Left the cruise boat and transferred to the Movenpick Hotel Amsterdam - Center City. Large modern place right on the water. I'm updating this about 15 months after the fact, so I don't recall what water it was. A river? I'll update again after looking it up.
Went to The Maritime Museum. This was a large block like structure whose outside non descript appearance belied the interior. Very modern. Displays were well presented and the sections were logically arranged. There was a great section of maps and globes dating back at least 500 years. But the most interesting thing to me was the exhibit of model boats. Imagine a 4-5 foot detailed model of viking ship, or a 10 foot model of a spanish galleon. I was thinking it would be cool to put a little remote controlled motor in one of these things (and there were maybe 70-100 of them) and buzz them across a big public lake.
Ate lunch at Bordjes, a little restaurant next door to The Resistance Museum. Seems like we were in the middle of asparagas season which is apparently a very popular food in Amsterdam. I got a delicious asparagas soup. Very friendly people. Being next door to a tourist attraction, I imagine the Dutch who work there know how to deal with visitors.
Spent a couple of hours at the Resistance Museum. Some of the exhibits reminded me of old Playhouse Theater dramas about the cold war and the espionage between East and West Berlin. But of course it was all about WWII. There had been a sizeable Jewish population in The Netherlands and the Jews were respected as citizens. Jews were intricately involved with the resistance movement - not only because they had a reason because of their religion, but moreso because they were fighting for their country.
Walked to the Portuguese Synagogue and the Jewish section. Got a little lost getting back to the hotel. The streets/ canals run in semicircles! I actually had a map, which I'm usually good at following, and yet after about 10-15 minutes of trying to find a particular place, we ended up right back where we started. We did finally get directions from a native, but even then we made our fair share of wrong turns.
We finally got back (we walked the whole way) to the hotel. We were so exhausted. We ran into Steve and Brenda Lance from Ontario who were on the cruise with us from Basel. They had not eaten yet, so we had dinner together at the Hotel restaurant. Very nice and interesting couple.
Then we went back to our room and conked out!
Went to The Maritime Museum. This was a large block like structure whose outside non descript appearance belied the interior. Very modern. Displays were well presented and the sections were logically arranged. There was a great section of maps and globes dating back at least 500 years. But the most interesting thing to me was the exhibit of model boats. Imagine a 4-5 foot detailed model of viking ship, or a 10 foot model of a spanish galleon. I was thinking it would be cool to put a little remote controlled motor in one of these things (and there were maybe 70-100 of them) and buzz them across a big public lake.
Ate lunch at Bordjes, a little restaurant next door to The Resistance Museum. Seems like we were in the middle of asparagas season which is apparently a very popular food in Amsterdam. I got a delicious asparagas soup. Very friendly people. Being next door to a tourist attraction, I imagine the Dutch who work there know how to deal with visitors.
Spent a couple of hours at the Resistance Museum. Some of the exhibits reminded me of old Playhouse Theater dramas about the cold war and the espionage between East and West Berlin. But of course it was all about WWII. There had been a sizeable Jewish population in The Netherlands and the Jews were respected as citizens. Jews were intricately involved with the resistance movement - not only because they had a reason because of their religion, but moreso because they were fighting for their country.
Walked to the Portuguese Synagogue and the Jewish section. Got a little lost getting back to the hotel. The streets/ canals run in semicircles! I actually had a map, which I'm usually good at following, and yet after about 10-15 minutes of trying to find a particular place, we ended up right back where we started. We did finally get directions from a native, but even then we made our fair share of wrong turns.
We finally got back (we walked the whole way) to the hotel. We were so exhausted. We ran into Steve and Brenda Lance from Ontario who were on the cruise with us from Basel. They had not eaten yet, so we had dinner together at the Hotel restaurant. Very nice and interesting couple.
Then we went back to our room and conked out!
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