Amsterdam

When you saw the post, I knew what you were thinking... does she even work? she travels all the time. Yes I do work and yes, I travel a lot. My job is still a priority and this year I work to fund my travel addiction. Enough said. I always loved to travel but when I started doing races, I was committed to my races (hey.. they're not free, so I may as well give my best effort). I planned my vacation around my races, used up my weekends to train and race. Travel was put aside. Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed racing. I wasn't racing against other people. I was so averaged in my age group. I just loved to compete with myself. I think Ironman Canada was the peak of my craziness and I learned so much about me. Most importantly through this journey, I also developed friendships, which I relied on since I found out that I was moving to London, which was quite stressful and exciting at the same time.

Back to Amstersdam... this is on the Top 5 places that I wanted to see. Why? Three things: Van Gogh, Anne Frank museum and Keukenhof, the tulip garden that opens only 8 weeks in a year. I always say that I'm not artsy, but I fell in love with Van Gogh paintings when I went to New York with Julie. I think either Guggenheim or MoMA had an exhibition, the Starry Night. My uncle, who's my dad's brother in law, collected paintings. He's pretty well to-do. His collections were pretty impressive. As a child, I didn't appreciate them. I didn't understand why someone would spend lots of money on giant landscape pictures on canvas, then built a temperature controlled room to store them. He bought some of Affandi's (famous local artist) paintings that used very thick oil paints. A few of them were almost like you squirted colorful toothpaste on a piece of canvas. It's been a long time since I saw them. I remember they were beautiful, shiny oil paintings with very bright colors.

When I saw Van Gogh paintings, I was so impressed with little dots and stipples that made beautiful pictures. Looking at them from a few feet away was a completely different experience. His style was so unique. His color paletes were bold. Along the way, I learned more about him, his life and his art. VG museum in Amsterdam has the largest collections. I was fortunate to see some of his collections in New York, Paris and now, Amsterdam. The second reason is Anne Frank. I'm always interested in Holocaust history. This museum definitely played a big part. Last but not least is tulips, which are my favorite flowers. I planted some long stemmed tulips my last year in Des Moines. They bloomed in the Spring that I moved to Atlanta.

Monday May 5 was a bank holiday, so that was one of the reasons I planned my Amsterdam vacation this weekend. I ran into www.seat61.com website, which detailed the train & ferry combo trips from London to Amsterdam overnight. I flew a lot and it seemed to be an adventure to ride a train and a ferry this time. I toyed around with idea. It cost £45 for the ticket plus £30 for the room one way. It wasn't bad. I would leave at 7.30PM from London Liverpool to Harwich station and boarded on a ferry to Hook van Holland, followed by a sprinter and train to Amsterdam Central, the main train station in the city center. I would get there by 10AM. the nice thing was I didn't have to get up at the crack of the dawn to catch a plane. On the way back, I boarded the 6.30PM train back to Hook van Holland, so I had a whole day sightseeing without worrying getting to the airport early to check in, going through security and so on. It saved me some hotel nights. I just had to book a night in Amsterdam. Hotels were freaking expensive. $200 per night at least, and these are not 4 star hotels. I did read that food was not too expensive there, but accommodation was super expensive. I looked around and booked a room through Air BnB. My host was Toetsie, a Dutch girl that owned a 3 story townhouse. The second floor was for rentals and the third floor was her space. She recently renovated the place. I read a lot of her reviews and felt comfortable staying at her place.

Originally I was going to leave on Friday night after work and came back Monday morning, so I
didn't have to use my vacation, but when I was going to book the ferry, the return trip on Sunday night was sold out. No more rooms. I had to move my trip one day early, which was a blessing since it turned out Saturday was the tulip parade. Traffic in Keukenhof would be horrific and the same with the day after. There was no train by the garden. People had to take a bus.

I left work and went straight to Liverpool station. The train to Harwich was at 7.30 PM. After several stops, we got there around 9.30 PM.  I had never been on a cruise before, and after this trip, I had no
desire to be on a boat for a long time. I didn't have a bad experience, it's just not me, sitting around and eating all day long. The passport control was short. Upon checkin, I got the room key and breakfast ticket. All the rooms were on the 10th floor. The restaurant, cafe, shop and bar were on the 9th.

