Upon leaving the ship and after a ship-organised canal excursion around the city, most passengers wanted to be taken to the airport. But as we were staying, we asked to be dropped at the main station, which we had ascertained (using Google Maps) was walking distance to our hotel. Our first difficulty was finding our way out of the station.
Since I'm here writing this, we obviously escaped the station and then successfully walked to our hotel - with our two bags each, plus accumulated hand-luggage. This experience turned out to be useful, as we would be catching the train to Paris in a few days, and now we knew our way around.
Having deposited our bags at the hotel we set out to see more of the city. Although the canal tour had been perfunctory: "on the left we are passing Anne Frank's House", it enabled us to tell one canal from another by the nature and style of the buildings. Four canals (really three and many halves) encircle the city concentrically with the Herengracht, having the 'poshest' houses, the second innermost.
Not far from the hotel was Dam square, overlooked by the Royal Palace (I know another Constitutional Monarchy) with a convenient café (or two), that I took advantage of more than once.
The city is famous for its legal sale of drugs: mainly pot (marijuana) and magic mushrooms (psilocybin). In parts of town, I felt that it might be possible to get high, just by walking behind a group of younger tourists in the street. Wendy says that she can't smell it - probably just doesn't recognise it - the result of an innocent youth?
Amsterdam is also renowned for the toleration of prostitution, where the sex workers are able to display their various attributes in shop windows. Most, if not all, the customers appear to be tourists. Mainly young men, although, the city was preparing for a large, upcoming LGBTQI+ event and quite a few mutually amorous, apparently same sex, couples were canoodling in local cafes and bars, like those in the main square. Like pot, love was in the air.
In the photo above the red curtained window has a notice informing potential customers that the woman doing business there will be present later in the evening. Nearby there is an entire street of such windows but they are not confined to that street. It's quite blatant, yet some women are past their prime and I can't imagine how there can be so much business.
I did notice that the women were more circumspect in their 'sign language' when I was with Wendy than when I walked through the same area alone.
Of course, one can't visit Amsterdam without visiting the Rijksmuseum. I've been there several times since the 1970's and on each occasion, there has been something different about the display of Rembrandt's famous painting 'The Night Watch'. Once it had been slashed, and on another occasion, splashed with paint. Now it's behind armoured glass like: Michelangelo's Pieta in the Vatican (St Peter's) and, as we would see later on this trip: Leonardo's Mona Lisa. It makes them harder to see and even harder to photograph.
But of course, the museum is not short of other iconic Rembrandts.
Nor is it short of the odd iconic Vermeer or two - indeed, there is far too much to see in one visit.
In addition to paintings and sculpture, it's a treasure trove of objet d'art and furniture, including some famous dolls' houses, ancient weapons and even a big model ship. There is also a large and beautiful library - housing ancient books.
Unfortunately, the Vincent Van Gough Museum (out the back) was booked out. Who would guess one now needed tickets? When I was there with Emily, in 1988, it was free (to us) and, as at an exhibition opening, we enjoyed complementary drinks and hors d'oeuvre, as we browsed the paintings.
Instead, we went to an art extravaganza, featuring the paintings of Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele set to music in an industrial building that was once part of a gasworks.
It recalled a big Klimt exhibition in Budapest (I think) that I also got to see free. On that occasion it was because I was an EC citizen (British) and of a certain age (no more - a citizen I mean). Quel dommage indeed!
This marks the end of Part 1 of our 2022 Europe Trip. Part two is in France and starts and ends in Paris. Part three includes Scotland and starts and ends in London. If I get the energy and perseverance to put them together.