Week 2: The Netherlands

Part 1: Amsterdam

After a week in London, I headed to the Netherlands, flying into Amsterdam.  I spent May 25–26 in Amsterdam (I just saw some sights there over the weekend), and May 27–29 in Leiden studying the Wadjak 1 and 2 Homo sapiens material from Indonesia.

I arrived in Amsterdam on Saturday night around 8pm, so I had planned to just rest, but instead I wound up wandering around for a bit looking for the Red Light District because it was really close to where I was staying.  Well, I didn’t find it (largely because there were so many people out (even though it was rainy, gross weather), and I saw hoards of people heading in one direction.  I figured that direction was likely where the Red Light District was, but decided I didn’t want to join the throng to get there and headed back to my hotel instead.

My hotel, Old Nickel, was above a bar, so I figured I’d just get a drink and hang out there for a bit before heading to bed.  I asked for a “Netherlands beer” and the bar tender gave me something that he said was “very local” and it was good, but I forget the name!  There was nowhere to sit in the bar (it was quite crowded), but there was a table of several people who looked to be about my age, and they were speaking English, so I asked to join them.  Turns out it was a group of friends who went to University of Cardiff in the UK together at the same time for their masters degrees, so they were having a reunion for the weekend in Amsterdam.  They were from the UK, the US, and Germany.  So I hung out with them for a while, and they said I “had to see the Red Light District,” so back out we ventured into the rain and low and behold, I was correct, it was where the throng of people from earlier was heading.  It was just as weird of a place as you might imagine…  It was described to me as the “Disneyland of Prostitution” because families would walk their children through there to see.  I didn’t see many families during my tour through, but nevertheless, it was a strange experience.

The Old Nickel Hotel where I stayed in Amsterdam.

Eventually we went back to the hotel and I, of course, had planned to go to bed.  However, remember how I mentioned that my hotel was above a bar… turns out the bar had live music that night until 3:30 am!!  And my room was *right* above the band.  It wasn’t all bad, I got caught up on uploading my pictures up to that point on Facebook as well as taking care of other various things I needed to online.  And at least they played good music.  Guess in the future when I read reviews of a hotel that say “it’s right above a bar and really noisy” I’ll be more inclined to believe them…

The next day I got up to have breakfast in the bar and again, there weren’t enough seats so I was sat at a table with a girl who looked about my age.  Eventually we got to talking and it turns out she’s a PhD student at the University of Barcelona (though she’s originally from the Ukraine) studying sustainability and she was in Amsterdam for a conference.  We had a lot to talk about, and she offered to help me if I need when I’m near Barcelona later this summer!

As for the rest of Sunday, I wandered around Amsterdam to see what I could see.  I didn’t go to any of the museums since I only had one day to see the city, but I am hoping to go back in the future and do so.  I had contacted one of the former grad students from my department (Jenna) who is now living in Amsterdam to ask her for recommendations about what to see and do, so based upon her recommendations, I walked to the Nieuwmarkt District to look around and then to Latei to try their apple tart.  Yum! 

Some of the goods available for purchase at the Nieuwmarkt.

My apple tart with whipped cream and coffee at Latei.

I also just walked around to see the city itself.  Amsterdam is of course full of canals, and thus far in my experience (Venice, Amsterdam, Leiden), cities with canals are quite lovely (as long as they don’t smell too much!)

Canal right by the Amsterdam Centraal train station and my hotel.

Another pretty canal.

This one's for all my bike riding friends.

A very "Dutch" view! 

In the afternoon I walked to a place called Felix Meritis where they were having an open monument day, so I got a tour (in Dutch) and then got to go up to the roof to get a nice view of the city.

View of Asterdam from atop Felix Meritis.

That's me at the top of the Felix Meritis building.

That evening I took the train down to Leiden so that I could start studying material at Naturalis, the natural history museum there on Monday morning.