Stena Hollandica is ready to sail

Stairs to the cabins

Bar and Restaurant

My room was in the middle. I didn't pay extra for getting a window cabin because literally I was just
there to sleep and shower.

There's a removable ladder in case you're wondering how people get up there

Small but fully functional shower

The ferry didn't sail until 10.30-ish but I went to bed right away. I set up my alarm but through
the room speaker, a wake-up call/ announcement with music woke everybody up. We had 1.5 hours before docking. After I showered, I headed downstairs for breakfast. The breakfast buffet was pretty busy.  I notice there were a lot of Dutch and Indians. They served English style breakfast with baked beans, hashbrown and sausage, pannekoek which was pancake in Dutch, some jelly and chocolate sprinkles with toast that cater to Dutch, hot beverages, yogurt and cereal.  Indonesia was a Dutch colony for 350 years, so they had a strong influence on us. Toast with butter and chocolate sprinkle called muisies is commonly served for breakfast. I noticed we used a lot of their words also, for example pindakas for peanut butter.

The walk from the ferry to the train station was really short. They were practically next door. I found this website was really helpful. It basically listed the itinerary for the trip down to the minutes and platform that you were getting on and off.  I took a sprinter to Schiedam central and train to Amsterdam Central.

Quick transit in Schiedam Centrum

Green lucious pasture and happy cows. It was taken from the train.

Cute modern houses along the swamp.

Do you know that Amsterdam is below sea level? The airport was a feet below sea level. They drained water from the area using windmill (I thought they built windmills for green energy only). When they got to the bottom, they found a lot of ship wreck. That's why it's called Schipol (Airport)meaning ship hell.

Tulip farm

Too bad most of them were done blooming due this year's warm winter

There's still a bit left

I just realized after passing through the tiny towns that Nederland was a farming country. They raised cows, produced milk, made cheese and grew tulips, which was originated from Turkey. No wonder Turkey spent so much money planting in tulips. Anyway, that lead to Tulip mania during the golden years in 1600's. 

When I got to the station, I picked up my Holland pass and Keukenhof ticket. I walked around Damrak that was pretty packed with tourists, bikes and trams. The station was not very clean. Trash bins really had to be emptied out. Overflowing garbage was on the floor. I guess I'm used to London tube and train stations that are clean.

My cheese man. He's a just a cut out.

I'm going to warn you that this post had many many many pictures of tulips and selfies... A lot. I couldn't put the camera away, but I also took plenty of time away from the lens and just enjoyed the beauty of the garden with bare eyes. My selfie skill was really good. I managed to take them with my 5 year old camera that had NO dual screen. I would say the success rate was 75-80%. Pretty impressed with myself :) 

I would name this Big Bird because it's yellow and feather like edges.

They look like colorful sliced star fruit.

They look like poppies

Keukenhof meant Kitchen Garden was located in Lisse around 45 minutes away from the city center. It was around 32 hectares or 79 acres. They planted 7 million bulbs a year. Each variation may take 10 years to develop. They named every variation and had a sign on the ground.

I had never seen tulips that big. The petals were big and the edges varied. Some were smooth and some looked like feather.

From the pictures, you couldn't tell that it was pretty cold that morning, partly cloudy but thank God, it wasn't raining.

It's like a bouquet. Different mixes of tulips.

Giant flower pot

Hello Kitty tulips

I only have two styles of selfies. The landscape setting with my right hand and the portrait setting with my left hand. That's how my index finger and camera button combo worked.

The garden also had a few buildings that they used to showcase other flowers. Orchids were in One
of them. Each building was named after their Queens, Beatrix, Julianna, Wilhemina etc...

