Western Europe - Day 7

Amsterdam (NETHERLANDS) Weather forecast 2 - 10°C Artemis Hotel

Cycling is key to the city’s character, and there are numerous bike paths

So what's the difference between The Netherlands and Holland? The Netherlands (Kingdom of the Netherlands) is the country as a whole while Holland is just the two provinces of North and South Holland. The name "Holland" is often wrongly used to represent The Netherlands.

The Netherlands is a flat landscape of canals, tulip fields, windmills and cycling routes.  An extensive system of dykes, pumps and sand dunes along the coast kept the Netherlands above water. Dykes are walls built to keep the water out while pumps operate continually for the same purpose.

The suffix "dam" is added to the name of many Dutch cities such as Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Volendam etc. The reason is that "dam" means "barricade" in English. These cities were enlarged by reclaiming land from the sea.

The land is threatened by flooding from both the sea and rivers.

Amsterdam (capital of The Netherlands) is home to the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum and a trove of works from artists including Rembrandt and Vermeer remained from the city's 17th-century "Golden Age."

THE HERO OF HAARLEM
The Dutch are an interesting people. There's Batavia (Jakarta) which they occupied way back when. Dutch is Holland, potatoes, The Boers, Dutch Lady (the dairy product) and the condensed milk we grew up with. Dutch is Van Gogh, Rembrandt and the movie Brush With Fate. Dutch is also the expression "Going Dutch" (meaning each person paying for their own expenses in a group function.) 

But the Dutch I knew began at school with a story about a little Dutch boy called Hans who saved his country by putting his finger in a leaking dyke. Much of Holland was reclaimed from the sea with massive dikes, wide as road. Legend has it Hans saw water trickling from a hole in the dyke and seeing the danger, plugged the hole with his forefinger. He stayed there all night in spite of the cold until the adults of the village found him in the morning and made the necessary repairs. Everyone in Holland knew that little holes in dykes soon grow into disastrous floods.

The idiom "Put your finger in the dyke" originated from the above story.  Meaning:  "To make a small effort or action to mitigate the damage or spread of something unpleasant, undesirable, or dangerous."

Zaanse Schans (NETHERLAND)  Our day began with a visit to the Cheese and Clog Factory to see how the world famous Dutch cheese were made in the traditional way. Artisan workshops demonstrate rare handicrafts such as wooden clog carving, barrel making and pewter casting.

Zaanse Schans is a neighborhood in Zaandam. (near Amsterdam)

Zaans Museum has regional costumes, model windmills and interactive exhibits on chocolate making.

Diamond Factory

Wooden Clogs

Windmills and little green wooden houses were relocated here to recreate the look of an 18th/19th-century village.

narrow houses with gabled facades

Cheese Factory

Dutch dandy ducks and ducklings dallying near dyke.

Volendam (NETHERLANDS) From Zaanse Schans (Cheese & Clog Factory) we drove further on to Volendam. Volendam is known for the old fishing boats and traditional costume still worn by some residents. The women's costume with its high pointed bonnet is one of the most recognizable of the Dutch traditional costume. A seafood lunch had been arranged for us at Volendam.

That's the sea on the left and the tiled dyke on the right.

The coach dropped us at a parking lot in what looked like the middle of a residential area. A row of houses stood against a concrete wall at the far end of the parking lot. We were herded towards a metal staircase between two of those houses. Going up the staircase, we ended up on an embankment looking out to sea. This was the modern version of the dyke. The tiled road on top of the dyke allowed pedestrians and cars access to the restaurants and shops located around the bend at the end. The upper floor of the houses by the embankment had a frontage to the top of this dyke.

Mr Edward had slipped and hit his back against the metal staircase while on the way up. He was in pain and continued to be in pain until the end of the trip.

A distinct feature of Amsterdam's houses is that they are rather narrow. This is because taxes were charged based on the size of the building's facade. So the wider the facade, the more tax you pay.

Sea at the far end. Scene from around the bend at the end of the dyke.

SEAFOOD LUNCH Fried fish fillet Fried prawn Salad potato wedges little carrots vegetable soup with bread

Amazing view

After lunch, we went on a river cruise on board the glass-doomed water-bus along the canals of Amsterdam. Gabled canal side building, houseboats and bikes dotted the scenery. I was hugely disappointed for I had expected this river cruise instead.

