To Amsterdam

It's a well oiled show now when the Hansens take to the road (or rail) again! Out the door by 7.30am this morning to walk with our cases to Central Station, on the route we have checked in advance for smoothest surface and fewest hills. We need to travel to Midi Station for our Amsterdam train and, since the lift to the platform is not working (and I have sore ribs from a bit of a fall a couple of days ago), Ian carries the cases one by one down the two flights of stairs. The train for Midi has is already there so we, and our cases, hop on. At Midi there is plenty of time before our 8.52am train so we have some pastries for breakfast. Slight hiccup there because it takes much longer than anticipated but a burst of speed gets us onto the Amsterdam train in time. Collapse onto the train and Ian hoists each case into the top shelf of the luggage rack, the only space left. We are on our way again!

We arrived in Amsterdam around 10.45am and walked the short distance to our apartment. We were met by Harry, the owner who lives with his Japanese wife on the floor above us. The building is an old one but the flat is modern and minimalist, with a fusion of western and Japanese decor. The most obvious Japanese aspects are a raised platform with floor seating in the living room (in addition to a normal couch and rocking chair) and a Japanese toilet with multiple buttons which perform different heating and washing functions.

 The location is wonderful - across the square from the central station, with a view across a canal to the bright lights of the red light district!

View from our living room across the canal

Ours is the building third from the left.

Twilight view from our window

Amsterdam  Central station

This afternoon we went on a canal cruise - '100 Amsterdam highlights in an hour', free with our Amsterdam Card. It was a good way to get a taste of the city and the commentary was interesting.

Beer bottle creation on the deck of a houseboat

We followed that with a visit to Anne Frank's House. Luckily we had booked a time online and so avoided the queue which stretched for almost a block. It was quite surreal to be in the actual house where the Frank family had hidden from the Nazis and to read pages of Anne's original diaries. A very moving experience!

Anne Frank House, third from the left

There was an interesting area at the end of the house tour called 'Free2choose'. This presentation was an effort to encourage people to consider the fundamental rights to which each human being is entitled by presenting scenarios where basic rights could conflict with each other. For example, should a person have the right to stage a protest against what he considers to be Islamic fanaticism or does this conflict with the right to freedom of religion? Partipants voted electronically and the results were shown on the screen as part of the presentation. Issues were contemporary and relevant, and most of the participants seemed to be young people.

Our major observation about Amsterdam this afternoon has been the difficulty of walking in the streets. As pedestrians, we seemed to be in constant danger from bicycles - there are bicycle lanes on the footpaths and many more bicycles than cars in most of the streets. There is a three storey bike parking area next to the station which holds 3,000 cycles and we were told that there are a total of 9,000 cycles parked around the station each day. Most of the streets around here are one-way but a bike can come from any direction!

Some interesting shop windows