My mom likes and grows orchids. She's really good splitting them up and they always came back blooming. They reminded me of my childhood. I was afraid of my first grade teacher, Ms. Kus. She was a bit stern, I guess.  One day my mom cut out some of her orchids, put them in a vase. She took me to school that morning and asked me to give them to my teacher. I vividly remembered Ms. Kus was pleasantly surprised and really appreciated the flowers. Since then, I wasn't afraid of her anymore. Her smile has proven that she wasn't a monster, like I imagined. Funny... I still remembered the type of the orchids, they're called scorpions because of the skinny petals and dark yellow and brown color.

This is taken by a stranger that felt bad I had to do a selfie. She was so nice.

Back to the tulip garden. Rows after rows of different colors.

Lilies expo. They were in another building.

Don't they look like Spain flag colors?

Let's count how many bikes up there.

The fountain is in the center of the garden. This is Keukenhof's Facebook cover.

This is the second picture taken by somebody else. I wish it was a bit more centered.

The petals are so pointy. Don't look like tulips.

The petals are multi layered. Almost look like peonies from a distance.

Obviously this is a pig :) they have a petting zoo in the garden.

This looks like a bunny, doesn't it? It by the kids playground.

Can you spot a dolphin?

Azalea bushes

We got almost 3.5 hours at the garden before I had to head back to the coach. I immediately jumped on a tram to check in at the Air Bnb as soon as I got to the Amsterdam Central. There was an Indonesian restaurant by the tram stop at Air BnB place, so before I headed out to Anne Frank museum, I had a take away. 

Fried rice, noodles, chicken, stewed veg with coconut topping (urap), chicken sate and tempe

I had a couple of bites before my tram came. When I got to Anne Frank house, I was a bit surprised by the long line. I knew the lines were always bad but it was 6PM on Friday, I didn't think it was going to be that bad. I had to kick myself in the butt because I didn't buy the ticket early enough. They only allocated so many tickets sold online and they were all sold out when I was going to buy. I spent almost 1.5 hour standing in the cold and the wind was blowing pretty hard. I ate my food while standing in the line. A few times I almost lost it because of the strong wind. 

The museum was actually two row houses, which were side by side. One was the original house where the Franks and Van Pelts family were hiding. The front of the house was Anne's dad's office. He ran a business that sold chemical ingredients to make jam's thickening & preserving agent. The other house was for the book store and cafe. I read so much about her life and bits and pieces of her diary but never read the book, so I need to do that. By the way, since I came here, I signed up for library membership in London and Woking, where I work, and I've been borrowing travel books. I'm sure they have a copy there. We couldn't take any pictures in the museum. 

By the time, I got out, it was around 8.15PM. I took a bus to Museumplein, where Rijks and Van Gogh museums were. I was put off by the line at Van Gogh, which wasn't too bad but I didn't want to queue again, so I went across the street to get a drink. The place was included in the Holland pass packet that I bought. Amsterdam Bols house makes jenever or Dutch gin. It was a museum, they had a sniffing and taste test, showed the history and the process, which I wasn't interested in. I went because I had a free ticket.

Various bottles used to hide gin in old days. Yes, including that Chinese doll in the back.

This is my drink of choice. Mango flavored gin with yogurt.

I went back to Toetsie's place around 10PM. I ran into her and she was just about to go out. She did mention that she had a cat named Rocky that lived upstairs. I heard he was meowing as I was falling asleep. 

Since I had a packed schedule on Saturday, I took my overnight back pack with me as I left Toetsie's place in the morning.  I took the tram to Van Gogh. This time the line was even longer at 8.30AM even though it wasn't opened until 9AM. I questioned my decision last night. I stood in the line, which wasn't really organized because supposedly, the lines should have been divided to people with no tickets, people with vouchers and museum pass (me) and people that purchased tickets with check-in time (this is the smartest way). 15 minutes later a museum employee came out and said the groups with tickets stayed on the right, so I moved. As we got closer to the front, I realized that every body around me had tickets with 9AM-9.30AM check in. The middle line was supposed to be for people like me. There was no way, I was going back to the end of the second line. I had been standing there for 45 minutes. So, I started talking the group besides me. They were nice German sisters that traveled with their mom that let me join their group. Whew!

