Amsterdam – Art, Architecture, History & Cheese

We spent 6 nights in Amsterdam – once again to meet up with friends. After a week of 85+ degree weather in San Sebastian, we found it ironic that it was 99 degrees when we landed in Amsterdam. Thankfully, that didn’t last long and the remainder of our trip ranged from cool and rainy to reasonably warm and sunny.

There are 3 “can’t miss” sights in Amsterdam and we hit them all. First, the Rijksmuseum, where you can see works by Rembrandt and Vermeer, plus so much more. The museum does a terrific job of marrying the history of the Netherlands with the art and other artifacts. They even have a small section of Asian art.

This picture is actually of two things: in the front, a statue of Buddah; behind two 14th century Japanese temple-guardian statues. These statues are placed at a temple entrance to ward off evil, but also to convey knowledge to those who enter the temple. We thought they were very cool.

In addition, the gardens of the Rijksmuseum have a fun fountain that turns on and off at random. You can walk in the fountain, you simply must time your entrance and exit well.

The second can't miss sight in Amsterdam is the Van Gogh Museum, which has a good-sized collection but was so crowded that we didn’t feel we could enjoy the art, especially because many of Van Gogh’s works are not very large. In our opinion, the museum could be designed better to create a better flow.

Finally, the Anne Frank House, which is designed well and, despite the crowds, highly effective at educating the public about a tragic story. It is compelling to be in the same place that the Frank family spent 2 years hidden away.

In addition to these well-known sites, we really enjoyed a morning canal cruise, learning about how the houses along the canals are intentionally slanted outward to allow for ease in hoisting goods to the top floors. Large furniture is still brought in in the same way exotic imported spices were in the 17^th Century. The architecture is beautiful, and the entire central canal district is a UNESCO heritage site. Each house is more charming than the next.

You’ll notice that some of the buildings in the second photo appear to be “dancing” – over the years, these have shifted on their pilings due to poor maintenance. But they have been reinforced, if not realigned.

While it was a grey morning, at least our canal cruise was dry.

Unlike for these people who we saw while avoiding the rain the day before our cruise:

Of course, we enjoyed the local cuisine, including the cheese. The cheese shops are ubiquitous and full of lots of different flavors of cheeses:

We had a cheese and wine lunch at Fromagerie Abraham Kef, which was fabulous and brought back memories of our favorite fromagerie in Paris, which unfortunately closed due to the impact of Covid.

The local sweet that we did not really try (other than a packaged version) was stroopwafels (syrup waffles), which the Dutch eat all the time. Stroopwafels are similar in concept to an Oreo, but instead of cookies with icing in the middle, they are waffles with a syrup filler. Watching them being made was mesmerizing and the smell was intoxicating.

We would highly recommend Amsterdam. It is a great contrast with Paris – a totally different feel, but also, surprisingly to us, more expensive. Every museum we visited charged more than the Louvre, which seemed a bit out of line. Nonetheless, we would definitely return.

More Dutch experiences to come,

Shana & Jeff