A Quick Tour of Amsterdam

On the way back from our Thanksgiving trip to Poland, Sidney and I had a bit of a long layover in Amsterdam.  We looked around the airport for a while, even taking in the "mini-Rijksmuseum" with several Dutch masters displayed and described.  We tried the play area, but it was a little small for Sidney.  I finally went to the "Amsterdam City Tour" desk and inquired about their layover tours.  We found out we had enough time to do the tour, and after stowing our carry-on luggage in lockers, were escorted out to our tour van with one other person to take the tour.

Our first stop (actually, the only "stop" where we got out of the van) was one of the classic Dutch windmills.  It was a bit drizzly and there was a cold wind blowing in from the sea, so Sidney was not quite as happy about getting out as she normally would have been.  We were able to get a picture of the two of us in front of the windmill.  This particular windmill was built in 1636.  It serves as a private home, but is a functioning windmill as well.

We then drove into town past the main train station.  There were lots of bikes, and it reminded me a bit of Copenhagen in that respect.  Next, we headed into the city and across the canals.  There were lots of houseboats, as you can see, and they were in various states of repair.  Our guide mentioned that in addition to the numerous houseboats, lots of people own regular boats as well, as traveling the canals on a warm weekend afternoon from place to place is quite popular.

We drove past Anne Frank's school, as well as her family's apartment during this part of the tour.  This apartment was not the place where her family hid - that comes later.  We also saw lots of classic Dutch style houses, and were reminded of the little houses they give on the KLM flights in business class.  With all of Kimber's traveling, we have quite a collection of them.

As Amsterdam is a city of canals, it is also a city of bridges.  Some of these bridges turn into bicycle parking areas, as you can see on the next bridge up the canal.  The bikes tend to not park on heavily-traveled car bridges, though, which is good because some of these can be quite narrow.

We made passes by several well-known sights and areas, including the palace and some other sights.  Sidney took a little nap at this point (she woke up at 4:30 so we could catch our flight out of Warsaw).  This was good, because we passed through the red light district and past several "coffee" houses during this part of the tour.  She awoke, however, just in time to notice a large "rainbow" flag on one of the houseboats and point it out.  Our guide was kind enough to tell us there were several rainbow flags in that part of Amsterdam, which (fortunately) Sidney did not question as to why.

It wasn't long before we reached the house the Frank family hid in.  In this picture, you can see it down the street (crowd in front) with the church in the background.  This is the church Anne Frank mentions in her diary as being able to hear the bells of and see the tower of from their attic hiding spot.  You may also note there are barges in the water out front doing a shoring-up job on the canal wall.  In the other picture, you see the front of the house.  It is odd to see these things in person.  Unlike much of history, Anne Frank's diary makes the historical events of her time period personal, and to see these in person really bring it all to life.  When we got home, I got Sidney's biography of Anne Frank out and showed her a sketch inside that showed her looking out a small hole at the church.

Other places we passed included the "I AMsterdam" sign (Sidney's personal favorite), the Rijksmuseum, and the second-most important sight in Amsterdam (after the Anne Frank house)..., well, you can see it in the picture.

We returned to the airport after this, and had enough time to grab a quick lunch before going to our gate.

Amsterdam is certainly a place one could spend several days visiting, but if you happen to be going through Schiphol (that means ship hull in Dutch because they used to build ships there) Airport, take advantage of the city tour.  It doesn't take long and is well worth the cost.