Amsterdam

After arriving at AMS, we headed to the Apollo Hotel to check in. We then headed into historic central Amsterdam where we visited the Royal Palace, followed by the New Church, Old Church, and Basilica of Saint Nicholas. We also spent time walking by the city’s canals, had some Dutch snacks, and had a seafood dinner.

Arrival

After landing at AMS, we quickly entered the country. We then caught a train for the six minute trip to Amsterdam Zuid (South). Once we arrived, we walked to the nearby tram stop on the north side of the station.

We’ve seen these do not enter or cross signs in various places in Europe. They’re amusing because they are so ridiculously drawn!

After a short wait, we took tram line 5 towards Amsterdam Centraal and rode for just four stops to the Gerrit van der Veenstraat stop. From there, we walked for 10 minutes to reach the Apollo Hotel.

Apollo Hotel

We arrived at the Apollo Hotel not long before 9am. We checked in and were able to get our room as it was ready. We booked a Deluxe Room with Canal View and were upgraded to a Design Suite with Canal View.

Upon entering the suite, we saw a glass table in front of us and two chairs facing a wall mounted TV next to the entrance to the bedroom.

The bed was facing the windows with a view of the canal next to the hotel. Technically, this is an intersection of five canals.

The bathroom was spacious with a nicely sized tub and shower. The sink and counter were quite tiny though for such a big bathroom!

We had quite a nice canal view from our ground floor room, or 0th floor as this is Europe!

There is a nice little garden area with pond in front of the hotel.

The hotel’s exterior isn’t much to look at. It was built in the 1920s as a pavilion for the 1928 Summer Olympics and was converted to a hotel in 1961. The main building has just three floors, though there is an attached building that has more rooms and floors.

Central Amsterdam

We headed back out to head to Dam Square, known as just the Dam. This square is located in the historic center of Amsterdam, where the original dam on the Amstel was located which gave Amsterdam its name, though this might not be correct!

We started walking to the van Hilligaertstraat tram stop to take line 12. It is about a 10 minute walk to the east of the Apollo Hotel. But first, we had to cross over 2 canals. The first canal is the one on the north side of the hotel. There is a Shell, formerly Royal Dutch Shell, gas station right on the opposite side of the canal. The company is apparently now British. The gas station here appears almost exactly like the ones in the US.

As we crossed over the canal, we noticed rowing boats in the water. There is a rowing club across from the hotel. The eight story building on the right is part of the hotel.

Our suite is in the smaller building seen here. The left half of the ground floor contains the hotel’s restaurant.

The second bridge wasn’t far away. It crosses a canal that heads to the north from the hotel. There were some flowers in bloom on the bridge as well as a decorative stone column.

The most direct route is to walk straight to the east on the same road as the bridge. However, we turned to walk along a canal which runs to the east from the hotel.

This residential area was quiet with many trees like this one. Clearly, a humid environment as some trees like this one were somewhat mossy!

We walked two blocks to the east until we encountered another bridge. We went on the bridge just to see the view. Looking to the west, we could still see the Apollo Hotel.

The tram stop was just a block to the north of the bridge.

Soon, the tram arrived. We took it to the Paleisstraat stop, right next to the Royal Palace and the Dam. We decided we wanted a snack before continuing on. We decided on Haring & Zo, a herring stand that was located on the diagonal corner from the tram stop.

Herring is a Dutch specialty. I don’t think we’ve ever had herring before. It can be eaten on bread like a sandwich or by itself. Onion is a popular condiment. The fish seems to be raw but cured and is actually quite tasty! It is a bit like eating sushi, though with a stronger vinegar taste.

Another Dutch specialty is eel, specifically, gerookte paling (smoked eel). The preparation seems to be similar to herring. It is unlike the Japanese style where it is grilled and typically consumed with sauce. Here, it is served on a bread with no addition condiments applied. It doesn’t sound great but it is! It is much better than the English jellied eel, which we didn’t really like.

After our snack, we walked to the Dam on the east side of the Royal Palace. It was a very large open square. There were quite a few people around but overall it wasn’t too busy.

The New Church is on the north side of the Dam.

Koninklijk Paleis

The Koninklijk Paleis (Royal Palace) is on the west side of the Dam. The tram stop that we arrived at is at the palace’s southwest corner.

There is some nice detail on the building’s facade.

We purchased our tickets upon entering and picked up a guide book. Unfortunately, there were no foreign languages available. We also picked up the audio guide which is included with entry.

