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It has been a few months since we left Amsterdam, and the usual chaos that is life has taken over. I feel like I never really finished the blog as it needed that last true story that would finish it.

(Our local volcanos)

(The photo of your foot on the carpet at PDX–a unique carpet pattern used only in PDX–is how you say “happy to return to PNW.”)

What do I remember about the trip now a few months ago? Very little of the flight back other than the crew helped Susie get off of the plan and waited for us before leaving. That was very kind of them. We had an Eastern European driver that took us home. He was pleasant and happy to get a long trip as a Lyft driver, PDX to Aloha. I then did the washing and unpacked us. Back to work!

The night before we left I remember that Corwin convinced me that we could use a car to the airport instead of getting up an hour early (4AM) to roll Susie to the train station, get tickets, and then get on a train (with luggage) and then get off of a train and get Susie and luggage. The hotel took care of the arrangements and the wake-up call. To my defense, I thought that we should try to experience more of the public part of Holland. I was not influenced by the intoxicants that are always in the air in Amsterdam, I think.

Thinking back, I plan to spend another Christmas in a few years there again. The art we saw was magnificent, but we missed the history and much of the culture. Maybe a bus tour of Holland or some other day trip. The painting we saw will stay with me, but the view of the master’s tools will always be with me (I later learned that we were not to take photos of this).

And the plain silliness of a tourist town…

So we all remember Amsterdam with happiness!

It is recommended as an adult place (just not for kids) and a place to learn and enjoy. We do not miss it–we will return soon.

 

 

Today I had no big plans for us. We just got up, early again, and had breakfast and then headed out into the city.

Susie and Corwin wanted to try out various intoxicants at a Cafe known as The Bulldog Mack and to get various branded items. This is the rough part of the Redlight district near the old church. A short ten minutes or about twenty pushing Susie on her walker. Susie’s walker doubles as a wheelchair. We get Susie to walk about 100 feet to 200 feet.

While they went to The Bulldog Mack, filled with smoke and not that good for me, I went off to the second-hand shops and especially the bookshops.

It is a sunny but cold day in Amsterdam. The wind cuts. I was able to take a few shots of the area. It all looks quaint until you look closer and see all the headshops and sex shops signs on all the old-style brick buildings.

I found the English Book Exchange. I purchased a Fritz Leiber fantasy book, Swords in the Mist, for the plane. I left my finished book in the hotel books, The Other End Of The Line. Some other traveler will take the book I leave here in Amsterdam and it will travel even further.

I checked on Susie and Corwin after I made my purchase and Susie was surprising the others, she was no light-weight. Again, the air is not good for me, so off to more stores and trying to not window shop at the rough trade places. It is hard not to be fascinated by such oddity.

Susie and Corwin decamped to the brand store for The Bulldog and there I find them. We buy some shirts and hats.

I suggest beer and snacks. We return to the De Wildeman and they remember us and ask us about our stay and are sad to learn we are leaving on Saturday. But beer is gotten and local cheese and fresh meats are provided. It is a good time.

After that, it is nap time for me.

We gather with Corwin for one last dinner in Amsterdam. Simsit Sarayı provides sandwiches at a reasonable price. Interestingly the place is poorly rated. There are no prices, names of food items, and the crew seems to expect you to know this, know what you want, and pay what they say. I checked and this store had as many five stars and one stars ratings. For us, the food was good, the people helpful, and the place a bit confusing.

We have our boarding passes. I have been exchanging emails with KLM all day trying to ensure that Susie has a wheelchair booked. The KLM website because we are through Air France and Delta is not working right. I do have a wheelchair booked on Delta’s site. It looks like we will have to just deal with it when we get to the airport.

Susie and Corwin have loved Amsterdam–Susie being reacquainted with Amsterdam and Corwin’s first visit. I finally got to spend some time here and see the Museums I have always wished I had time to see. Having a whole day for each was a real treat.

But…as usual, I am looking forward to being at the Volvo Cave soon…We have talked to the hotel and will take a taxi and be at Schipol three hours early. Two hours they think would be enough, but with the wheelchair, they think we should go for three.