They were renovating the front of the museum to accommodate the long queue, I'm sure that was the only reason.

Since we can't take pictures inside, they painted one of the walls with one of VG famous sunflower paintings.

The museum was definitely worth a visit. It was ironic that he suffered from mental illness, felt depressed and guilty that his brother had to support him because he couldn't see a single piece of painting and finally took his own life. He was so organized as an artist. He wrote a journal and would put numbers on his journal when he described a painting that he just finished. The curators found out later that the numbers coincide with the numbers on the back of each painting.

Rijks. IAMSTERDAM is right in front of it.

I didn't go to Rijks. No time for another long queue. Instead, I took a canal tour. It's a must do thing in Amsterdam. The city has 4 concentric half-circles of canals, 165 canals in total with a combined length of 100 kilometers or 60 miles. Roughly 1,200 bridges connect these canals.

Oude Kerk, Old church, Amsterdam's oldest building and oldest parish church

Amstel Hotel, the most prestigious hotel in town.

House Boat

Many bikes get blown off to the canals by strong wind. The city always find thousands of bikes when they do their annual cleaning

Unique stepped gable roofs

One of the oldest canal gate

It has a bike rack, little flower trays and everything else you need in a house. What would you live on the land?

Amsterdam Centraal from the canal boat

The largest bike parking lot I've ever seen

Garden by the canal

After the canal tour, I joined a walking tour that started in Dam Square. I like walking tour. Most cities have great tour guides that are passionate about history and they are quite entertaining. Our tour guide was Rob, an American from New Jersey that had been in Amsterdam for over 10 years. Red Light district was among the first few stops. We also passed lots of coffee houses along the way. As you suspect, they're not your typical Starbucks.

First stop, coffee house.

If you look at the below picture, you would think I did a bad job taking this picture. The house looked like it was leaning forward. In fact, it was leaning forward. It was purposely built that way to let the water drained properly.

Anywhere you go in Europe, there's always a China Town.

The oldest Buddhist temple in Europe

I had a mixed feeling about the place below. This was the headquarters of VOC, Dutch East India Company. It's basically a monopoly that Dutch government set up to carry out colonial activities in Southeast Asia. Indonesia was a major producer of spices. Dutch made a lot of profit at Indonesia's expense. It wasn't fair but at the same time, it wasn't all bad. We benefited from their education. Most Indonesian leaders emerged after we gained independence in 1945.

Amsterdam has a secret garden. You have to walk pass this door to discover the hidden garden. Begijnhof, tucked away just off Spui, this delightful collection of houses arranged around an open court is well worth searching out.

The nuns used to live here.

At number 34, Het Houten Huys, built around 1528, could well be the oldest wooden house in the Netherlands. It's all the more impressive how meticulously its black facade has been preserved.

The Wooden House

Het Houten Huys front door

Courtyard

This path is block because the houses on the right are private residence.

See the black metal sticks on the walls. They are used to support the walls since they were leaning forward (by design)

Family names & coat of arms

XXX is Netherland's official logo.

The house in the middle (red brick) is the narrowest house in Amsterdam. The width is less than 2 meters, It's as wide as the front door.

At the end of the walking tour.

A little coffee break at the real coffee house before the cheese tasting

My last activity before leaving Amsterdam was cheese tasting at Reypenaer. They had been making Gouda for hundreds of years. This is the cheese that I grew up with. My mom made baked pasta with grated gouda. They were big cheese wedges covered with red wax.  We tasted 5 different kinds of cheese paired with wine.

Serious cheese tasting. We had a scoring sheet.

My favorite white wine pairing. 6 mo old French goat cheese.

The best combo. 6 weeks old Gouda paired with Shirah

I headed back to Amsterdam Central around 6PM. My train left half an hour later. When I got to Hook van Holland, the lady at the check-in counter asked me if I was Ms. Nelwan. I was surprised. How did she know? I asked if I was the last passenger boarding. She said no. When I walked on the ramp, I didn't see a single person there. I guess a lot of people coming back the next day because of the extra holiday.

Bon Voyage, Amsterdam!