Photos: Dude doing yoga in the entertainment square...supposedly holding himself up on the pole....for an awfully long time.
Photos: For my family if you are reading the blog. We were riding the #13 tram when we saw this building, so we went back to take pictures.
The Hermitage Museum, Some of the 2500 canal/houseboats residing in the canals. No permits are being given for new ones.
The Anne Frank Huis and Museum
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Same beginning to another day in Amsterdam, cleaned, dressed, breakfasted, and ready to go.
Nancy and I went our separate way from Pete and Jess agreeing to meet at 6:00 this evening, so we could have dinner and see the Anne Frank House for which Pete and Jess had purchased tickets yesterday. We bought a one day tram pass and set off.
The first stop was downtown to change to the correct tram then to the Hermitage Museum. This is actually a branch of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, and it exhibits parts of the Russian Museum’s vast collection. The collaboration between the Dutch and the Russians goes back to Peter the Great who spent time in the Netherlands trying to learn new technology to bring home and help him in his fight against the Turks and Swedes. The exhibit was of early modern paintings collected by two rich Russian merchants in the early 1900’s. It seems that while their two merchants had scads of money, they were not accepted into elite Russian society because of lack of family connections. They showed their rebellious nature by buying modern art in Paris and to bring back to Russia. We saw Gaugan, Braque, and more Picasso’s than I have ever seen in one room. They also had a photo of their home in St. Petersburg—a very ornate, very old fashioned home with these wild new modern paintings on the wall. As with our usual run of luck, half the museum was being prepared for a new exhibit and renovations. It was very interesting and not too crowded until later when we decided to leave.
We intended to walk a few blocks to the Gassan Diamonds exhibition, but we got side tracked by lunch. We bought some great fries (frites) and a Coke Light from a street vendor in one of the local markets. Then we looked through a market—a flea market which sold everything from antiques, to cheap clothes, to wild T-shirts, to DVD’s, to midnight (stolen?) bicycle parts. We looked at many things but bought nothing. We did encounter a mother with a child in a pram and a son about nine or ten. The little boy stopped while his mother continued on…..He was quite enthralled by the XXX movie covers in one of the stalls. Quite different from other countries where there are much stricter controls.
Then a few blocks further and over a canal to Gassan Diamonds we trudged. We walked right in to the receptionist’s desk and asked for a tour. She asked what language we wished—we explained we were from the states, and she gave us a sticker and directed us to the second floor where our guide would meet us. On the second floor we looked at some diamond working tools and some pictures of the “old” days then found our tour guide over with a small group watching a lady polish the facets on a small diamond. Very time consuming meticulous work. For a 57 facet diamond it will take about a day and a half to polish the stone to it final luster and cut. She would check her design, use her jeweler’s eye, touch the diamond to the moving belt of diamond dust and olive oil, check it again and make a note of what she had done. Then she started over.
Our guide then moved us quickly down the hall to a small room to see some diamonds. First our guide, a gemologist, explained the evaluation of diamonds on the basis of weight (caret), color, imperfections (clarity), and cut. He said as amateurs we should base our thinking on weight and color, because the others require a trained eye to tell the difference. Obviously if you are buying diamonds for investment purposes then clarity becomes an issue. The gemologist had a question from the audience about why a diamond sparkles more in certain lights than others, ie, sunlight versus fluorescent. He was having a great deal of trouble with the question which Neil helped him answer. Then he brought out some diamonds: a .24 carat almost perfect stone for 400 Euros, up to a 2.4 carat monster worth some 80,000 Euros without a setting and without the jeweler’s markup which can run a 33% to 66% markup depending on the store. Gassan sells to Tiffany’s and Cartiers and a lot of other diamond stores. Diamonds in various settings were then presented to the visitors/customers to look at to try on, to buy. There were about 10 trays of diamonds—rings and earrings mainly just sitting on the table to touch. The least expensive ring I looked at and tried on was 790 Euros. The most expensive one I tried on was 29000 Euros. Needless to say we passed on the purchase part of the tour even though we could have purchased them tax free and without the jewelry store mark up. It ended with a free coffee and a hot Dutch cookie a fine ending to a great tour.
The next close venue was the flower market. The flower market is a floating venue with the shops built on barges. We walked along a street with vendor after vendor selling bulbs, plants, cut flowers, seeds, and other plant related products. We continue to be amazed by the wide variety of plants that grow in Europe--both in Holland and the UK. They have this climate with very little bitter cold, and plenty of light and rain. The flowering plants in gardens and parks are just amazing.
We still had a bit of afternoon to use so we hopped a tramline---number 10 and rode through a different part of the city past some crowded parts and some not so crowded. We finally had to get off at the island when the driver said end of the line. We waited a few minutes and then got back on the same tram and took a journey back toward city center, changed to another line, rode to central station, and transferred to #17 and back to the Hotel neighborhood. Pete called and said they had missed the early train and would be late for our meeting.
Nancy and I set out for dinner. At a corner café we had stroganoff, a grilled cheese sandwich, and a Dutch apple pancake (rather like a crepe without folding it over)---great, Pete and Jess found us at the café.
After dinner we walked the two blocks to the Anne Frank House, pressed the bell on the advanced ticket door and went in. It was 8:15 and still crowded. The tour took us through the house/warehouse. We saw each of the rooms used by the families in hiding, all 8 persons, and read the history of the diary, the house, and the museum. A really sad story, I wonder how the German speakers in the crowd felt about what they saw and read? The furniture was removed by the army after the Franks were taken away. It was the desire of Mr. Frank that the apartments be left empty. There were cartoons and pictures which Anne had pasted to the wall of her bedroom. No photography of any kind was allowed. It was quite a somber experience.
We stopped for the other beer—Amstel not Heiniken, and so to the hotel and bed.
15,163 steps including some museum shuffle.
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