The palace was originally built as Amsterdam’s city hall. It first became a palace during the Napoleonic Era when Napoleon made his brother, Louis, the king of the Netherlands. It continued on as a palace under William I, the first king of the modern Kingdom of the Netherlands.

After ascending up a stairway, we entered a vast grand hall, the Citizens’ Hall.

There is a large map on the ground near the entrance. The audio guide explains that this map shows the Dutch view of the world during the Dutch Golden Age. Some parts of the map are detailed, particularly where the Netherlands had its East and West Indies colonies. Other areas, like Australia at the bottom right, are less than accurate.

There is a map of America on the far side of the room, though we did not photograph it.

There is a map of the sky in the middle of the room.

A statue of Atlas holding up the world is located high up above the entrance. There is apparently a similar statue on top of the building.

Another statue stands opposite of Atlas. The audio guide explains this room in detail, though unfortunately without the information on paper, we don’t remember too much! The palace’s website does talk about the lower statue though and describes it as The Amsterdam Maiden, surrounded by Strength and Wisdom. Smart History’s The Town Hall of Amsterdam does have a good amount of information about this building and this room and suggests that the statue above is the Figure of Temperance.

This next room held various paintings on the wall and ceiling. We believe the center picture in the wall is of King William I.

This room was off to the side.

This next room also had a very red theme.

Some rooms in the palace, like this one, could only be viewed through the door. While it was never very busy during our visit, there were some small queues to view these rooms.

This room was relatively small.

We ended up in a large hall which, more or less, surrounds the Citizens’ Hall and acts as the main corridor for the building.

This room is the Thesaurie Ordinaris (Treasury Ordinary). The painting of documents is Treasurers’ Papers and Documents from 1656 by Cornelis Brizé and was in this room when the building was used as city hall.

Cherubs and fish…

This next room, the Burgomasters’ Cabinet (Former Councillors Chamber), contains two large paintings on opposite sides of the room.

This painting is Marcus Curius Dentatus refuses the gifts of the Samnites by Govert Flinck in 1656.

This second painting is Fabricius negotiating with Pyrrhus after Heraclea by Ferdinand Bol, also from 1656.

This room contains a grandfather clock.

The next room contains a window which overlooks a room on the floor below. The room below is the Vierschaar (Tribunal). It was used for handing out death sentences.

This room has paintings on the walls as well as on the ceiling.

We passed by windows that overlook the Dam.

We continued on the route, passing through and by various rooms.

We eventually ended up back in the palace’s main corridor.

We peeked into several more rooms.

We returned to the corridor again after visiting all the rooms that we could.

The final room is the Vierschaar, on the ground floor of the palace.

We picked up a small souvenir from the gift shop before leaving the palace.

De Nieuwe Kerk

After exiting the palace, we headed to the adjacent Nieuwe Kerk (New Church).

The view to the west between the palace and New Church. The building in the background is the former Amterdam Main Post Office. It now houses the Magna Plaza, a shopping mall.

The New Church is quite magnificent with a grand wooden ceiling clean white walls.

There are royal elements within the church. This is the top of the gate that leads to the quire.

The quire beyond the gate.

A monument to Admiral Michiel de Ruyter stands at the far end of the quire, or possibly more correctly, at the end of the chancel.

We exited the quire and walked through the ambulatory. While much of the church is painted white, the edges of the columns here have somewhat faded images.

We passed by a grave from 1540. The sign reads:

Knight of Jerusalem

The beautiful gravestone belongs to one of the most famous members of the Boelens family: Claes Hillebrantsz Boelens-den Otter.  He was a priest, was the head of the Cecilia Convent in Amsterdam and worked also in this church.  Above all, he is known for completing a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.  That earned him the title: 'Knight of Jerusalem'.  This is the only sixteenth-century grave in Amsterdam on which a person is depicted.

There doesn’t appear to be a crypt below the church, or at least, there doesn’t seem to be one accessible to visitors. However, we did find a small window that looks down upon the actual grave where de Ruyter is buried. It is below the monument to him in the chancel.

We returned to the transept of the church. There are currently renovation and restoration activities taking place on the other end of the church where the nave is located. This area is actually accessible via an elevated platform that has been constructed for visitors. There are hardhats that must be worn before entering this area. Little plastic hats, similar to plastic shopping bags, are provided to be worn under the hardhats to help keep your head and the hardhats clean. We did go and take a look. It basically looks like construction site.

