Arriving into Amsterdam central station the night before from Paris: 4hrs 30 mins train ride.... When booking long distance high speed trains, highly recommended to get your tickets in advance... because of my kiasu self, I insisted that we purchase our tickets in May where we got them for 33 Euros. Met a couple of canadian guys on board the train who had just purchased their tickets the very day and paid 98 Euros for their tickets each... OUCH...
Starting point of the free walking tour and my first glimpse of the city of Amsterdam: Dam Square. Dutch names are very "as it is". So the name is derived from a dam that was built on that very spot on the Amstel river... which is also where the name "Amsterdam" came from... On the sides of the square, you can also see Madame Tussand's museum (surprisingly there was a line) and the Royal palace, where Louis Bonaparte stayed for a while during his reign as King of the Netherlands... In the middle of the square is the national memorial, designed in memory of the victims of WWII
Me in front of the royal palace.
Sex, drugs and the red light district: Below you can see Amsterdam's oldest church which is located in the heart of the red light district. In the past, it was convenient for Sailors to seek penance in the church after a quick tumble with the prostitutes. If they were afraid that they would not have time to seek penance before sailing off, they could purchase an indulgence pass PRIOR to visiting the brothels.... LMAO... you gotta appreciate how CAPITALIST the churches could be sometimes...
Only one of the many sex shops around the area...
I found Amsterdam houses really cute and unique... just somehow could not stop staring at them as we walked past the streets during our walking tour. Many of these houses are actually leaning forward... and this is because of how furniture is transported up into the houses. By fastening them with a rope and hoisting them up through the windows using an iron bar jutting out at the top front of the houses.... therefore inadvertedly pulling the houses forward... but no worries... these houses are still safe to live in... for now...
The city and its canals in general....
Former Dutch East India Company headquarters. Today it is a university building.
There is quite a prominent chinese community in Amsterdam, made rather obvious by this Buddhist shrine found in the Chinatown area. You can also find alot of Dimsum shops, most with offers of all you can eat for 1 hour for 8.50 Euros.... I totally skipped the rice/noodles and ran straight to the siew mai.... It might also be interesting to note that Chinatown is located next to the red light district area...
The cotton club holds a special meaning in Amsterdam for being the first club to allow racial intergration in the sense that blacks and whites were allowed to mingle openly in this club. This was a significant decision by the club owner which gradually allowed racial barriers to be broken down.
So it's quite funny, coz back home when I come from (Singapore), coffeeshop is a place where we got out for dinner, normal hawker fare food. But here in Amsterdam, coffeeshops are where you go to buy weed to smoke and get stoned. So in a way, the name has a double meaning for me here. I will blog more about sex and drugs in Amsterdam in my next post with a more in-depth explanation about what I learnt.... but in the meantime, just know what coffeeshops mean here in Amsterdam.
Hash museum and canabis shop for all drug-interested people...
Apparently peeing in public is a really big problem for this city, so they invented this anti-pee boards to prevent pple from peeing in the corners of the buildings. Before it used to be electric, but some prankster decided to up the voltage of these anti-pee barries one night, and some unlucky law violator got a nasty jolt. So today, no more electric anti-pee barriers, but apparently they still do the trick.
Former female prison! On the relief above the entrance you can actually see a female whipping a fellow female prisoner...
Heineken cart! It is quite embarassing... but I never knew Heineken was from these areas till I came here .. :P
Help!
Former Male prison...
Dampkring coffeeshop... made famous after being featured in Ocean's 12. It does have a nice decor on the outside, and according to our guide, is also highly rated among the weed fans for one of the best coffeeshops to smoke at.
Former post office...
Thinnest house in Amsterdam, just 1.8m wide... (look in the centre!) And a family actually lives inside there... there is a joke that the head of the family is taller than the width of his house...
Drinking some Dutch local beer and eating some local foods with our guide after the tour...
Anne Frank House They have actually built this glass modern building around the original house so you can't really see it from the outside. It is probably the only thing in Amsterdam that you really have to queue up for as we were about 20 mins to half an hour in the queue. It costs 8.50 Euros to go in. No student discount or anything similar I'm afraid. In the house you get to see the bookcase that hid the door to the attic from the main house, the rooms in which Anne stayed with her family and friends.... the more emotional part for me when we got watch snippets of the interviews given by Miep Gies, the Dutch employee who bravely kept the family's secret for 2 years and helped them to get supplies when needed. Another poignant interview which I saw was given by Hanneli Goslar, one of Anne's friends who had located Anne in the concentration camp she was in and how they communicated through the fence at night. For those who have read the book and are interested in the Holocaust, it is definitely a must see attraction in Amsterdam. No pictures allowed inside, so these are all just from the outside..