Houseboats of different style and form bobbed along the canals.  Some of these are available entirely as an apartment while others offer B&B. Here's a "No Parking" sign for houseboats.

Houseboats

Most houseboat owners do not pay property taxes because these fees are paid by the marina. Buyers pay sales tax upon purchase, plus insurance and dock rental fees.

There are around 2,500 houseboats in Amsterdam, many of which are moored in the city center.

Endless canals and bikes.

The 'XXX' symbol are easily spotted on buildings, flags, manhole covers and even on the poles that stop cars from driving on the pavement. These three crosses on Amsterdam's flag represent the three dangers of Old Amsterdam: fire, floods the Black Death

"XXX" symbol (on flag)

Windows in Dutch architecture are big and spacious  while doors are mostly small and narrow.  Most homes in Amsterdam have narrow, steep, often winding staircases that made it difficult to bring large, bulky objects upstairs. Hence, the hook in picture on the right.

Hook at the top allows residents to pull large/bulky objects up and into a window at the respective floor.

Some theories about the “wide open” Dutch windows: old tax system – to show that there was nothing to hide. Dutch men used to be sailors and the windows were not covered to show loyalty of their women, waiting for them to come home and not having any affairs on the side.  their stairs and doors being narrow, building large windows was the only way to pull bigger furniture into the apartment. To capture more sunlight into the house.

The Dutch Window refers to the cultural tradition in The Netherlands of having open windows, thus exposing one's interiors for all to see.

Jewish diarist Anne Frank hid in one of the houses along this river during WWII.

The river cruise ended at the Gassan Diamond Factory where arrangements were made for a talk about how diamonds and precious gems were cut and polished.

RED LIGHT DISTRICT A walking tour into the Red Light District was in the itinerary so we met up with a local guide. We blended curiously into the seedy scene with other visitors and vagrants of the night. Risque exhibition was to be expected. *Photo shoots and selfies were not.

The Red Light area (NOT this) looked something like this. Cameras were not allowed on this walking tour.

*If you are caught taking pictures in the Red Light District, you could be beaten up and your camera confiscated.

Red florescent light lit up the interior.  Sex-oriented business were at every nook and cranny. Window prostitution is the most visible and typical kind of red-light district sex work in Amsterdam. The "sex-worker" (They are not to be called prostitutes) rents a window plus work-space off a window operator for a certain period of time, often per day or part of a day.  Scantily clad ladies arrayed themselves seductively across the glass window or door.  All of us were deep in thoughts as we watched in silence. We were not allowed to stop and gawk but to move along at a leisurely pace.

I was thinking of an octopus, its bare tentacles draped along the side of a fish tank when someone in the group remarked, "It is cold and we are dressed in multiple layers. Don't they feel cold with so little?"

"Heater inside the room," replied another.

"So they're being roasted?" continued another as the group broke into a muffled giggle.

"I wonder if they offer special packages you know, like a packaged deal." someone else wondered aloud. This was followed by more guffawing.

A golden haired young man of Middle Eastern origin staggered drunkenly towards us.  He sniggered surreptitiously with his partner before stepping towards a glass display. Standing on uncertain feet, he grinned lasciviously at the lady behind the door. She opened the door and looked at him with much condescension. A rapid exchange began as she looked disinterestedly behind him. The young lad was giggling like a schoolboy and looking as high as the sky.  We did not stay for the conclusion of this business.

Now these are things you don't see every other day, I mused as I whipped out my phone for this quickie.

Openly sold at the counter of a souvenir shop. CBD is the abbreviation for cannabidiol, one of the many cannabinoids, or chemical compounds, found in marijuana.

And then there were the "coffee shops". These are not the conventional place where we have our coffee and croissant.  They act as legal dispensaries for marijuana. There are more than a hundred of them dotted around the city, mostly concentrated in the Red Light District. Like any old cafe, the "coffee shops" have menus on the tables or pinned to the walls. They're often divided into weed, hash, pre-rolled joints, and sometimes "space cakes," which are sweet cakes baked with marijuana in them. They are easy to spot. The consumer inside usually stare dazedly into the distance or giggle maniacally at nothing in particular.