The banners above depict the royal family as this is where the investiture ceremony takes place to effectively crown a new king or queen.

Most of the opposite end of the transept wasn’t accessible as it was blocked off.

After exiting the church, we walked around to its rear to take a look around.

The Netherlands is known for having more bicycles than people and, indeed, there were bicycles everywhere!

Amsterdam’s Canals

Before continuing to the north next to the canal that is a block to the west, we took a quick look at the rear of the Royal Palace to see if we could find the statue of Atlas on the roof. We unfortunately couldn’t find it. It seems like it should be visible from the street but parts of the building’s exterior are covered up for renovations.

We stopped by the Koffie Cultuur Centrum (Coffee Culture Center) for some coffee before continuing on. This small coffee shop is in a building that is more or less attached to the side of the New Church.

This canal, the Singel, is two small blocks behind the New Church and Royal Palace. It is the innermost of Amsterdam’s semi-circular inner ring of canals. Upon reaching the canal, we started walking to the north on its west side.

We noticed this little sign about De Nieuwe Pozenboot (The New Catboat). Maybe we should have taken a look at the website to see what it was for? We didn’t though and continued on…

We spotted this small vehicle on the other side of the canal. It was pretty far away for the wide angle lens that we had on the camera but I was able to enhance it quite a bit. This Amazon Prime delivery vehicle seems to be a tricycle with electric assist.

Although it was a bit dark out with overcast skies, the weather was still OK as it wasn’t really raining, although we did get some very light drizzle. It was pretty quiet in this part of the city as we walked to the north.

This seemed like a very Amsterdamy scene with bicycles, a houseboat, canal, and historic buildings in the background.

Some of the houseboats had grass on their roofs!

We came across De Nieuwe Pozenboot! It is actually an animal shelter for cats in a houseboat!

By now, we were almost at the northern end of the canal. We noticed a canal tour boat turning around in the canal. The boat was very long and barely had enough room to turn!

We crossed over the canal and walked back into the central section of Amsterdam along Nieuwendijk, a pedestrian shopping street that runs through the central part of the city from here back to the Dam. This part of the city was pretty lively with all sorts of shops, restaurants, and other food establishments.

We decided to get some fries at Fabel Friet. This shop only sells Dutch fries. They are freshly fried in large quantities as it was pretty busy. We decided to have the fries with truffle mayonnaise and grated Parmesan cheese on top. It was pretty good, particularly with the fresh cheese and truffle sauce, though we think the Hot N Juicy Crawfish in Falls Church, VA has better fries!

The area was pretty nice with lighted decorations above.

We turned to the north, reaching a wide canal that runs between the city center and Amsterdam Centraal, the city’s main train station. It is located in the large building on the left. To the right, we could see the Basilica of Saint Nicholas, which is where we plan on going next.

We decided to head to the basilica via the north side of the canal, next to the train station. We crossed over the canal and took a look at the view to the southeast.

The area in front of the station seemed to be where many of the city’s canal boat tours begin. They were mostly long and narrow enclosed boats designed to be able to fit under the city’s bridges. We noticed this smaller open-top boat as it cruised by. It looked quite nice!

We came from the area in the center of this photo.

As we continued walking to the east by the station, we could see we were getting closer to the basilica. Although, it is actually on the other side of the canal so we would need to go via the next bridge. Luckily, Amsterdam has many bridges!

We walked by the center section of Amsterdam Centraal.

We continued on to head to the basilica.

Basiliek van de Heilige Nicolaas

We soon reached the front of the Basiliek van de Heilige Nicolaas (Basilica of Saint Nicholas). The basilica is only open until 3pm. We arrived at around 2:10pm, so plenty of time to take a look around inside.

Very different from the New Church! And also very different from other churches that we’ve been to in Europe. Almost every surface is decorated in some way and yet, it manages to still look nice and not overdone.

These larger scenes depict the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross), We photographed this one as an example of what they look like.

The dome is also very decorated.

This was as far as we could go as regular visitors. This area would be described as the sanctuary, maybe?

The “roof” of the pulpit is also richly decorated.

This chapel was off to the side.

Everything in this church seems very detailed!

The view looking directly up from more or less the middle of the church’s nave.

The church’s organ is marked with the year 1889, two years after this basilica was built in 1887.

It was pouring rain when we walked out of the basilica. We had waterproof jackets on so it wasn’t too big of a deal but we did put the waterproof covers onto our backpacks as well before heading out.

