een wandeltocht van Amsterdam

Amsterdam was amazing! I had a wonderful time despite the grey skies and cold weather. Amelia, Frommers (tour book) and I went on a walking tour of the city. We have tons more to see but we saw some great stuff.

Without a map, we made our first walking trip to the Haarlem train station and found it no problem. One train ticket later, we were on our way! I took lots of pictures so all of you can enjoy (or not) the picture version....although I highly recommended the in-person!

Haarlem Train Station

We started at St. Olaf's Chapel, which was built in 1425 and was said to be one of the first building in Amsterdam, built by sailors to give them a break from their long sea voyages and as a place to hold funerals.

So this is the first thing that we go to see, and we were excited to see such an old church. Well, we shouldve known something was wrong when we had to go into a hotel and get escorted into the hotel by a staff member. Odd, I thought, not a big tourist attraction and what does a hotel have to do with it?!? We got to the chapel and sadly it was purchased by the hotel and turned into a conference room. So we saw it, all set up for a meeting, with a projector screen and all! haha! You could still see the old characteristics of the old chapel. It was a bust but it gave us a good laugh!

Muesum Amstelkring

Our second stop, what appears to be a dutch canal house....yes, but hidden inside was an amazing Catholic church! A rich Dutch merchant bought three canal houses, and when Catholicism was outlawed in The Netherlands, which it was for many years, he built a secert chapel in the top stories of the canal houses. It was amazing to see! I loved it and never new about the Catholic outlaw! During the time, most of the Catholic churches were raided, destroyed or converted. People were forced to practice their faith in hiding for years, until it became legal again.

Chapel inside, called Our Lord in the Attic. It was under renovation but the pictures we saw prior had a beautiful, ornate altar, organ and decorations. Small masses and weddings are still held here.

The amazing view of St. Olaf's and St. Nicholas' Church from the chapel window.

The Dutch family actually lived here for years and later priests lived in the residence before it became a museum. Typical canal rooms. You can see the box beds.

Kitchen

It was a great stop and I highly recommend seeing it. There were many other hidden churches just like this during the time of outlaw. We were next off to see the Oude Kerk, a famous church were Rembrandt's wife is buried and people went to receive their marriage licenses. This church too was under renovation and inside had the CRAZIEST art exhibits. Not to mention it was in the Red Light District so walking outside the back door, you get a view of some ladies in the window!! Wow!

Church Inside

Oh the famous Red Light District! We were there before lunch so it wasn't too crazy and there were many people out. We saw a couple of ladies in windows. It was odd...they just stand/sit there and bang on the window when "potential customers" walk by. And let me tell you, these were no models in the window! Very interesting to see. And yes, there are actually red lights shining in the windows. No pictures from there....it is not allowed and I had no desire to take any!

Side street of the Red Light District. You can see all of the "coffee shops" aka places to go and smoke weed (or dope as Grandma calls it). The shops are all over and you sure can smell it! And no, I did not go and have no intention :) although they seemed to be popular places. There are some crazy stores you walk by in the Red Light District....crazy things they sell!

Beautiful Amsterdam! The canals are everywhere and it is all so picturesque. I couldve taken a million pictures like this one. I love the city! I cant wait to take a canal tour!!

Walking around I had to stop and realize that I really was in Amsterdam and that I live here!

For lunch, we stopped at an awesome Argentinean steakhouse that was delicious. I cut my steak with a butter knife, yum! We were then off to see a couple of other old houses and Spui square, which has a ton of places to shop. Off of Spui square is Begijnhof. Begijnhof is a group of houses in which elderly Catholic women of the church used to and still live. It was so pretty. It also contains a secret Catholic chapel.

This is a one of two timber homes in Amsterdam contained within Begijnhof. It was built in 1425 and survived the fire of Amsterdam.

Garden and houses of Begijhof

After an afternoon recharge of Dutch apple pie and juice we toured the amazing Koninklijk Paleis (Royal Place) in Dam Square. It is known as the Paleis op de Dam (Palace on the Dam). Sadly, the outside was under renovation so you can only see the tarps below. We toured the inside (picture not allowed) which was newly opened after renovation.

The now Palace was originally built to be the town hall of Amsterdam but was taken over by French Kings. It is still a royal palace but is only used for special occasions, as the royal family lives in Den Haag. It is BEAUTIFUL!! I could defiantly live there! We got to see all the rooms decked out with their velvet covered walls, expensive furnishings and so many gorgeous chandeliers, I lost count. We thought that was a great note to end on.

We thought about taking this taxi outside the palace...but walked through the snow/sleet instead.

Amsterdam train station at night

All and all, a wonderful day! My legs are pretty tired from all the walking but it was totally worth it. Tomorrow, we plan on going back to check out more sights...there is still TONS more to see! Hope all of you enjoyed it!


al mijn liefde