Thursday, October 22--Rainy Day in Amsterdam

Rainy morning. And cold. So probably not much going on today. Glad we did so much the other days. Just going to breakfast at The Corner Restaurant had us soaking wet.

Forgot to mention yesterday that the areas of the Red Light District and the streets we were on that had all the “interesting” offerings were Oudezijds Voorburgwal (which once had 16 different convent and monasteries on it that are now brothels, shops, and theaters) & Trompettersteeg Alley (which has the greatest concentration of brothels in the city today).

We hoped to go see some very interesting sites today, but with the weather being so yucky, it was much easier to stay inside where it is warm and dry. But if we had gone out today, we were going to go see the narrowest house in Amsterdam at Singel #7. It is 1 meter wide (39.37 inches)—only as wide as the door itself at the back door but gets wider at the front. There is another one at Oude Hoogstraat 22 with a clock gable. It is only 2.02 meters (6 feet, 7 ½ inches) wide the whole way back and is only 6 meters deep (19 feet, 8.22 inches)!! Very tiny place. There is also Trippen House or the House of Mr. Trip’s Coachman. It is opposite the large Trip House at 29 Kloveniersburgwal. Mr. Trip and his coachman pulled up to the house for the first time and the coachman expressed his amazement at how big the house was and said that if he had a house only as wide as the front door of Trip House, that he would be content. Mr. Trip granted his wish.

There is also a Buddhist Temple here in Amsterdam’s Chinatown that had its roof tiles flown in from China. You have to be sure to remove your shoes before you enter and no meat is allowed as Meat is Murder.

We were going to find the flower market—Blomenmarkt—on Singel, but I guess I will have to be satisfied with the tulips I saw at the flower shop in the train station. There is a free ferry here that connects Amsterdam to Ijisland where the architects have been set loose, it is said. Would have loved to have seen their creations.

The oldest house in Amsterdam is from 1420 and is near a secret garden on Begijnhof where no noise is allowed. There is also a bronze plaque in the passage between the Muziektheater and Stadhuis in Waterlooplein that has 3 columns of water. The 1st 2 show the current sea levels at Vlissingen and Ijmuiden. The 3rd is 15 feet above your head and shows the high water mark in the disasterous floods in Zeeland in 1953.

There are also 3 locations that they say are amazing to stand in at night: on the bridge to Dam Square looking down to Nieuwmarkt with a view of the Waag Building; Reguliersgracht at Herengracht where you can see 15 bridges at once; and the Magere Brug, or Skinny Bridge, over the Amstel between Kerkstraat and NieweKerkstraat. I had already done all the research for these places and plotted them on a map, and it is very frustrating to not be able to see it all. So I guess now these, too, will have to go on the Things to do on the Next Trip list. Lack of time and good weather.

The weather change has given both of us sinus headaches, so dinner will be pizza and cokes from the pizzeria at the train station. Then packing for our long day of train travel tomorrow.