Amsterdam Walking Tour

We arrived late in Amsterdam from Brussels and stayed at the NH Amsterdam Center Hotel.  The next day, we met with Simon at 9 AM at our hotel and spent 4 hours with him doing about 5 miles of walking:

Bicycles

Amsterdam is the city of bicycles.  I wish I had taken video of the army of bikes going back and forth but there are bike paths everywhere and pedestrians need to stay off of them or they will be whacked.  I wonder what the group name for a bunch of bicyclists should be: we have a pride of lions, a crush of baboons, and a murder of crows.  Perhaps a wheelie of bicyclists or a rotation of bicyclists.  I like rotation.  You heard it here first.

REAL American Hotdogs

Here was something I found amusing – a stand selling real American Hotdogs!

I figure I can stand here because I will be an American soon (it happened on June 16, 2020) – perhaps not a hotdog but more a jelly roll.

Houses

Amsterdam is also the city of narrow houses and crooked houses (old city of course). Houses are narrow because taxes were based on the street front width – here is a house that is 6 feet wide but in the back it goes to 20 feet and it’s 60 feet deep – 3 stories. 200 square meters. How do I know this? We were standing on the doorstep trying to measure the door with the measure app when the owner came home from walking his dogs. He was very nice and gave us some info:

Crooked Houses

Houses are crooked because the foundations are sinking unevenly in the marsh/bog that Amsterdam was built on.  This house has had its base stabilized but the owner nonetheless has to have specially slanted windows and doors made.  Don’t break THIS glass – costs a lot to replace:

Canals and Bridges

Amsterdam is also the city of canals and bridges.  It has more bridges than Venice, about 1200.  Folks live on the canal.  Here are some houseboats:

Frogger Crossings

There are special kind of cross-walks – there are normal ones such as the regular “zebra” striped crossing and then these – they are nicknamed Frogger crossings – because they show you it’s legal to cross here but it’s at your own risk.  Apparently taking a risk is quite a joke to me in this city of uncontrolled bicycle riders.

The Pancake Bakery - Lunch?  Brunch?  Dessert?

After our walking tour which included much more, we got dropped off at the Pancake House.  Below is a picture of my meal: Dutch Pancakes – made with ice cream, stroopwafel, and whipped cream.  I think this is efficient – have the entree and the dessert at the same time:

Anne Frank House

Our next stop was the Anne Frank House.  A ton of people stood outside leading us to believe it was the entrance – duh!  The entrance was around the corner were there were lines and lines of folks but very well organized.   It was a very modern building.

I had to book this 2 months in advance because it is impossible to just show up and get tickets. 

DIATRIBE STARTS!!!

We got there at our scheduled time and like cattle, were shepherded through the exhibit (or is that sheep).  Yeah, sheep because they really fleeced us.  The actual room (no pictures allowed of course) is empty.  You get there by entering at the new building then get let through about an hour long path with a very boring self-guided audio tour.  I say boring because I know most of the history of Anne Frank.  To us, it was a big rip-off to basically see a 5 minute view of a room.  Not only that, supposedly, her “actual” diary was on display and all we saw was a replica that was enlarged.  Though it was the main reason we went to Amsterdam, luckily there were escape rooms and one really awesome one.

DIATRIBE ENDS!!!