Amsterdam
:: May 9 - 12 ::
Rested from a week in Brussels, we decided, on a whim, to do a 3-day visit to Amsterdam. 
Flixbus is becoming our economical, go-to transport for short hops; two and a half hours later we were walking along a canal to our center-city lodging. 
Our room was gingerly accessed by two and one half flights of stairs (more aptly: steep ladders. Oh, what Booking.com does not reveal!). Indeed it was clean and well situated. Around the corner, 
Though the trams were close by, we were challenged to pick the one headed in the right direction,. We also had the map out frequently when walking to destinations. This was more humorous than frustrating because, when we look at the map and the city's symmetrical semicircular canals, it looks to be the easiest city in the world to navigate. On Tuesday morning we saw more of the city than planned before we made it to the harbor waterfront
area, walking through the tiled Central Station Tunnel. After a short ferry ride, we had lunch in the Eye Film Museum cafe, a waterside contemporary building (2012) that houses a huge collection of Dutch and foreign films.
pondered the choices available to the Dutch population during the Nazi occupation 1940-45 --brought into sharp perspective by the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Rembrandt's painting of a militia company, The Night Watch,--recently repaired and restored--commands a central viewing spot.
Leidesplein (Leiden Square) is crisscrossed with the tram-bus lines and pedestrian ways we used; as well, of course, with the canals, streets, and bike lanes.
Architectural landmarks dominate the square, among them the Stadsschouwburg (Amsterdam International Theater 1894) and the American Hotels (1902) with its art deco interior. This square is an entertainment hub for cinema, music venues, theater, bars and draws the night life crowds--not that we had the energy to take advantage beyond the sight and ambience of it all on our way to convenient restaurants.
Though the trams were close by, we were challenged to pick the one headed in the right direction,. We also had the map out frequently when walking to destinations. This was more humorous than frustrating because, when we look at the map and the city's symmetrical semicircular canals, it looks to be the easiest city in the world to navigate. On Tuesday morning we saw more of the city than planned before we made it to the harbor waterfront
area, walking through the tiled Central Station Tunnel. After a short ferry ride, we had lunch in the Eye Film Museum cafe, a waterside contemporary building (2012) that houses a huge collection of Dutch and foreign films.
In the afternoon, at the Vertzetsmuseum, we learned the history of the WWII resistance and
pondered the choices available to the Dutch population during the Nazi occupation 1940-45 --brought into sharp perspective by the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.
(Note: as in other cities we have visited we saw many signs of support for the people of Ukraine.)
On Wednesday, we spent time in the Rijksmuseum, the renowned 1885 museum filled with 800 years of Dutch art--medieval age to the present. Compared to contemporary religious paintings and painters in southern Europe, the "Dutch/Flemish School" stands out for its use of light and shadow and its choice of daily life as subject matter : portraits, landscape scenes, still-lifes, peasant household scenes, the family groups, action canvases, market scenes. From the Golden Age Dutch painters of the 1600s we have the works of Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, Steen and so many others.
Marney got a peak at the flower market where hundreds of varieties of dutch bulbs are sold.
A walk to, around, and from Amsterdam's beautiful, large Vondelpark rounded out a pleasant Amsterdam Day.
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Our final morning in Amsterdam, we ambled around the corner for breakfast in the nearby Hard Rock Hotel American, which, despite its name, is an historic landmark. Later, after checking out of our hotel we purposely went the wrong way on the tram to have lunch across the street from the De Gooyer Molen (tallest of the historic windmills in the Netherlands). Then, we went on the tram the correct way to Sloterdijk station to wait until the folks at Flix found a driver to take us back to Brussels. They did!
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