borders and byways: Oct 10, 2017 Amsterdam to Athens

October 10, 2017 Day 9 Amsterdam to Athens

We woke up early, packed up, had some breakfast from our store of fruits and nuts, purchased a bus pass to the airport for use later that day, which I was unable to print, and checked out of the hotel while storing our luggage with it. We then walked a short distance to the dock for a canal ride. This too was on the I Amsterdam pass.

The canals are more than a pretty picture or an opportunity for waterfront property. For more than 400 years they have kept Amsterdam above water by draining the swampy landscape. Most of the canals were built up during the 17^th century when Amsterdam was flush with cash and lots of expensive housing, and desirable neighborhoods line the canals.

I am not certain exactly where we went on the canal ride, but we started in the southern canals on Singelgracht. We went west into the western canal region and then turned back east through the Golden Bend, lots of big houses. Through the Jewish Quarter we saw lots of large picture murals of life there before WWII. We then stopped near the Rembrandt house. Unfortunately, our ticket was not a hop-on hop-off. At this point in the trip we were in the Amstel River. We followed the river down to the Central Train Station where we again docked. There was a large parking garage for bicycles. Someone told us that the Dutch did not buy expensive bikes for commuting since they were frequently stolen. It seemed as if all the bikes we saw being ridden were very plain bikes. Passengers got on and off. After that we crossed the IJ River to a more modern neighborhood that had many very modern architectural buildings. We then went back across the IJ and into the Jordaan area.

We got off the boat about 4/5s of the way through the tour on the Prinsengracht Canal near the Anne Frank House. We did not go in there because when I went to purchase timed entry tickets prior to our departure they were sold out and we did not want to wait in what seemed to be a slow-moving line. (I had gone on line two months before our departure and saw that tickets could not be purchased that early.) So, we walked a bit around the Jordaan district, saw the Westerkerk, a large Dutch reform church that was built in 1620. It has a very large organ whose panels are decorated with animals and biblical scenes. Rembrandt who died as a pauper, is buried somewhere in the church.

There are a lot of interesting museums in this area (Tulip, canal) but we did not have time, so we walked up to the Rozengr and boarded the #14 tram to go to the Portuguese-Israelite Synagogue. (also on the I Amsterdam ticket This involved another brief trip across town, following some of the route we had gone on before, so I started to recognize things.

This is a handsome building that was the largest synagogue in Europe when completed in 1675. Amsterdam and its Jewish population were wealthy then. The synagogue is still in use. It has massive pillars and lots of brass candelabras that are still used to light he sanctuary since there are no electric lights. The outer buildings have an extensive library, rooms for the rabbi, funerals and grieving and a children’s area. Downstairs there are manuscripts and gold (lots of it) threaded tapestries. I think the church leaders helped to preserve this during WWII.

Our time was up so we could not go to the Jewish Historical museum on the same ticket, but instead go back on the #14 tram, transferred to the #10 and rode back to the hotel by about 1:09. There we picked up our luggage and walked 3 blocks to the airport bus stop. I had purchased tickets on line that morning, but had been unable to print them out. I waved my phone at the dispatcher and he let us on. The bus made more stops than I anticipated but we got to the airport as planned and after a bit of disorientation, found our way to an airport lounge to have some lunch. Food was ok, drinks were good as was the internet and it was calm. Not the ideal eating selection, but we thought that would offer us the security of getting to the airport and having cleared security, so we would not have to rush. Turned out to be not true. The lounge was in a distant terminal, so we had to take a train to our terminal. The train was entered by a locked door and we missed the first train because we did not dash through the door. Then we were locked in the train as it made several stops, apparently because those were at places outside of security. When we finally were able to get out there was a long walk to the gate, so we were rushed notwithstanding our best efforts. However, we made it to the gate, barely, for our flight to Athens, Greece on Aegean Airlines. The flight was OK, about 3.5 hours, but we lost an hour since Greece is the only continental European country in the EU not on Central European time.

The Athens airport was a bit shabby looking, especially after the glitz of the Amsterdam airport, but the bags arrived promptly. After we collected our luggage we went outside and found the #95 airport bus, just as the book stated. I had to walk a bit to purchase tickets, but at 6 euro compared to 50-euro cab ride it was fine. The bus left about a minute after we boarded. It was dark, but I could see the Athens neighborhoods we were passing through. Not glamorous, but it did not look like austerity. There was not lots of garbage, the street lights worked, the store fronts were not empty and there was a fair amount of traffic. The ride took about 45 minutes and dropped us off in Syntagma Square, a central point in Athens and, as I later learned, very close to our hotel, the Electra Palace, a fine hotel at not unreasonable prices for what it offered picked out by our traveling companions whom we were going to meet there. Unfortunately, there are at least two other hotels in that immediate area which also have Electra in their names, so using GPS and the well intentioned and friendly directions of others, we took a circuitous route of about 6 blocks to the hotel when it could have been 3 blocks. Big difference with big luggage. (I admit, I am not fond of taxis. They seem to cost more disproportionately than other modes of travel.)

After checking in to a very nice room on the third floor, we went downstairs to the grand lobby to wait for our friends to return from dinner. Upon their return we went up to the rooftop restaurant for some drinks that afforded us a glorious nighttime view of the lit-up Acropolis. We had to cut that short after an hour since we have an 8:00 am tour pick-up the next morning