Port 99 Amsterdam, Netherlands

by Ed · Published July 9, 2022 · Updated July 29, 2022

Hallo! Goedemorgen! (Hello! Good morning!)

The weather is near perfect as we enter the river to Amsterdam on 21 Jun, 2022!

On the starboard side a pretty lighthouse complex is near an old fortress on the riverbank.

The angels play tic-tac-toe in the sky again!

There is a lock protecting the river from the tides. We are joined in the lock by a huge crane on a barge with its tugboats. We only have about a six-foot drop to get to river-level.

This building is visible to the west while we’re sitting in the lock. Would you believe this is an apartment building? It is called Watertorenpad 25.

Near the previous tower is another interesting tower, also not far from the river locks. This is the Velsen City Hall clocktower.

After a very scenic ride down the river we arrive at our dock in the heart of Amsterdam! This is a gorgeous facility flanked by two hotels!

As we approach the gangway the sign on the side of the cruise terminal comes into focus! I love it!

Joy and I have a tour for a short introduction to Amsterdam – “The Heart of Holland” – including a canal ride!

On our way into the terminal we are greeted by a cow and wooden shoes! Big wooden shoes!

The bus ride is only five minutes to the middle of town to start the tour! I see this renovation work and wonder what are we missing? It looks like a beautiful church! Based on what I can see through the netting, this should be the Church of St Anthony of Padua.

The belltower of Westerkerk peeks at us down the street! We’ll get closer in a moment.

This flowery bicycle caught our attention, and the canal scene behind it is lovely! The writing on the bicycle says “I love Michelle”!

That’s Montelbaan Tower in the distance, part of the original protective wall around the city.

This was Rembrandt van Rijn’s house and the location of his studio where many of his great paintings were created! The canvas for the huge painting of “The Night Watchmen” could not fit inside his studio, so he created a tented space in the back to make that painting! It was the largest painting he ever made. Each person in the painting paid him 300 guilders to be in the painting! Needless to say, some were delighted and others were not, since Rembrandt made it a very dynamic scene, and faces were partially obscured by extended arms and objects! I’ll show you a picture of this painting soon!

Around the corner – Westerkerk! I told you we’d get closer! This is the church where Rembrandt is buried.

Femka, our tour guide, explains that pilings are placed in the canal to define personal areas in front of the homes to give the people some land to plant gardens! She said some people just put furniture in the area to have a place to hang out! I think we only see gardens today!

This was originally the headquarters of the East India Company! It is a beautiful renaissance building, and is now the Universiteit van Amsterdam (University of Amsterdam).

This was originally the Office of the Admiralty! The elaborate carvings in the pediment speak to this nautical background!

This is now the Grand Hotel!

We reach the Dam Square! Along the west side…

…is this fabulous Palace occupying the entire west side!

This began as the town hall, but when Napoleon Bonaparte made his brother, Louis Bonaparte, the King of Holland, Louis took this building as his palace! When he announced to the people of Holland he is their king, he mispronounced the word for king (koning), and instead he declared “I am the rabbit (konijn)of Holland!”

(This is similar to John F. Kennedy’s faux pas in Berlin when he claimed he is a donut (berliner)!)

Tucked in the northwest corner is The Nieuwe Kerk (The New Church)!

Just south of the Dam Square on Rokin street is this interesting statue! It is called “Woman’s Face” but it has two faces. Someone said it is a fountain, but I see nothing fountain-like about this.

As we have seen in other cities, bicycles are a primary mode of transportation since streets are narrow and parking is almost nonexistent. But look at the ocean of bikes! How can you ever find yours?

Femka tells us most people plan to buy three or more bicycles a year. Many are stolen then tossed in the canal to hide the evidence when the thief no longer needs it! Canals are regularly dredged to remove the debris, and over 600 bicycles are pulled out each month!

While the group is enthralled with a story Femka is telling, this equestrian staue catches my eye and I wander over for a closer look! This is Queen Wilhelmina, who reigned well into the 20th century, riding side-saddle! This is a worthwhile diversion!

Next we visit Het Begijnhof. This began as a community of “Begijnen” – pious Catholic single women who did not want to join a convent or take vows, but still wanted to perform kind deeds. When the English took over and the English Reform Church arrived, England made open practice of Catholicism illegal.

A couple of the women in the Begijnhof joined their houses to create a hidden Catholic Church inside!

This church is wonderful! It extends to all three floors!

The original Catholic gothic churce was given to the English Reform Church, so this church also stands on the Roman Catholic grounds of the Het Begijnhof.

The interior is quite airy and colorful, and no longer looks like a Catholic church. I’m sure the altar and all of the Catholic icons were removed and used in the hidden church.

We walk over to Singel Canal to begin our canal boat tour! Joy and I snag the front row seat under the premise airflow will carry any COVID-laced breath from our fellow passengers away from us!

Looking back at the people behind me I feel like I’m riding in a prison bus! Don’t these people know they’re supposed to be having fun? They’re on a cruise tour!

And of course, only Johnny is wearing a mask! (We are, too, but you can’t see us! We love Johnny and his wife, Diana!)

One of the strangest sights we see is the Cat Barge! A lady wanted to take care of cats, but apartments forbid them, so she modified a houseboat to harbor dozens of cats!