Off soon to home!

Michael Wild

Still @ Inntel Hotel, Room 2266, Amsterdam

I expected that the jetlag would accrue and today I am tired. I did what you are not supposed to do, I went and slept at about 3PM and now it is 11PM. I have walked miles every day and have been up from early morning to past midnight every day so a half-day of rest I think is alright and it is a vacation.

I finished today by having a large beer, too large, at The Bottle which is a tiny bar with the smoking of whatever next to the packed Cafe 420. Corwin had some intoxicants to smoke and we thought it nice to play another game of chess at Cafe 420 there while Corwin finishes up his purchased products–but the crowds are returning to Amsterdam for the New Years–which I guess is a smoking paradise–and we could not get in. I also did not wish to breathe that much smoke. I had hoped that it would be a little less busy on Boxing Day. So Corwin enjoyed his smoking (stepping slightly away from me) and me a plate of cheese and salami to go with the beer. After that, I walked with Corwin back to the hotel, a bit unsteadily from exhaustion, beer, contact effects of various smoked products, and so on.

This morning we slept in for the first time to 7AM. I did the normal things and got to the  Europe style hotel breakfast. We have found the Inntel Hotel to work out perfect for what we need to do which is to get a taxi and to be in the middle of some food place and in the center of the more tame part of the Red-light district. The rough trade is three canals east and North of here. The rough stuff can hear the bells of the Old Church which is oddly the center of the rough stuff. Just head towards the church to find the girls and guys performing in the windows.

Today after breakfast we headed to Rembrandt House and there we had our first issue on the trip for Susie. The house is left almost unchanged and so Susie cannot climb the narrow with a rope to hold to steps. So I make a quick dash through the house, we already had purchased tickets, and find that top is reachable by elevator and take Susie up to see the roof work area for Rembrandt’s students and a little exhibit on restoring and understand the science of Rembrandt work and how they authenticate painting and engraving.

While doing my quick tour, I did speak to the staff in Rembrandt’s working room. There are lots of do-no-touch items in the room so it requires staff. The room is lighted by LED white lights. I told the staff I was thinking that was a shame as I would have liked to see it with the light of Rembrandt’s time. It was explained to me that the windows in the room all face North and the light is very bright later in the day. They also had the shutters closed on some of the windows. The room is bright they told me and the LED lights are not noticed when the sun is bright and the windows not shuttered. On the book I bought at the shop, not picking the English version by accident, the photo of the same room appears to have the LED turned off. I think I would like to have seen the room without the LED and the shutters open. Rembrandt’s paintings are so much about light.

I still enjoyed seeing the house and Susie got to see a bit of the house.

The shop sold me a few items I wanted. They gave us directions to a taxi stand and a place to eat lunch, which was closed for Boxing Day when we got there, and we also found out that the flea market was closed too. So we found a place for food which is best forgotten and then traveled back.

That is about all we managed today. Corwin and I did walk to the train station and look at the trains to the airport running on Saturday. It looks like we can get one every 1/2 hour. We need to catch the 5:30AM on Saturday with 6AM being our back-up plan.

Time to start thinking about coming home!

Michael R Wild

Inntel Hotel, Room 2266, Amsterdam.

So we come to the highlight of the trip. Christmas in Amsterdam at Van Gogh Museum.

We start a bit later, Susie sleeps an extra hour and get me going at 5AM, and we do the usual things.

Breakfast is again at the hotel. The same Euro-hotel-style foods. Little less on fish, but still familiar. We burn through a few hours there. Corwin joins us. He is still in his Tibetan pirate style. He just needs a belt with various weapons and tall black boots. We have the hotel find us a cab and pop over to the same areas as yesterday.

The staff at the Van Gogh Museum help with getting Susie a wheelchair and this place as a special map called the Accessibility Map that covers how to get to everything by special and regular elevator. Yes, this is new but it does not allow for most photos. So the two takes are elicited! It is amazing that so many things are allowed in Amsterdam, but you can be busted for an iPhone photo of Van Gogh!

