TRAVELS WITH FAMILY, part two: Amsterdam

This was my second time to Amsterdam and I was surprised once again by how tremendously beautiful the city is. Shame about it being built on the spoils of colonialist enterprises, but that fact doesn't exactly distinguish it from any other European capital. The family was delighted by the place and we were all smitten by the houseboat I booked for our stay.

ZEE BOAT 

It may not look like much from the outside, but this little boat was gorgeous. According to our airbnb host the hull was part of a floating bridge built over the river Waal in 1857 and she was converted into a residence in the early 20th century.

 

 Posing on the ramp

 

You can see her in the center here. 

 

We were just south of this bridge. The building to the north is the Hermitage. 

 

Not sure why the Hermitage has a Dutch location -- guess they ran out of space in St. Petersburg? 

 

View from the bridge. There were lots of houseboats in this neighborhood, though apparently the number of houseboats in the city is capped at 3,000.

 

Our warmly wood-paneled kitchen

 

There were stained glass windows throughout.

 

And jerkface swans that rushed over out hopefully when we opened the windows. 

 

Main bedroom and living room nook. The second bedroom was a traditional ship style nook just over the hull. 

 

I really really really didn't want to get out of bed in the morning

At night we lit candles, drank wine and tea, and cuddled up to our respective digital devices like a good 21st century family.

ZEE CANAL TOUR

The audio part of the tour was painfully cheesy and sorely lacking in historical context, but the views were great, and the sun even came out for a few minutes.

 

 

In which we all manage to look like mega-dorks.

We passed under the Westerkerk, just south of the Anne Frank House where I took the family afterwards. They say Anne could hear the church bells chime from her attic room.  Still such a powerful story.

Like a Michel Gondry movie there was a scale model of the steeple inside the church itself. 

And adjacent to it an old man in an old man vest with his hat hung atop the easel he was painting on.

View of the church from the nine streets district, just to go macro again.

EXPLORING WITH ZEE FAMILY

This was the only leg of the trip that Rick could join us for so we spent most of the first day just walking around and exploring the city center before we went split off to pursue our various interests.

Rick with pigeons

Mom in clog

Nick & Rick being shameless tourists

Thanks to homing devices implanted inside us many years ago we are able to find Scientology centers anywhere in the world

I love the houses that come right up against the canals. Dream homes.

Amsterdam had amazing book stores and I dragged the family into a few looking for one specific photography book. This was a wonderful gimmick in the fantastic ABC books (click on picture to make it bigger).

ZEE RED LIGHT DISTRICT

We didn't really set off intending to go into the red light district, but these days the place is so cleaned up that you hardly noticed you've entered it. Until you look down, that is.

Or up, I suppose.

Mostly though it's where you go to "taste culture" or to find "the place where the Chinese eat"

VINTAGE

Another surprise for me was all the wonderful vintage shops. There were at least four or five in the nine streets district and I came across two more while walking around with mom. I might have bought 3 hats.

 I have never seen such a concentration of creepy fur stoles featuring all manner of heads and paws. Yeech.

 

SEE. EWWWW.

 

WALKING IN ZEE CITY

I love almost nothing so much at exploring unfamiliar cities at my own pace. Happily Amsterdam has much to reward the Flaneuse.

Like twin houses, both painted classic Plague black, but sinking at different rates (you can see if most clearly just about the windshield of the motorbike, bottom center).

And houseboat fantasies.

And hot dog trucks interrupting otherwise tranquil scenes.

"Nieuwe Hipstergracht" Heh heh heh.

And art nouveau bakeries

And window cats

After the cat museum (sadly closed) and the cat houseboat (sadly a total disappointment), these felines were a welcome site.

On that theme, I really need one of these signs. I like how the cat appears to be inside a Victorian-era asylum.

A window display at the American food store. Expats miss strange things.

I can't close this post without CHEESE. This was just at our local (rather small) grocery store. When you see this many cheese wheels at once you just feel that all is right in the world.