Amsterdam

Continuing the report on my weekend in the Low Countries, here is a description of my time in Amsterdam.

I spent a couple nights in Amsterdam, mostly with the intention of exploring the city and visiting some art museums. It turns out that in many places, the buildings really do look like this:

I stayed in the Jordan neighborhood, located just west of the city center. It is a great place to relax. Lots of tree-lined canals (like the one below), small cafes and shops, etc.
Not too far away from where I was staying is the building where Anne Frank and family lived in hiding for much of the Nazi occupation. I went on a tour - very interesting for a number of reasons. (It gets a lot of traffic, so they stick to a very basic message - I was glad I had read her diary and some other background materiel ahead of time.) Particularly interesting is her father's comments after the war.

In general, Amsterdam was hit pretty hard by the occupation; here is their memorial:
On a happier note, Amsterdam is long known for tulip bulb trading. (They even had a speculative bubble back in the day!) Here is one stand among the many along "Tulip Row".
Another interesting place is the Berginhof, a residence for women who didn't want to join a church order, but still lived a convent-style life. (Similar housing projects existed for men; see the entry for Haarlem.)
Another interesting place I visited is the new Amsterdam main library. It has a very modern design, but a fantastic interior. It is huge - there are two cafes in side!
Once nice feature of the library is that the books are presented in a way which makes browsing the aisles an enjoyable experience. For example, this is the children's section:
True to myself, I spent a good amount of time in Amsterdam exploring the food of the city. The Netherlands has a significant Muslim population, culturally very different from the Turks in Berlin. Here is a "pizza wrap" I got a one shop.
Eating healthy is tricky in Amsterdam. For lunch one day I ordered a salad - and got one with a large slice of fried Edam cheese on top!
I also investigated the baked-goods section. There is a decent selection, such as this apple-cornbread bar.
I found this window display too tempting to pass by...
I visited two art museums while in Amsterdam: the main museum with Rembrandt, etc, and the van Gogh museum. Both were excellent, but alas I didn't take any pictures.

I also explored the "red light district" of Amsterdam. It is an interesting place to walk through once, but not really my cup of tea. In general, the Dutch approach to many things seems to be "legalize things and force them to be out in public, where we can keep an eye on them". This mostly seems to work.

One of the guidebooks I read made a big deal of the pot scene. The truth is that the per capita marijuana consumption is lower in the Netherlands than in the US! That aside, it it a long way from the wild days of the 1970's. As that generation has moved up the social ladder, the "coffeeshop" culture has adapted - the local coffeeshop in the neighborhood where I stayed sold organically-grown pot! (At Whole Foods prices, I'm sure.)

At the end of my weekend, I got back on the night train to Berlin. One of the cars on my train was destined to go all the way to Moscow - a long way!