to end my Berlin post on such a dark topic so instead I will say the overall Berlin was wonderful and I loved the company, the food and being able to walk around the beautiful parks and walkways that have been established around the city. It was only four days but I could have stayed longer! Also, just to explain one of the pictures, the reason that I included a photo of the pedestrian light is that this is a legacy of East Germany which I really like and wanted to include it. They are not exclusive to Berlin (I am posting this from Dresden and have noticed the same lights!) but they remind me of Berlin.