So we rushed on and discovered a special self-portrait section. Amazing and here are my only photos. Vincent honest painting of himself painting (he wrote the others were in fact advertising) and a photo of his palate and paints.

To see the palate was a bit overwhelming.  This is where the paintings were born.

There are special tube elevators and then regular ones. We soon discovered a new thing: Art zombies are all through the displays. We passed on the headgear and touchscreen device to get the story. With Susie in a wheelchair, we needed to hear each other so we forgo the already purchased equipment. What we found were all the points where the audio tour stopped there a herd of zombies waited. These visitors are hooked into the devices and are look at them and then look intensely at painting.  This undead of art ignores us as they appear to be completely unconnected to the real world and we have to push Susie slowly into them to get them to move-on or back up. We got used to pushing them on and they, being completely unconnected zombies, did not seem to mind. Very odd!

The glass and lights created glare on the paintings. When looking at most of the painting you had to stand at an angle to see the detail and colors. This made me a bit unhappy as I thought this could have been done better. Everything else was perfect, why not this too?

We spent four hours tracing Van Gogh’s life in paintings. The collection includes Monets and all sorts of paintings for contemporaries of Van Gogh that you can see how the work of other artists impacted and improved Van Gogh’s works. Often the write up near a painting of a contemporary would include notes of Van Gogh’s writings about the artist. We are dodging zombies the whole time.

We see towards the end the saddest paintings. There is one self-portrait, on loan and not part of the collection, of Vincent, bandaged after cutting off his ear. It is stark. Another is a painting by a friend of a happy (and whole) Vincent painting the sunflowers. This is within sight of a photo of Vincent Van Gogh’s grave. It was made as a memory of happier times. On the write up on the painting, it is mentioned that in a letter of Vincent’s he declares the painting to be a good likeness.

Food! They have a nice cafe and we had some great food there. I picked up the book that came with the tickets. It covers much of what we saw. Back to the paintings.

We take one last spin of Van Gogh, we thought, through the self-portraits and head to the special exhibit. This is three floors of works that impacted Van Gogh and taught him his craft. You can see Van Gogh copied various artists’ works but then put his own style to it.

Corwin and I are tired of standing and we have seen much of it. We collect our checked coats and get the walker back and get headed back.

Susie falls getting into the car and Corwin grabs her when she falls and twists her arm. Susie, while not hurt, is bruised.

As it is Christmas we headed over to Cafe Mooy, it is open, and have a beer and

We take a short rest. Off to dinner. Dinner is too much meat. We go to Formosa Argentina nearby.

Lastly, Corwin and I need to walk after too much food. I show Corwin the true red-light part of Amsterdam. Most of the shows are closed as it is Christmas. There is certainly a crowd that is looking for a night-life, but it is almost quiet.

(Yes, we are in the red-light district now–notice the sign is only in English)

I head back with Corwin.

Merry Christmas!

Michael R Wild

Sleep was difficult for Susie. She was up twice and told me at 4AM that it was time to get dressed. She was wide-awake in the morning!

We did the normal things–rather slowly–and got to the hotel provided breakfast at 7:15. Before that, I called Corwin’s room and got him up, and he joined us a bit later for a slow consumed but good Europe Hotel breakfast: lots of pastries, cold cut, cheese, fruit fresh and in syrup, yogurt (local), and cereal.   Coffee comes from a machine. The gal in the hotel, also from Ethiopia, showed me how to make coffee. I also then let my years at the Shoe company training take over and train-the-trainer ha,d me show Corwin how to make coffee.

Everyone working for the hotel or the Rijksmuseum is in uniform. Even the gals at the coat check were in black dresses supplied by the museum. Men in fitted shirts and ties and sometimes with suits supplied by their employer. Something you seldom see in American.

After breakfast, we took a Taxi supplied by the hotel to the Rijksmuseum as we had managed to get to 9.

