Friday, September 30th:
After breakfast we were picked up at our hotel by the same driver that picked Josh, Theo, and I up at the airport. He helped load our bags and then drove us all to the Brussels Midi Rail Station. Not only did he help us unload our bags, but he took us to our platform and made sure we understood when our train was coming. Such great service!
Our train was a little bit delayed and there wasn't enough room in the racks for all our luggage (it was fine, we could just leave it on the floor), but the seats were comfy and the ride was smooth!
Our travel agent booked us first class tickets, so we had seat assignments and we got a complimentary chocolate croissant! The train traveled at 185 miles per hour and only had two stops, so we got to Amsterdam in just under two hours.
Once we got to Amsterdam Central I got a call from our driver. I told him we were trying to get out to the main pickup area, but we couldn't get through the turnstile. You have to scan your tickets to get out of the terminal and the reader wasn't liking my paper QR codes. Luckily, a worker saw us and came over to help. We found our driver, loaded into the black Mercedes SUV, and headed into the city. It was only supposed to take us 7 minutes to drive to our hotel from the train station, but the construction in the city was horrific! Our driver got us as close to our hotel as he could, and he had to drop us off in the middle of the street in a construction zone (they are installing railroads throughout the city). We gathered our things and went into the hotel. We had an hour to get checked in and walk to the dock to catch our canal tour, so I thought that would be plenty of time. I was wrong... kinda...
We tried to check in, but they couldn't find our reservation. And then once they could they said they only had two suites and only one of them was a handicapped accessible room AND that room was already taken. Okay. It is what it is. They gave us the keycard for our room and showed us where our elevator was. We had to go through a door and into a tiny room. From there we had to wait for a TINY elevator. No joke. This elevator was so tiny that we couldn't fit Theo's wheelchair in it without folding down the handlebar and putting the feet rest up and only one person could ride with him (barely). Once we were upstairs we had to go down a few stairs to get to our room. I tried to open the door, but the keys wouldn't work. Ugh. I tried the door next to ours and that one opened. I went into a nice room, but it only had one bed so I knew that wasn't ours.
I went back downstairs and talked to the front desk people again. The clock was ticking and I was getting nervous that we would miss our canal cruise. We finally got the right key, went back upstairs, got in the correct room, got Theo changed, and then hurried out the door to catch our canal cruise boat.
We got to the dock at 11:55 AM and the cruise was supposed to leave at noon. I showed the guy our tickets and he said he wasn't sure if we were going to make it. I asked him why not ("aren't we at the right spot?") and he said because we needed to cross the street and go to the other dock on the other side of the bridge to catch our boat. Ugh! I lead the team across the street (which is super scary because the bike riders are VERY aggressive). We made it to the right dock and I ran down the stairs to the ticket office. They said we made it (Yay!) and we were in the right place. Phew! We then had to figure out how to get Theo safely down these stairs. Josh carried Theo while I carried his wheelchair and Papa carried his carseat. See? It really does take a village.
We hurried and boarded the canal boat since it was supposed to leave at noon. And then we waited and waited and waited some more. Apparently they wanted to fill the boat a bit more before we left. Finally at about 12:20 PM the captain pulled away from the dock and the cruise started!
[Houseboats in the canal]
We saw the iconic "Dancing Ladies." A lot of the houses in Amsterdam lean in some way. If they lean to the side that means their foundational wooden beams are rotting and that can be a serious problem. If they lean forward, that is intentional. The houses are very narrow and their staircases are narrow, so if they need to get a large item (let's say a piano) to the third floor they use hooks on top of the houses to hoist the piano up to the third floor and they bring it in through the large windows. The houses lean forward slightly, so that piano doesn't hit the front of the house as it's hoisted up.
The "Dancing Ladies" are leaning to the side. So they have issues with their foundations.
[Dancing Ladies]
This is the Bridge of the 15 bridges. If you look straight down this canal, you will see 15 bridges all lined up.
Here's one of the hooks I was mentioned before. Most of the houses have them. Some are more obvious than others.
[Locks]
[Eye Film Museum and ADAM Tower]
[Grand Hotel]
Just like Bruges, you can see so much during a canal cruise, but it's a good idea to see the city on foot too! I am so excited to see more of this city during our walking tour tomorrow.
After the canal cruise we headed back to the hotel to drop off Theo's carseat and unpack a bit.
The two buildings in the center of the frame is our hotel: INK Hotel Amsterdam. The darker building on the right is where the main lobby is and the brick building on the left is where our room is! No joke! That front door that is at the top of the stairs is literally in our bedroom.