Starting point of the free walking tour and my first glimpse of the city of Amsterdam: Dam Square. Dutch names are very "as it is". So the name is derived from a dam that was built on that very spot on the Amstel river... which is also where the name "Amsterdam" came from... On the sides of the square, you can also see Madame Tussand's museum (surprisingly there was a line) and the Royal palace, where Louis Bonaparte stayed for a while during his reign as King of the Netherlands... In the middle of the square is the national memorial, designed in memory of the victims of WWII
Me in front of the royal palace.
Sex, drugs and the red light district: Below you can see Amsterdam's oldest church which is located in the heart of the red light district. In the past, it was convenient for Sailors to seek penance in the church after a quick tumble with the prostitutes. If they were afraid that they would not have time to seek penance before sailing off, they could purchase an indulgence pass PRIOR to visiting the brothels.... LMAO... you gotta appreciate how CAPITALIST the churches could be sometimes...
Only one of the many sex shops around the area...
I found Amsterdam houses really cute and unique... just somehow could not stop staring at them as we walked past the streets during our walking tour. Many of these houses are actually leaning forward... and this is because of how furniture is transported up into the houses. By fastening them with a rope and hoisting them up through the windows using an iron bar jutting out at the top front of the houses.... therefore inadvertedly pulling the houses forward... but no worries... these houses are still safe to live in... for now...
The city and its canals in general....
Former Dutch East India Company headquarters. Today it is a university building.
There is quite a prominent chinese community in Amsterdam, made rather obvious by this Buddhist shrine found in the Chinatown area. You can also find alot of Dimsum shops, most with offers of all you can eat for 1 hour for 8.50 Euros.... I totally skipped the rice/noodles and ran straight to the siew mai.... It might also be interesting to note that Chinatown is located next to the red light district area...
The cotton club holds a special meaning in Amsterdam for being the first club to allow racial intergration in the sense that blacks and whites were allowed to mingle openly in this club. This was a significant decision by the club owner which gradually allowed racial barriers to be broken down.
So it's quite funny, coz back home when I come from (Singapore), coffeeshop is a place where we got out for dinner, normal hawker fare food. But here in Amsterdam, coffeeshops are where you go to buy weed to smoke and get stoned. So in a way, the name has a double meaning for me here. I will blog more about sex and drugs in Amsterdam in my next post with a more in-depth explanation about what I learnt.... but in the meantime, just know what coffeeshops mean here in Amsterdam.
Hash museum and canabis shop for all drug-interested people...
Apparently peeing in public is a really big problem for this city, so they invented this anti-pee boards to prevent pple from peeing in the corners of the buildings. Before it used to be electric, but some prankster decided to up the voltage of these anti-pee barries one night, and some unlucky law violator got a nasty jolt. So today, no more electric anti-pee barriers, but apparently they still do the trick.
Former female prison! On the relief above the entrance you can actually see a female whipping a fellow female prisoner...
Heineken cart! It is quite embarassing... but I never knew Heineken was from these areas till I came here .. :P
Help!
Former Male prison...
Dampkring coffeeshop... made famous after being featured in Ocean's 12. It does have a nice decor on the outside, and according to our guide, is also highly rated among the weed fans for one of the best coffeeshops to smoke at.
Former post office...
Thinnest house in Amsterdam, just 1.8m wide... (look in the centre!) And a family actually lives inside there... there is a joke that the head of the family is taller than the width of his house...
Drinking some Dutch local beer and eating some local foods with our guide after the tour...
Anne Frank House They have actually built this glass modern building around the original house so you can't really see it from the outside. It is probably the only thing in Amsterdam that you really have to queue up for as we were about 20 mins to half an hour in the queue. It costs 8.50 Euros to go in. No student discount or anything similar I'm afraid. In the house you get to see the bookcase that hid the door to the attic from the main house, the rooms in which Anne stayed with her family and friends.... the more emotional part for me when we got watch snippets of the interviews given by Miep Gies, the Dutch employee who bravely kept the family's secret for 2 years and helped them to get supplies when needed. Another poignant interview which I saw was given by Hanneli Goslar, one of Anne's friends who had located Anne in the concentration camp she was in and how they communicated through the fence at night. For those who have read the book and are interested in the Holocaust, it is definitely a must see attraction in Amsterdam. No pictures allowed inside, so these are all just from the outside..