Amsterdam’s Canals, Again

We started walking to the east from the basilica. This was the view looking south from one of the canals more or less around the corner.

This tower, the Schreierstoren, is next to where we took the previous canal photo. It currently houses a restaurant.

This tower has some confusing history as it is apparently incorrectly known as the Weeper’s Tower. Wikipedia explains that this is due to confusion between the Old Dutch word for sharp and the modern Dutch word for weeping. Other sources also provide a similar explanation.

The restaurant currently in the tower makes no mention of this myth being false though on it’s About the Weepingtower page. There are also sources that say the myth being incorrect is incorrect.

We’ll probably never know…

We started walking south along the canal’s east side. We passed by two houseboats moored on opposite sides of the canal. The one closer to us looked modern while the other one looked kind of like a squished down trailer park trailer with vinyl siding.

We came across this restaurant named Steak · Burgers · Bazooka. So, have a steak or burger and buy a bazooka? It has a 4.5 rating on Google Maps so it might actually be decent! Anyway, we didn’t eat here but we did turn onto a bridge to walk west across the canal.

The view in both directions, to the north above and to the south below.

After crossing the bridge and continuing to the west and then south, it was clear that we were in Chinatown! We soon saw the Fo Guang Shan He Hua Temple, a Buddhist temple. It is described as “the largest Buddhist temple built in the traditional Chinese palace style in Europe” by Wikipedia, and is also the first Chinese Buddhist temple in Europe. It seems pretty small from the outside. We opted to not go in and continued on.

As we continued south, we noticed some banners above. Just in case you decided it was a good idea to pee on the street!

We turned to continue walking to the west, crossing over a narrow canal. We walked down a narrow street, perhaps best described as an alley. We passed by the first brothels that we’ve seen so far. It was a bit weird! The red light district term originates here in Amsterdam. The story is that sailors would come back from sea and visit local prostitutes who made themselves known by carrying or displaying red lanterns.

After reaching the next canal, the eastern canal around Amsterdam’s central section, we noticed something unusual on the other side.

Enhance! OK, real life image enlargement isn’t like in the movies. However, the technology has gotten pretty good, though it tends to do poorly with numbers and letters. So, we saw a little motorized cart pulling a trailer with some carved pumpkins! Is it for some Halloween display or thing? Interestingly, we also spotted a heron!

We haven’t been wandering aimlessly through the city. We’re headed to the Old Church! We could see it’s spire towering above the buildings to the west.

We quickly reached the next bridge over the canal, right by the church!

The view from the bridge to the south.

And, the view to the north. The church in the background is the Basilica of Saint Nicholas, which we just came from.

De Oude Kerk

De Oude Kerk (The Old Church) is no longer an active church and currently operates as a museum and exhibition space. It currently costs €13.50 per person for tickets. It is possible to buy timed entry tickets online, although it wasn’t necessary today as it did not appear to be busy at all.

An English language informational “highlights” pamphlet with map was provided.

There was also an exhibition taking place, When Doubt Turns into Destiny, by Navid Nuur.

Upon entering, we could see the Old Church had some similarities to the New Church in that the interior design was simple and clean. However, we could see parts of painted elements on the ceiling above.

We passed by a small secondary church organ.

The black box with hole is identified as #9, “Breath/Breeze/Box”, on the exhibition pamphlet.

The way it works is that you stand in the white circle on the ground. An operator goes to the back of the box and activates it, blasting you with a quick burst of air. It is a bit like the optometrist thing where the machine blasts air into your eye, only on a much larger scale.

There are only a few stained glass windows currently in the church. Most of the window panels just seem to be frosted glass.

This is #15, “STEP BY STEP, 2024 – until you pass.”

The way this works is that you start on the far end of the quire. You walk through the pebbles to the column at the end.

There is a message to take two pebbles as a gift. We took two each as instructed! The column contains copies of the message to take as well.

Both sides of the message card and the four pebbles that we took as instructed.

A small metal ship hangs from above. The columns here were once decorated, though they have mostly faded.

The view looking up above the quire.

We walked back out of the quire, spotting the church’s large organ at the opposite end of the building.

The cloth draped from the ceiling is actually a hot air balloon. This is #1, “Cloudsweat Corridor 2017/2024.”

This door, at the side of the church, leads to a historically important room.

