Amsterdam

Sunday 29 July 2012 continued

Quick two & a bit hour flight from Helsinki to Amsterdam. Bit of a panic at the arrivals area of Schiphol as could not see my Tauck tours ride, but he was just running a bit late & found him on my second round through the throngs. Twenty minutes to my B&B in the Jordaan area of Amsterdam, the Jordaan area was built at the large expansion of Amsterdam in early 17th century. B&B in little street just off a canal, host very nice & welcoming, pot of tea etc. Host C is an American expat (widowed 5 years ago) who has lived in Amsterdam for 26 years & teaches english at the uni. Apartment is on the 2nd floor, room is fine, not huge but enough, the inside rooms look out onto a large courtyard, heavily vegetated, a square of joined buildings seem to share this area. Certainly the Jordaan is very convenient & within walking distance of everything I want to see.

I went for a walk to the supermarket to get some fruit, yet again found it a challenge to shop in a foreign country, but v interesting looking at the different stuff, same as I noticed in England, large space devoted to prepackaged foods, eg salads,readycooked stuff now I know we have these in Australia, but we still have a way to go til we get to this degree. Went the long way home along canal, almost made it to the docks where I join the riverboat cruise.

When I returned home, had a bit more of a chat to host C, mostly on her view of the Dutch - not flattering - &  useful tips on what to do & where to go.

Monday 30 July 2011

Not too bad a sleep considering innercity noises, rain & jetlag. Had a long talk with C over breakfast, she appears to have very definite views on political issues re GFC, government financial debacles, big business conspiracies to keep the masses down where they belong , etc, and sounds as though she knows what she is talking about.....at least to me!

Out for breakfast & had french toast made from Dutch sweet bread, cross between a brioche &  apple cake with mashed banana running through it....needless to say it made superb french toast, served with delicious raspberry jam. Yum.

Walked all the way to the Van Gogh museum only to see HUGE lineup, realised would not even get in before my allotted ticket time for Anne Frank house, 12.20, so did AF house first. Very moving experience, especially the rooms where the families hid.. to no avail in the end. The rooms have blackout curtains etc still, but are devoid of furniture.

Back to Van Gogh Museum & brilliant, the full story telling each stage in his painting life & many paintings from each period , more than in in any other collection, which makes sense as it was that his brothers family's collection which has been permanently lent to the Dutch Gov, who then built the museum to house them...... Of course I had to get the book......already starting to add to the weight in the bag!

Typical barge-lined canal view

Tall skinny houses different top facades

Tree-lined canal, presume they don't live on these little boats

Note the hook to pull furniture up to the top floor, won't fit up the skinny staircases

Long trip

Sunday 29 July 2012

I am sitting at the Helshinki Airport Flygstation waiting for my connection to Amsterdam. Footsore & weary after a day in Helsinki which began at too early for holidays, as flight arrived at 6.15am & even with fannying about looking for the storage lockers to stow carryon bag for the day, still got into the city at 7.30am. Needless  to say town pretty quiet at that time of a Sunday morning, so started quietly with a coffee & then hopped on the 3T tram (or trolley as they call them here) which goes past most of the cities attractions in what seemed to be a loop.  This was a good deal as E12 bought a day pass for buses & trams (including the airport bus)  The full loop took about 50 minutes & was useful to get the lie of the land, although if I had got off at one of the outer stops, would have needed the breadcrumbs. Then did the selfguided walking tour I got off the net, which was good as it explained the points of interest, rather than just floating past another nice old building.

 I had run out of puff by about midday & had determined that I would eat pickled herrings for lunch, but was sadly disappointed as I could not find it on any of the menu's I checked, had to settle for dona kebab & a beer.........both still repeating on me!

Helsinki is a nice city, very clean, & NO graffiti, don't know how they have achieved that as every other city I have visited in Europe has this problem. Not particularly old, as it was leveled by fire in early1800's & a lot of the new buildings where  designed by Carl Engel, did not see much highrise, just 4-6 stories. Some parts have a touch of the iron curtain about them, but this impression not helped by the overcast day (but 24 later on, so quite muggy)

The Library of the University of Helsinki, Engel designed

The Lutheran Cathedral on Senate Square, reminds of Sacre Couer,..also owes a bit to Palladio's La Rotunda

Central Railway Station, the almost totem-looking figures are a recurring theme around Helsinki

Russian Orthodox Church -another Engel job- 1827

Lord Mayor's House

House of the Nobility - was a private club for Russian & Finnish aristocracy mid 19th C

The Burger's house - the oldest remaining wooden building

Impressions of Finns, well, on they whole they appear to be an atttractive people, clear skin & fine features, a soupcon of eskimo is a recurring theme, but fairer....thing is they could smile more....I don't know, maybe they have bad teeth, wouldn't know, didn't see any!

PS first international flight on Qantas fine, this was for the Adelaide to Singapore leg, food good- got the individual bottle of bubbly with tea, seat plenty roomy enough, comparable with Malaysian & Singapore. Plane only half full, so that helped too. Next leg, Singapore to Helsinki with Finnair, new plane, touchscreen inflight entertainment system & bigger screen, too, all good, they probably don't keep you topped up with water & juices the way the others do, but you can ask if you want it.

Practise post

Proud Grandma

Looks like they have changed blogger & this oldie has trouble with change, so this is a practise post