Friday, 30 June 2006
There was a football match and victory of Germany today. When I set out and headed for the Hauptbahnhof, everywhere people were waving flags, chanting something about going to Berlin (Berlin is where the final will be played). It went something like "Berlin! Berlin! Wir führen (?) nach Berlin!" But at the time, for some macabre reason, it sounded to me like "Berlin! Berlin! We're burning up Berlin!" Anyways, the train departed at 22:40-- another CityNightLine, but this time full of people.
Saturday, 1 July 2006
The train went past the pictoral Rhine river valley and several towns on or near the river, such as Cologne, Bonn, and Düsseldorf, then entered into the Netherlands. The train ran late for about 30 minutes or so; we pulled into the Amterdam Centraal station at around 9:20.
I walked past the town centre, directly to the Grachtengordel West neighbourhood, where the Anne Frank house is situated. The museum opened at 9:00, and by 9:30, there was already a modest line-up. Much of the house was, or gave the appearance to be, very well preserved. In the secret rooms, there were still old posters. This experience was paradigm-shifting: it gave a work that I had read as a child a new context--there are now suddenly new associations and connections where none had been before.
Walking north, I came into the Jordaan community. Today, at the crossroad of Westerstraat and Nordstraat, a Saturday farmer's market was in place, with things ranging from fruits, vegetable, bread, flowers, etc. Across the market, the Winkel was famous for its apple cake. A slice I tasted, rewarding but quite filling.
Amsterdam, much like Chicago or Taichung City, is built in a semicircular shape. For this reason, if one goes along a non-radial street, a map is usually necessary, as the sun, which gently veers as one travels, is somewhat useless for directions. Furthermore, Amsterdam is also governed, like Venice, by canals. One almost crosses a canal every two blocks or so. Many of the circumferential roads run parallel to the canals, fortunately.
Going along the Prinsengracht, one of such circumferential roads, I soon came across the radial Leidestraat. Going soth-east brought me to the Liedeplein, with a quite magnificent Stadsschouwburg. Crossing a bridge and following the signs, I entered the Vondelpark, which featured a lake and a lawn. Soon the museum quarter--containing the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum, and the Stedelikj Museum, was in sight. The first one had a queue that backed up to the entrance. The Van Gogh Museum had a similar line-up, but once I joined the line, I was admitted in less than 10 minutes.
Lunch at Maoz on the Liedestraat was quite interesting. The place is apparently quite famous for its falafel--it's hard to describe what it is without tasting it--and unlimited salad bar, for less than 4 Euros. After that, I walked back to central Amsterdam, taking a better look at places auch as the Royal Palace, the War Memorial, etc.
At about 13:30, I took a train from the Centraal station towards Enkhuizen--I would really like to see the North Sea protection works. The one-way journey took about an hour, and along the way was some interesting Holland landscape, including more canals, and even in the summer, a rare tulip (?) field. Having arrived in Enkhuizen, the only thing I could see of the North Sea protection works was a dyke upon which a highway ran, and the dyke stretched towards the horizon. Not too impressive--too bad I was not in the air to see it stretching across the IJsselmeer. But back in the dock area of Enkhuizen, to my surprise, there was a huge crowd. At first I thought that it was something to do with the World Cup. But no--it was a boat design competition. Several events would determine winners with the fastest, most beautiful, most graceful-going-down-a-slide, etc. boats.
Back in Centraal station, I first took the ferry across the IJ River, but without a bike to explore found nothing interesting on the north shore.
Coming back to the Centraal again, I veered off to the south-east, heading towards Amsterdam's (in)famous red light district. Even in the touristy afternoon, the place was very shocking, to the point that I ran into the nearby church Oude Kerk for a brief respite. And at some places in this area I did feel my security compromised.
Getting out of that area, I ended up in the Nieuwmarkt, full of shops and people. Working southwards I came to the Rembrandt House and the Stopera. On the north side of the Stopera, there was another market--Amsterdamers (?) seem to be very good at this. This one looked a lot like the one I saw in Budapest a while ago.
Then I got lost for a while, and came to the flower market (another one!). Crossing the canal at Koningplein, I came to De Dampkring, a "coffee-shop" leaking with odd smells of some drugs that I could not tell (in Amsterdam such drug shops are legal, to a certain extent).
Now on Spui, I saw the outside of the Historisch Museum and wanted to see the Begijnhof courtyard. To my dismay both were closed at about 18:00. The next hour was pretty much spent wandering aimlessly in the central Amsterdam, eating whatever dinner I could get along the way.
By 19:00 I was back at the Centraal station. The train was still an hour away, so I walked eastwards parallel to the train tracks, and soon came to a footbridge, underneath of which was water. The footbridge provided access to a hotel, and a huge Chinese restaurant, both of which afloat on water. The footbridge, after a while, changed into a full-fledged bridge, at the end of which was the NEMO centre, closed as well. But sitting outside, facing the brisk sea wind in the evening, I was for a while carefree.
The train departed at 20:05.