Here is our room. In the middle of the frame is a short dark drape. That drape is covering the door to the outside (it is welded shut). And those two large windows are the same windows in the photo above. Pretty cool, huh?! We leaned later that this hotel is called INK because it use to be an old newspaper printing house.
These buildings are so strange. In Amsterdam you pay taxes according to how big the front of your house was. So the wealthy would buy two houses next to each other and combine them to show off their wealth. While other wealthy people would buy two houses next to each other, knocked down the interior wall, and combine the inside, but leave the exterior as it is. So from the outside it looks like two houses and on the inside it's one large house. Our hotel, like a lot other buildings, is very misleading. From the outside it looks like two house, but once you get inside it is huge and extends very deep.
Here is the front lobby once you go in through those dark doors. It slopes down and extends pretty far back.
And at the bottom of that slope it opens up more and there is a restaurant and a bar. I love how they utilize the space!
After checking out the hotel we walked over to Winkel 43 for some lunch and to get a few pieces of their famous apple pie.
There was a huge line outside, so we knew we were in the right spot. Even though it was a bit chilly we asked to sit outside (there were a few steep steps to get inside). We got a few sandwiches and then two slices of apple pie for dessert.
Everyone agreed the apple pie was AMAZING! The crust is really thick and there are big slices of apples inside. I can definitely say it was the best apple pie I've ever had!
We then walked over to the Westerkerk. This was one of the first purposely built Protestant churches in Amsterdam. There are other older Protestant churches in Amsterdam, but they were build not as Protestant churches, they were converted during the Reformation. The church was finished in 1631 and Rembrandt was buried there in 1669. Since he was buried as a poor man (he made a lot of money while he was alive, but he really liked to spend it), it's not know exactly where he was buried. It's likely that 20 years after he was buried his body was dug up and the remains were destroyed. This was not a uncommon practice during that time.
The church is also famous because it was mentioned many times by Anne Frank in her diaries. She could see the clock from the attic and they could hear the bells of the carillon, which brought them comfort during their two years in hiding.
We then walked next door to the Anne Frank Huis.
The museum is not handicap friendly, so Josh and I got tickets for 4:15 PM and my parents got tickets for 5:15 PM, so we could trade off watching Theo.
Just a side note: If you plan on visiting you HAVE to have a ticket and they sell out fast. On the first Tuesday of every month the tickets for the following month are released. I put this date on my calendar and bought our tickets right when they became available. Go here if you are going to visit Amsterdam, so you can get your tickets. It's so important to visit this museum. Also, when you purchase your tickets you have the option to add on an "Introductory Program" for an extra cost. If you sign up for it, like we did, you are taken into a room and one of the educators will give you a 30 minute overview of the history of Anne Frank, WW II, and the persecution of the Jews before you go through the museum. We added this onto our visit and it was great, BUT you will hear a lot of the same information on your headset when you go through the museum.
At 4:15 PM Josh and I went to our "Introductory Program" and museum visit while my parents walked around with Theo. You are allowed to take pictures inside the room where this lecture takes place, but you are not allowed to take photos inside the museum.
I read online that it takes about an hour to go through the museum. So, I thought we would have plenty of time to see everything, but our "Introductory Program" went a little long and I felt like we had to rush to get through the museum since my parents had tickets for 5:15 PM. So, when you go make sure you give yourself at least 90 minutes to go through everything.
I've seen plays and movie adaptations, but something I didn't realize when I read the Diary of Anne Frank as a child was what the layout of the annex or "rear building" was really like. Like I mentioned before, the buildings in Amsterdam can be very misleading. Anne Frank and her family didn't hide out in the attic like I thought as a child, but they lived on multiple floors in the back part of the building.
Going through their hideout consisted of going up and down very narrow stairs and doorways. Everything creaked as we walked and it's understandable why they wore socks and hardly moved during the day (when the workers were in the building). We saw markings on the wall where the children kept track of their height and all the bedrooms and kitchen area. It's hard to see these things knowing how the story ends. After hiding for two years, the group was found, sent to the camps, and all but one (Otto Frank) would be murdered by the Nazi's. Anne and her sister, Margot, spent time at Auschwitz before being sent to Bergen-Belsen where they were murdered just 1-2 months before it was liberated by the Brits in 1945.
Although Amsterdam surrendered quickly to the Nazi's (they heard what happened to Rotterdam and wanted to preserve their city), the SS did not go easy on them. 80% of all the Jews in Amsterdam were murdered by the Nazi's before the city was liberated in 1945.
It's an awful story, but one that needs to be told.
After Josh and I went through the museum, we met up with my parents and Theo. We took Theo back to the hotel while my parents took their turn in the museum.
Instead of heading out into the city to look for dinner we just ordered room service and called it an early night. We have a busy day tomorrow!
