October 9, 2017 Day 8 Amsterdam 2
I had a plan to visit several attractions that minimized
travel time and included a lunch break. It all went up in rain. We ate some
fruit and energy bars in the room for breakfast (breakfast in the hotel was 20 euro)
and got out to the tram station about 10:00, We just missed a tram, but not to
worry, they come very frequently. However, we noticed that as the next tram
rounded the corner into view, it stopped, the driver got out and did something
to the track and many passengers got out. When it resumed moving, it turned on
to another route. The next two trams also were diverted on to the alternative
route. By this time there were a lot of people waiting at the station, but no
one seemed to know what was going on. The electronic timetable at the station
showed that the trams would continue to arrive, but gave no indication of an
interruption in service. So, we, and a few other passengers went to the other
route and boarded the next tram. I was not sure where to disembark. The
conductor and some passengers told me to get off at the Dam stop, which we did
but the Dam was not visible.
I did, but was confused. By now it had started to rain,
which meant my phone and map were getting wet. We finally found our way into to
the Dam, sort of Amsterdam’s version of Times Square, but bigger, more open,
without vehicles and of course, older. The southern part is the divine spot
where Amsterdam was founded around 1270. It is surrounded by major buildings,
including the Royal Palace (which I could not find the entrance to), Bijenkorf,
a major department store, Madame Tussauds, the National Monument, a 22-ft. high
pylon dedicated to Holland’s WWII dead and Nieuwe Kerk, “new church”. The
latter was built in 1408. It is the site of Dutch coronations and royal
weddings. It is a very large structure with an imposing organ. It no longer
functions as a church, but is a site for multimedia exhibits and concerts. We
saw an exhibit about Ghandi, King and Mandela. It contained clips from all
their American movies. We spent a long time there. Part of the I Amsterdam pass, so we paid no
fee.
Still raining so we walked down to the Amsterdam Museum. Also
on the I Amsterdam pass. The building is a former orphanage. The museum’s
exhibits walked through the twisted turns of Amsterdam history in seven
sections. The city got started as a dam on the IJ river and after enough
herring fishermen gathered there the Count of Holland granted a charter and toll-free
status to the residents. Amsterdam really took off in the late 16th
century when the northern 7 provinces of the Low Countries broke off from Spain
and Amsterdam was made the capital. That
began a 100+ year period when the Dutch were a world power, “the Golden Age.”
Jewish refugees from Spain (they called themselves Portuguese because Holland
was at war with Spain.) and Antwerp (conquered by Spain) taught the Dutch trade
routes and helped to create the Dutch East and West India Companies (which had
virtually no interests in India). They quickly dominated European trade routes,
controlled trade with China and monopolized the North Sea fishing industry and
Artic whaling industry. By midcentury half of Europe’s merchant fleet was Dutch
They also dominated the diamond cutting industry. Holland was very tolerant and
welcomed all religions and ethnic groups, its only religion was money.
Alas, from Holland’s and Amsterdam’s interests, England
emerged from civil and religious war and started flexing its maritime muscles.
It passed the Navigation Act to restrict Dutch shipping from England and its
colonies (notably India) and it grabbed New Amsterdam (renamed New York). Louis
XIV invaded the Low Countries and Dutch prosperity declined. Another blow was
the British blockade of the Dutch coast when the Dutch supported the American
revolutionaries. The British lost that war, but they seized all the Dutch
overseas trading posts causing the bankruptcy of the Dutch East and West India
Companies. The final blow was Napoleon’s
conquest of Holland. (He installed his younger brother as King) The British
blockaded again and that was the end of Amsterdam’s position as a major trading
center. They regained their independence in 1815 because of Napoleon’s defeat,
but they were a backwater for a long time thereafter.
The Dutch were neutral in WWI and again proclaimed their
neutrality at the outset of WWII. They were surprised and shocked at the German
invasion and bombing of Rotterdam since the German’s had proclaimed that the
Dutch were part of the Aryan brotherhood. The Dutch quickly surrendered and
Amsterdam suffered little physical damage in the war. The February 1941 strike
protested the German’s treatment of the Jews, but it was broken and only one
out of every 16 Dutch Jews survived the war, the lowest percentage in Europe.
