I had an informational job meeting in Amsterdam this past Friday. It was very informative and I’m happy to have had some more questions answered about schools in the Netherlands, but for various reasons it wasn’t for me. Plus, I never was actually offered a position. The point of this story is that my meeting was in Amsterdam and I planned to make the two hour train trip worth my while. Fortunately, Gearoid was feeling generous and took the day off of work to join me.
My meeting was at 10 AM in a very nice neighborhood. After my meeting, I met Gearoid at a neighborhood café and we made plans to get the most out of our day. Luckily, the weather was on our side. Although it wasn’t exactly sunny, it wasn’t raining either and we took advantage of the dryness by trekking around the city by foot. Our first stop wasn’t an official stop but more of a leisurely stroll through the picturesque neighborhood we were in. Local cafes were scattered among tall row houses and grocers displayed their colorful wares in outside stands. Our wandering led us to a concert hall on the edge of a park. We sat in the park and decided on a zigzag course through the city.
Concert Hall
The first official “stop” was to the VondelPark. It was a beautiful park that is supposedly similar to parks in England. Tourists ride rented bikes while locals jog on paths lined with beautiful willows, over tiny bridges, and around bird filled ponds.
We then trekked to the Albert Cuypmarkt, where we had lunch at an outdoor café and then browsed among the stalls. I was happy to see a stall that had yarn on sale -10 skeins for 10 euro! Luckily yarn is light because we still had a lot of walking to do.
We passed boathouses and the Rijksmuseum on our way to the Anne Frank house! The line was out the door to get into the museum and we were too tired to stand and wait so we took some pictures and then enjoyed a Coke by a canal. A tip for anyone who wants to visit the Anne Frank house- get in line before it opens or 15 minutes before it closes. Apparently, it is always busy. One day I hope to actually go inside but for now I will re-read her diary.
Boathouses
get a better shot
Although exhausted and tempted to get back on the train, I dragged Gearoid to two more stops. First was to a weekly book market on the Spui (a small square in Amsterdam). Despite the surprising amount of English books, Gearoid and I resisted the temptation to add to our personal library and left the market empty-handed.
Our last stop is kind of embarrassing. I dragged Gearoid in search for the infamous red-light district. The first time we were in Amsterdam we had no desire to see it. In fact, we still didn’t have a desire to see it but morbid tourist curiosity urged me to see what the hype was about. We happened upon a Malaysian restaurant we ate at back in January during our first visit. It turns out that you can get to the red-light district in an alley behind that very same restaurant. After the long day and the exhausting search this is what I saw: the pavement under my feet. After walking through that alley into the red-light district, I was so embarrassed by everything that I speed walked my way out and refused to make eye contact with anyone. Gearoid, unfortunately was not so lucky in avoiding eye contact, and still hasn’t forgiven me for dragging him there. Needless to say, there are no pictures.
With our eyeballs burning and the urge to wash our hands, we made it to the train and left Amsterdam. Overall, it is a really nice city but certain parts have more charm than others. The quiet neighborhoods we happened to wander through were much more enjoyable than the popular tourist areas which honestly kind of stunk (I mean literally they have a not so pleasant smell). It is a charming place but there are parts of the Netherlands which are much nicer.
Once such place is Utrecht (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utrecht). We had enough time on the train to rest our feet so we decided to make a quick stop in Utrecht which happens to be on the way back to Nijmegen. I was surprised by how much I liked Utrecht. The city center had a charming feel to it and there were beautiful canals lined by restaurants and shops. We also visited the Dom tower which is part of a Catholic church in the center of town and supposedly no building in the city can be built higher than it. Our exhaustion from a long day walking who knows how many miles made us cut our visit short and we returned to the train station for a satisfying trip home.
Dom Tower
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