Two Beers and a Pretzel

Back before the Brits took over, New York was known as New Amsterdam, and Harlem was named after Haarlem.

I took the train to Haarlem after lunch and explored the town for a few hours before heading back for a home cooked Dutch meal.  The town has 2 main highlights.  The Frans Hals Museum, and the main Market Square.  The square looks very picturesque and old, but you realize how old when you go the museum and see paintings of the square from 1680 that look nearly like it is today.

There’s also lots of pretty, blonde Dutch girls everywhere…

Then I had a classic Dutch lunch – fries with mayo…

So, when you see a museum dedicated to a Dutch portrait master, you see lots of old paintings of people in black clothes with white frilly collars, and the men accessorize with black hats.  All very realistic, but somewhat monotone.

There’s also a historic windmill in town.

I had to get back to Dordrecht in time to have dinner with Ingrid – which included a surprise bike ride to the grocery store.

And then she slaved in the kitchen to cook me a home made batch of Boerenkool.

Someday I’ll put the video of Chef Ingrid online…

Ingrid had to work, and most museums in Europe are closed on Mondays – except in Amsterdam… so I hopped on the train and made a day of it.

I started at the Óur Lord in the Attic’ Church (Amstelkring Museum) and bought an I-amsterdam city pass for 38 Euro.. 

If you don’t know the story:  Laws were passed in the 1700′s to ban Catholocism from Holland, so Catholics had to worship in secret.  A German merchant bought 3 adjacent houses and built a hidden church on the upper floors.  Law enforcement decided to ‘look the other way’as long as the church was not obvious from the outside.  The museum was in the middle of a rennovation, so it was not easy to get decent pics.

From there I wandered around town a bit, thru some shopping streets and the redlight district.  The whole thing with the prostitutes is exceptionally strange – especially since they all look – um – ‘Well Worn’ might be how you describe it.  Not too enticing.  The Cannibis College and Marijuana Museum were pretty cool.  Both places specialized in touting the medicinal value of pot, and the economic benefits of hemp fiber.  As you can imagine – they were staffed by some very friendly and laid back people.  The highlight for me was seeing an electric guitar made entirely from hemp…

One museum I walked by had an exhibit on Oman and was part of the i-amsterdam pass, so I checked it out.  However, no photography allowed.  Interresting because some of my family live in Muscat.

I ended up at the Anne Frank House.  That was really sad.  I can’t imagine being Otto Frank and living thru a concentration camp to discover the rest of your family died.  Actually being in the house really made you feel like you experienced that history yourself.  Again, no pics allowed inside…

After leaving there, I was kind of depressed – so I opted for a long walk to the Van Gogh museum and saw some nice scenes along the way.

Once at the Van Gogh musem, there were no photos allowed (go figure), but it was included in the i-amsterdam pass.  The museum had a very cool exhibit of Van Gogh’s letters to his brother and linked his mental state to many of the paintings on display.  It was very interresting to be able to match his life story to his work and see as his style developed.

Once I left the Van Gogh, it was dark, so I wandered town for a while…

…and decided to swing back thru the Red Light District to see if it got any more interresting.

There was a lot more tourist activity, but the girls didnt look any better’- still not sure what the big deal is there…

The biggest shocker was the sheer number of White Swans hanging out in the canals – and the fact that they would swim right up to you to bed for food.

I stopped in a bar and had a few beers (and got a good 2nd hand buzz) waiting for my train.  I accidentally took the Sneltrain (slow) that made about 12 stops between Amsterdam and Dordrecht, so I didn’t get back to Ingrid’s place until 11:30 PM.

With the 3 museums I saw using the i-amsterdam card, I think I got my money’s worth

Today I’m catching up on the blog and other travel plans before taking an afternoon trip to Haarlem and coming back for some home made Dutch cooking.