Day 2: Molly and Dave Arrive

Day 2:  Molly and Dave Arrive

After a good night’s sleep and a big hotel breakfast, we headed down the street to climb the Westerkerke steeple to get a bird’s eye view of the city.  The climb involved extremely narrow stone circular staircases and nearly vertical ladders to reach the top.  The carillon that was in the belfry was from the 1600’s.  The tower that housed the bells was actually a tower within a tower to allow for the vibrations of the floor from the ringing bells.  The view was spectacular and the weather cooperated with bright sunshine (a rarity in Amsterdam).

         

           
We then walked to the Rijkmuseum which is presently under reconstruction.  Fortunately, most of the major pieces are still on display in a section of the museum.  Here, we viewed major works by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Steen, and Hals.  We couldn’t have coordinated the morning any better.  Dave and Molly arrived at the museum by cab just as we entered the 1^st hall. 

   

From the Rijkmuseum we began walking toward the Van Gogh Museum situated just across a wide park.  On the way, David stopped for a quick “hot chick with cheese”- not something from the red-light district, but a chicken sandwich.  The Van Gogh Museum was amazing with many of his well known works on display.

   
We worked our way back to the hotel for a 5pm canal tour on the Pulitzer’s classic canal boat the  “Tourist”.  It was built in 1910 and has been restored to mint condition.  This boat was used by Queen Wilhelmina and Sir Winston Churchill to tour the city in 1946 after liberation.  The ride took us through many of the major canals within the city as well as up the Amstel River from which both the city and the beer got their names.  I also picked the captain’s brain for some tips on running our barge next week. His words of wisdom, “Go slowly and don’t hit anything”.

    

Dinner tonight was at  Long Pura, an Indonesian restaurant.  Rijstaffel, or “rice table” is a classic Dutch/Indonesian (thanks to the Dutch East Indian Trading Company and Dutch colonization of Indonesia) dinner consisting of saffron rice and many small dishes of a variety of Indonesian dishes.  Most were hot and the rest were hotter.  I think we nearly killed Marty, but he was a good sport about it (though he did swear off Indonesian food after this).  A nice walk back to the hotel, a few tums, and off to bed.  Tomorrow we need to get to the Anne Frank House early to avoid the 2-3 hour lines and then off to Den Hague (the Hague)