We got there and soon found our way. We just got scanned in, electronic skip-the-line tickets, and headed up to see the good stuff on the second floor. Soon we had seen a Night Watch and the Maiden Pouring Milk. Susie was overwhelmed by the distances and the number of things to see. I was uncomfortable as I still had my heavy coat, and all the paintings were missing! The best Rembrandt paintings were in a special exhibit with Spanish masters.

(A 1/12 sized model of a Dutch man-of-war from the people who built the full-sized one)

We headed down, found the coat check and tickets for the new special exhibit, Rembrandt-Velazquez: Dutch and Spanish Masters. The staff at the Rijksmuseum saw us struggle and got us a wheelchair and helped move Susie to the new chair. The supply them at no cost! I then pushed Susie through a stunningly great exhibition. Paintings are placed side-by-side, and you can see the Dutch and Spanish styles and how they overlap and are different.

Even on Christmas Eve, the place was busy. From what I witnessed, the new thing is to take an image of a painting you liked or thought was famous. Anything from iPhones up to expensive digital rigs is allowed. Corwin took a photo of everything he liked. I got this blur pic of Rembrandts’ signature.

My feet, after four hours of standing and pushing, was getting tired. We left the display–I bought the book in case we want to review or share it. I wanted to see Van Gogh’s works. We got lost. The place is a maze. Directions and maps are not that helpful.

The map they give you shows all the levels available in multiple languages at the information desk. Speaking English with a smile when I address them. The map shows that each floor is a timeframe of Dutch history. Usually, Rembrandt is in the Galley of Honor on the second floor (1600-1650)–but they all are now on the ground floor and first floor (numbers here in Europe as zero and one–not American 1st and 2nd floors) in the Philips Wing. All easy to find, if not needed, elevators. We managed to work it out after a fashion. We did tour the Middle Ages displays three times.

Finally, we find the three Van Gogh. The crowd parts, and we see the famous self-portrait.

It is cruder than I was expecting, but the colors brighter than the photo suggests, and the face stands out and seems three dimensional. The rest of the paintings of this time, floor 1 (1800-1900), are bright and more my style. I could have any on my wall.

We find coffee some stroopenn nearby on floor 1. A German or a Dane guy helps us take Susie down the steps in the wheelchair. He seemed quite happy to help, and Corwin practiced a bit of his German.

Refreshed, we again view Van Gogh–I wanted to see the self-portrait again. Back into the elevator, which fits just two people and a wheelchair. Often Corwin takes the stairs while I ride down with Susie.

We then tour the middle age displays–the only way back. Charlemagne’s shield, a moose horn carved and made into a shield for your arm, gets my attention. According to the write-up, it is really a later creation, but it gets my mind for a Dungeon and Dragon item. This would make a new look for a magical shield. The reliquary items are always a bit odd. Usually carrying some body part. A 1400s chainmail set gets Corwin’s attention. There are a lot of arrow-sized holes in the chain.

Four plus hours of standing, pushing, getting lost, and being a bit on painting overload, time to leave. It took us a bit to find our way out and then to find where the taxi line is, but we got back to the hotel. Our hotel is next to the police so the Taxi driver did not want to drive us up and jump the curb, I did get one policeman in a car to beep at me as I was getting out and paying. No problem.

We then went next door to the Italian and Argentine steak place. Corwin followed after I sent a photo. He showed it to the desk at the hotel and they did not know the place. He tried some more hotel staff and they said, “Twenty meters away.” We had great food there once he joined us. We shared it all.

Susie rested while Corwin and I went to see the chess store. A gaming store on Christmas Eve in Amsterdam. It was about a 45-minute walk.

The chess sets were a bit more expensive and the same I could get on-line in the States. I did not buy one (getting a refund of VAT was not something I wanted to do). Corwin did point out if I was a true collector of Scythe, a board game I have just about everything upgraded on, I should purchase the Dutch version they have on the shelf. I decided I could live without the Dutch version.

We had a drink at a local bar and then walked back.

Corwin was headed back out to Cafe 420. I, running on little sleep, went to take a nap–hours later I started on this. So I think that is a wrap.

Happy Christmas Eve!

Michael R Wild

Inntel Hotel, Room 2266, Amsterdam