I wasn't sure what to make of Amsterdam. The walking tour had taken us through Chinatown and the Red Light District. While the former is nondescript, the latter is the only place in the world where religion and prostitution stood comfortably together. The Old Church in Amsterdam (Oude Kerk) is located in the heart of the Red Light District. It was surrounded by window brothels, bars, cannabis shops, toy-shop and magic mushrooms shops. The church is Amsterdam's oldest building, established in 1306 in the heart of its medieval center. We emerged from all this darkness and behold the Amsterdam Palace, a sight for sore eyes.

Western Europe - Day 6

It was expensive to pee in Europe. (vis-a-vis the conversion rate) One had to pay EUR 0.70 in Germany to access the pay toilet. In exchange you receive a coupon worth EUR 0.50 from the machine. Each coupon could be used to offset any single purchase at the store which had the pay toilet. The cheapest item at the store is EUR 1.00 so you get the general idea.

Leonardo Hotel

In Switzerland the pay-toilet cost CHf 1.00 and you are issued a coupon for the same value to be used at the same store.

Mr Edward had lost a considerable sum of money yesterday at Rheinfall. Following his loss, our fellow travelers started depositing their coupons with him. As for what inspired this decision, your guess is as good as mine.

For the EUR 0.70 that is paid you get to witness the auto-clean pay toilet at work. At the wave of a hand at the blue sensor, the toilet seat-cover rotated in an anti-clockwise direction. Detergent is squirted into the bowl. At the wave of the hand over another sensor, the flushing mechanism is activated. You wave your hand near the tap to wash your hands, then wave again at another sensor for the paper towel. We have a lot of those in our neck of the woods, I know, but the rotating toilet-seat cover was a first for me.

Heidelberg New Town

Opposite the hotel

Cologne (GERMANY) Weather forecast 13°C The morning began with a 3 hours drive to Cologne, the most ancient and busiest city in the Rhineland. It was a good time for Ms Yvonne (Tour Manager) to give us snippets of information she'd gleaned from Schindler's List.

Greatest and oldest Gothic church in Christendom.

"Hitler was an impoverished Austrian who hated the wealthy Jews," began Ms Yvonne. "He claimed that the Black Plague (one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people) was caused by the Jews. He had the Jews detained in concentration camps. They were shaven bald and their hair woven into floor carpets. They were made to run naked to see how many would fall, used as white mice in torture chambers, forced to sing the German national anthem at the edge of cliffs, then kicked off it.  They were packed like sardines and made to sleep standing up. Their teeth were used as fertilizer and women's breast removed for use as lamp shades. Those who survived all this were ushered into gas chambers to be exterminated and burned."

Cologne Cathedral (1248 - 1880)  i.e. about 500 years to be completed.

"This cruelty triggered a mutinous effort by 172 of his men to bomb him to smithereens. The mission failed. They were hung by their shoulder to be bled to death."

Ms Yvonne continued.  "The Allied Forces dropped The Little Boy at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That was the beginning of the end. Germany was divided into 4 parts. America, France and United Kingdom controlled West Germany and Russia controlled East Germany. The Berlin Wall kept the East from the West. Secret tunnels were built and in 1989, the Berlin Wall fell. Germany was united."

The Cathedral Law states that no other buildings in Cologne shall be higher than the Cologne Cathedral.

A moment of silence ensued.

"The one good thing Hitler did for Germany was to build the autobahn system. The Autobahn is the federal controlled  highway system in Germany." Ms Yvonne said in retrospect.

We reached Cologne at about noon. Lunch was at a Chinese restaurant directly opposite the Cologne Cathedral.  While we were exploring the Cathedral as well as the remains of the Roman city walls, Mr Edward went off with Ms Yvonne to make a report at the police station.

Fresh from Mr Edward's incident, we were alert and mindful of every dodgy character that crossed our path.

COLOGNE 4711 Eau de Cologne  meaning "Water from Cologne", or simply cologne, is a perfume originating from Cologne, Germany.  Originally mixed by Johann Maria Farina in 1709, it has since come to be a generic term for scented formulations. We left Cologne at about 2 pm for the 4 hours drive to Amsterdam. Traffic was bad.

The Original Eau de Cologne 4711, is named after the address of its maker at Glockengasse No. 4711. It is probably one of the oldest still produced fragrances in the world.

We crossed the border into the Netherlands and arrived at Amsterdam at about 6 pm. Dinner was a buffet selection with free flowing wine.