This room is the Mirror Room, #13 on the highlights pamphlet. This room was the Marriage Banns Room the marriage commissioners office from 1565 to 1811. Anyone wanting to get married would need to come here to sign their marriage certificates. Including the famous Dutch painter, Rembrandt, and his wife, Saskia!

This seems to be #2 on the exhibition pamphlet, “NN XXX, 2024-2125.” Nuur is supposed to make 100 vases here, to be completed in 2025. One will be auctioned off every year, which means it will finish in 2125. Amsterdam’s triple X’s on its city flag refer to three St. Andrew’s Crosses rather than the modern-day interpretation. So, the title here could mean Navid Nuur Amsterdam 2024-2125. Or something else.

We walked around the church’s nave for a bit.

The organ seems to periodically play music. We think it is coming from the organ?

This is #6 in the exhibition, “Broken Square Neon, 2017-2019.”

It took us awhile to find the tomb of Rembrandt’s wife, Saskia. This has been here for almost 400 years! This church has been here for much longer, with the original structure dating back to the early 1200s and the current stone structure from 1306.

There are various memorials in the church.

This green beam, described as a laser beam, is #14 in the exhibition, “Apart From the Secret That It Holds, 2024.” The square hole in the wall where the beam seems to emanate from, or perhaps end in, seems to be described as a storage attic.

This seems to be the coats of arms of the church wardens dating from 1521 to 1787.

This painting by Emanuel de Witte is listed as #11 in the highlights pamphlet. He is described as having spent time painting scenes from the interior of this church between 1650 and 1675.

This particular section of the ceiling is #1 in the highlights pamphlet. The visible images here are the remnants of the original paintings, which were covered up after the Alteration, when the Catholic city government was replaced by a Protestant one.

The weird object on the left is “Recaptured from the Collective, 2014,” #13 in the exhibition.

Evening

After leaving the Old Church, we started to walk to the south.

We passed by these colorful little flowers.

We walked by the canal that is next to the Old Church.

This street, the Damstraatjes, leads to the Dam, the Royal Palace and New Church.

We continued to follow the canal to the south.

We eventually reached the end of the canal, where it intersects with another canal.

We started walking to the west where it became more lively.

This equestrian statue is of Queen Wilhelmina, who was Queen from 1890 to 1948.

There were many shops and restaurants as we continued walking to the west. The lighted decorations in these streets are pretty at night! We’re not sure if they’re here all the time or if it is a holiday season thing?

This building was very red! We decided to eat at a nearby restaurant, named simply The Seafood Bar.

There were two fresh fish of the day options. We ordered the Dover sole. It was pretty good, nice and soft and grilled on an iron plate.

We also ordered the mixed grill, photographed here from two different perspectives. The menu describes it as:

Combination of crustaceans and fish from the plancha; shrimp, squid, sea bream, salmon, king prawn, and Atlantic sea bass fillet. Served with mussels in tomato sauce.

We also added a half lobster tail. The entire plate much bigger than expected and also very good! An excellent first full meal here in the Netherlands!

After dinner, we decided to visit Chatime, a Taiwanese chain, for some tea. We actually passed by it earlier before dinner but didn’t visit at the time. This store has an interesting gimmick that we haven’t seen before. The drinks are produced on the floor above and delivered to the ground floor using this mechanism! There is a TV with a live video showing the staff making the drinks.

We decided to get a Mango QQ tea.

Our final stop in central Amsterdam was Queen’s Stroopwafels for our first ever freshly prepared stroopwafel! The way it works is that there are balls of dough that have already been made. They get put into a double sided grill where they are squished and cooked. The grill has a texture which forms the stroopwafel’s exterior texture. The magic seems to be that they can be separated into two halves. Caramel is then placed on one of the two halves, acting as glue to hold it all together.

Sorry Daelmans, this was much better than the premade product available on United Airlines (though not currently) and in some US supermarkets like Wegmans!

After our snack, we walked a few short blocks to the nearby Koningsplein tram stop to take tram line #12 back to the van Hilligaertstraat stop.

When we were here in the morning, we walked by the canal. Now, we went via the most direct route along van Hilligaertstraat. We passed by these three sculptures of objects on pillars of books in front of the Vredeskerk (Peace Church). The object on the books closest to us is clearly the moon. The other two pillars seem to be holding stones.

Soon, we were walking across the bridge over the canal next to the Apollo Hotel.

It has been quite a long day for us, having departed from the US in the evening and spent all day out and about in Amsterdam! After returning to our suite, it was nice to have a large tub to enjoy soaking after all the walking that we did today.