That's "hello" in Dutch; which is the language spoken in the Netherlands, which is where Amsterdam is. My friend, Isa, who accompanied me to Amsterdam last weekend was unaware of this fact, so I just wanted to give everyone a little geography lesson for the day :)
Amsterdam was lots of fun!!! The weather was pretty awful--it was below freezing most of the time, and it rained every afternoon. But, we persevered. After having gotten up to go to the airport at 4:30am for our 6:30 flight, we arrived in Amsterdam by 10:30--gotta love European proximity. We all wanted to take a nap, but instead we took a free walking tour. Another great thing about major European cities--these days a lot of them have "free tours," where you just tip at the end based on how good you thought it was. We took a free bike tour through Munich last October that was great. I tend to be a big tipper, so I'm not sure I actually save any money, but it feels like I did. It started raining about a quarter into the tour, but by then we 3 girls were too attached to the very attractive Australian tour guide to let something like that deter us. He was adorable, and once he gave me his jacket to layer over mine it really wasn't that cold. So we had a quick run-through of Amsterdam's history, which is quite varied and very interesting. They were in the middle of all of the religious faction fighting of the middle ages, and were a big part of the Renaissance Era; both of which I'm interested in, so I had fun. I particularly enjoyed seeing several of the "hidden churches" in the city--these are generally Catholic churches, which had to be incognito when anything but Calvinism was outlawed for a while. In classic Dutch style, the government was totally aware of these hidden churches, they charged the churches a tax to exist, and if any well-meaning citizens reported an illegal Catholic church to the authorities the police would go by to check, say "I see no church here" (even if you could hear some 500 worshippers inside singing hymns), and move on. Dutch tolerance, pragmatism, and their love of money, has a long history. They apply this same mind-set to some of those things Amsterdam is famous for these days... ;)
So after we dried off and warmed up following the walking tour, we went to the Anne Frank house. This is where Anne Frank and her family hid for 2 years when the Nazi's occupied the Netherlands. It was depressing, but it felt like one of those things you should go see if given the chance. Mostly I was struck by the humanity of it all. They still have the magazine pictures posted on the wall by Anne in her bedroom, and it's all so classically adolescent--a mix of movie stars, musicians, fashion articles. It makes it so evident that she was just any average 13 year old, which makes the things she went through that much more striking and real. I won't harp on it, but it was all very moving.
That first night, we had some dinner and then went to a coffee house, where we played checkers all night and giggled like adolescent girls ourselves. The next day, we slept in (which was glorious), and then eventually ran through the rain to go to the Rijksmuseum. They have a lot of Rembrandt's pieces, and those of his contemporaries. Seeing his most famous works is really breathtaking, particularly when you can compare his work to his contemporaries who were equally famous at the time--it's no wonder that it's his name that has lasted through time. The talent is awe-inspiring, because it seems like the differences between his work and others is so subtle that it's almost imperceptible, but you can feel the difference when you look at his work. I won't go all artsy on you (mostly because I don't actually have the knowledge to know what I'm talking about), but I really enjoyed it. After that, we ran over to the Van Gogh museum (who knew he was Dutch??). I've been in love with Van Gogh for years, so I won't waste your time gushing about him; I'll just say it was nearly too much to take in, being able to see so much of his work in one place. I got in trouble a couple of times for taking pictures, but it was worth it. Surprisingly enough, these museums took up nearly the entire day, and we were exhausted from all the activity. So, we had dinner near the hostel and went to bed.
On our final day, we really didn't have anything planned. And, surprise surprise, it was raining again, which doesn't really inspire a lot of energy. So, we went shopping. What else were we supposed to do that would keep us indoors!? In the middle of the day, we did decide to be cultural again, so we spent the afternoon at the Dutch History Museum. But then we shopped a little more on our way walking back to the hostel. I bought a pair of really adorable shoes, though I won't be able to wear them until summer. Amsterdam has absolutely fabulous shopping, and it's only because I'm rather poor at the moment that I came home with only a new pair of shoes...okay, and a shirt, but both were on sale for a really good price!
So, having had delightful, cold, wet, exhausting weekend, we took the tram and the train back to the airport, and headed back to Geneva. Just for a little change of pace, when we arrived in Geneva is was cold and pouring rain. Since we had parked my car in a lot about half a mile away (because it's much much cheaper), I ran through the rain to get it while Sharron and Isa waited at the arrivals gate. I drove both of them home, got a little lost trying to get home myself, and finally settled into bed. I've been recovering all week...
Unfortunately, I can't post pictures from all this fun for the moment because I need to go get a card-reader for my camera. I intend to do that this weekend, so I'll post pictures as soon as I can.
I miss everyone!!!