Not a great photo, but I want to point out that this is Anne Frank’s house. She was a German Jew who hid to avoid persecution by the Nazis. She gained notoriety when her diary documenting her life in Nazi Holland was published!

I catch a glimpse of Munttoren (Coin Tower) as the canal boat navigates a three-point turn in a complex intersection!

We pop out on the River Het, next to the NEMO Science Museum. This building is described by some as the Titanic sinking! Next time we’re in Amsterdam I’ll want to check out the museum! There is a park on the roof! You can see the trees up there!

This beautiful edifice comes into view on our port side as we head toward the train station. This gorgeous building is the Grand Hotel Amrath Amsterdam!

By the way, do you notice the boat on the right has a somewhat triangular board on its side? That’s a swing keel to allow this shallow draft boat to navigate the canals without a deep centerline keel! Sights like this are, to me, unusual, but here they are very common!

We come to the train station, Amsterdam Centraal! From the street this looks like a phenomenal palace! From the river (and any Google map view) it looks like two very large quonset huts!

As the tour ends, we return to the ship, so my gratuitous photo of Insignia is from the canal boat today!

In the evening I’m back on another canal boat with Keith and Ilona Hayden, our new Canadian buddies! We’re on our way to the Maritime Museum for an evening of festivities and desserts! You can see we chose our table very carefully – we get all of the champagne! Well, not all of it…

Less than ten minutes later (barely enough time to enjoy a glass of champagne!) we arrive at the Maritime Museum!

In front they have a replica of the ship, Amsterdam. The real ship sank on her third voyage. This replica is built to spec, but the decks were given more height for tours, so there would be less banged heads! Even the rigging is simplified, so I don’t feel a great desire to include detailed photos of the ship in today’s post. But this boat looks grand in front of the Maritime Museum!

On dock we are greeted by a group singing wonderful sea chanties!

I’ll also mention there is an entire cast of characters adding to the fun of the evening! I met the Captain of the ship and a busker doing his juggling act on deck – I tossed him a euro! Joy met the King of Holland! There were lovely ladies directing us, and this crew of raucous singers! I’ll show more in a moment!

This is the Royal Barge used to transfer the King around the waterways! A crew of twenty rowers provided the power!

Inside a beautiful siren plied her vocal charms to lure me in! She caught my attention, but fortunately I was immune to her call!

In the hall we were entertained by some folk dancers!

While we enjoyed several decadent Dutch desserts a string orchestra performed about ten songs for us, from Mozart to Pirates of the Caribbean! The lady in blue is the conductor and first violin!

A soprano joined for some lovely vocals, but I didn’t get a good photo of her on stage. On stage a microphone was in the middle of her face the entire time. Grrrr… So here she is as she entered the hall, singing as she walked to the stage.

The finale of the evening was a live rendition of Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch”! Here’s a copy of the painting.

And here’s a snapshot of the live rendition! There were drummers on the side providing the cadence for the crew and adding excitement to the air! It was a great evening!

Back on board I take in the evening air and grab a photo of the lights! Very pretty!

We’re not going anywhere tonight. We have another day in Amsterdam! Joy and I decided we are going to skip our tour to Volendam and Marken tomorrow and spend the day walking around Amsterdam some more!

On day 2 we walk to the train station and learn how to read their mass transit map – they have trains, trams, and buses here, so the map is quite busy! We take the tram to the Van Gogh stop, which is next to the Rijks Museum that holds a lot of Rembrandt and Vermeer paintings! The VanGogh self portrait is even here, but, alas, it has been loaned to another museum for a few weeks.

The Rijks Museum halls are beautiful! There are multiple levels and each hall is well laid out, so it is relatively easy to find what we want to see!

Here are a few examples of what I wanted to see!

This is a self-portrait of Rembrandt as the Apostle Paul. Classic!

Then this is Johannes Vermeer’s “The Milkmaid”. Another classic painting!

Finally, I was surprised to pass “The Laocoön Group”! I remember studying this in high school Humanities class! (Thanks Mr Price and Mr Brewer!) But I thought the piece I studied was in marble, not bronze! Laocoön is a Trojan, and in this piece he and his two sons are being attacked by snakes!

A little research confirms my thoughts! The marble I remember studying is in the Vatican!

We leave the museum, find some lunch, then continue our walk around town. Imagine our surprise to see the Wall Street Charging Bull’s cousin in Amsterdam! A-ha! The same artist made both!

Joy takes me to the red light district! She says we gotta do it – it’s a once in a lifetime must! It is very benign today! Maybe we’ll need to come back.

Earlier we saw De Nieuwe Kerk (The New Church). This is De Oude Kerk (The Old Church). Pretty clever naming, huh? But this is a fabulous building! Maybe next time we’ll be able to see the interior!

I’ll give you one more look at the Amsterdam Centraal train station before we board the ship. Wow! Wouldn’t it be nice for buildings to be built like this again, instead of 100-story glass monoliths?

It’s time to push off! The train station is visible – see the huge quonset hut?

As we pull away from the berth and the Muziekgebouw you can see the NEMO Science Museum and the masts of the Amsterdam at the Maritime Museum. Not very far away, huh?

I love Amsterdam! It’s very easy to get around. Mass transit helps, and everything it pretty close – less than a 30 minute walk to just about everything you’d want to see!