One odd piece in the museum was a small wooden chest that
allegedly contained a Host (the wafer). The Host had been given to a dying man in1345)
who was unable to swallow it and vomited it back up. When the vomit covered
Host was thrown in the fire it did not burn and the man survived. The orphanage
got the wooden check in 1578 when Catholic property was divided up. Sick small
children who sat on the chest were alleged cured.
There was also a section on bicycle use. It appears as if
many of the resident’s bike almost everywhere, regardless of age, sex or the
weather. We then descended through a series of maze like tunnels, some of which
were lined by reflecting orange mirrors to the Civic Guard Gallery. The Civic
Guard was a group of leading businessmen who funded personnel to keep the
peace. There were lots of large portraits by Rembrandt of the members with
varying collars and a more modern version of that picture which incorporated
Anne Frank, Al Heineken and joint smoking personalities from modern Amsterdam. It
also contained his macabre picture of a doctor cutting into a corpse’s brain,
Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Deijman. There was
also a recreation of the Café’t Mandje, whose female, lesbian owner was an
early proponent of Amsterdam’s libertine attitude in general and gay rights
movement in particular.
We exited the museum seeking the tram line to take us to
Museum het Rembrandthuis, Rembrandt’s house. It was on the 9/14 tram line, but
we mistakenly got on the #4 tram that was also running on that same line in the
center city. It went the wrong way and we went several stops beyond our turn
off. So, we had to get back on the #4 and retract our steps. We got out at Rembrandtplein.
This is a plaza which has a Rembrandt statute that was erected in 1876 with him
gazing into the Jewish quarter where he briefly lived. I have gotten no
explanation as to why there are a lot of soldiers positioned at the base of his
statute, but there were lots of tourists there. We were running out of time so
we were unable to avail ourselves of the many cafes on the plaza.
Amazingly, when we got back on the tram I repeated the same
mistake. This time I recognized it quickly and we got off, retreated one stop
and took another tram one stop to the Rembrandt house. It is a large structure,
but not noteworthy from the outside. The house was built in 1606 and Rembrandt
bought it in 1639, at the height of his career, for the then fabulous sum of
13, 000 guilders. The purchase was possible only through the assistance of his
wealthy wife. She died very young in 1642 leaving him with two young boys. The house ultimately caused Rembrandt’s
financial downfall even though he was a very successful painter who also made
money from teaching and as an art dealer. He produced the group portrait Night
Watch in 1642 which contained many of Amsterdam’s financial elite. All had paid
100 guilders to be included in the picture. However, those not in the front row
complained. Rembrandt told them where to shove their complaints and suddenly
commissions dried up. It did not help that he had an affair with his sons’
nanny and after kicking her out in a messy public affair, took up with the
housekeeper. Ultimately, he was unable to pay off the mortgage and in 1658 the
house, along with its effects, art works and the curiosities he collected to
aid his art, was sold in bankruptcy. That proved to be a boon for historians
since due to the debt collector’s itemized list the museum has been able to
reproduce the interior of his house very authentically.
The basement area had a video about Rembrandt’s life and
painting. According to the commentator he painted a lot of soft porn on
commission for old, dirty, fat men. The first floor was well furnished with his
and other’s pictures. It had the living room, his bedroom (he slept in what
seemed to be a very small box bed), the kitchen and anteroom where he
entertained clients. Up a narrow staircase took us to his large, well-lighted high-ceilinged
studio. There was a demonstration of his etching process, and showing how he
mixed paints and where the raw materials came from, as well as their qualities.
Across the hall was his “cabinet” where he stored the curiosities he collected,
seashells, glassware, stuffed alligators and lots of Roman busts. Supposedly this collection was very expensive.
The top floor had lots of his etchings and studios for his students, 50
guilders per semester. The etchings, and
the non-portrait paintings, such as the Jewish Bride, that he produced later in
his life when freed from commissions, did not produce as much money. He died in
1669 following the death of his sons.
We walked toward center city and ate at Skek. A very casual
place supposedly run by students. Good beer and food. We then walked to the
Central Train Station and took the #2 tram back to the hotel.
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| Amsterdam at Night |
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