Amsterdam
We arrived in the port of Amsterdam at 8 this morning. The little bit of fog we had earlier has burned off and it is bright and sunny and 68 degrees. A better day for visiting Holland’s greatest city could not be ordered. Although it is well known for its series of concentric canals those very canals, now the pride of the city, were really not begun before the 17th century. Today the city is renowned for the many elegant bridges which cross and criss-cross the canals. There are at last count 1,400 bridges in the city. Each of the canals is distinctive and we saw this first hand as we boarded our canal boat excursion. The Herengracht, or the Gentlemen’s canal, is a gem of 18th century architecture and is reputed to be the most chic of the residential areas in the city. The homes rise steeply from the canal and are typically three to four stories and very narrow. The reason for this appears to reflect the manner in which taxes were levied. The greater the frontage on the canal, the greater your taxes. Hence people built high. Every house has a crane on the top floor so as to allow the residents to bring their furniture, pianos, frigs, up by pulley instead of trying to navigate the steep stairs. We stopped at the Anne Frank house and a number of guests visited that most poignant residence. The Franks were hidden there for 25 months until they were turned in to the Germans in 1944. Anne, her mother and sister died of cholera in a concentration camp in 1945. I fear that I always get a lump in my throat when I see the photos she placed on the walls and try and imagine this vibrant 13 year old hiding in fear of her life and yet trying to maintain some semblance of life. We retuned to the ship and after lunch we departed for the Rijksmuseum. Here we see some of Holland’s greatest paintings, notably Rembrandt’s Night Watch and a host of others. I particularly find the late portraits of Rembrandt amongst the most profound renderings of human life. He had enjoyed considerable fame, wealth and respect and some short years before his death he went bankrupt, had to see his house and rent new quarters in the poorer neighborhood. Out of this suffering emerge some of the deepest pictorial mediations on the human condition. We then walked to the Van Gogh Museum (pronounced Van Hok) and saw perhaps the most well known of Dutch impressionists. Most of Van Gogh’s masterworks were completed in the last nine years of his very short and unhappy life while he was living in Provence. We retuned to the <i>Sea Cloud II</i> after a day filled with innumerable memories of this great cultural and commercial city.
We arrived in the port of Amsterdam at 8 this morning. The little bit of fog we had earlier has burned off and it is bright and sunny and 68 degrees. A better day for visiting Holland’s greatest city could not be ordered. Although it is well known for its series of concentric canals those very canals, now the pride of the city, were really not begun before the 17th century. Today the city is renowned for the many elegant bridges which cross and criss-cross the canals. There are at last count 1,400 bridges in the city. Each of the canals is distinctive and we saw this first hand as we boarded our canal boat excursion. The Herengracht, or the Gentlemen’s canal, is a gem of 18th century architecture and is reputed to be the most chic of the residential areas in the city. The homes rise steeply from the canal and are typically three to four stories and very narrow. The reason for this appears to reflect the manner in which taxes were levied. The greater the frontage on the canal, the greater your taxes. Hence people built high. Every house has a crane on the top floor so as to allow the residents to bring their furniture, pianos, frigs, up by pulley instead of trying to navigate the steep stairs. We stopped at the Anne Frank house and a number of guests visited that most poignant residence. The Franks were hidden there for 25 months until they were turned in to the Germans in 1944. Anne, her mother and sister died of cholera in a concentration camp in 1945. I fear that I always get a lump in my throat when I see the photos she placed on the walls and try and imagine this vibrant 13 year old hiding in fear of her life and yet trying to maintain some semblance of life. We retuned to the ship and after lunch we departed for the Rijksmuseum. Here we see some of Holland’s greatest paintings, notably Rembrandt’s Night Watch and a host of others. I particularly find the late portraits of Rembrandt amongst the most profound renderings of human life. He had enjoyed considerable fame, wealth and respect and some short years before his death he went bankrupt, had to see his house and rent new quarters in the poorer neighborhood. Out of this suffering emerge some of the deepest pictorial mediations on the human condition. We then walked to the Van Gogh Museum (pronounced Van Hok) and saw perhaps the most well known of Dutch impressionists. Most of Van Gogh’s masterworks were completed in the last nine years of his very short and unhappy life while he was living in Provence. We retuned to the <i>Sea Cloud II</i> after a day filled with innumerable memories of this great cultural and commercial city.
