Amsterdam: architecture

 

This was the view from our hotel room in Amsterdam, on our recent, very courageous, trip to Europe. 

Yes, I know I told you last time that we were on a Viking cruise. But we elected, this time, to take advantage of Viking's pre- and post-cruise extensions and spent two adventure-packed days in this wonderful city before boarding the boat. 

[Ideally, we would have done a hybrid vacation like we did in 2017, and spent some more time on our own before or after the cruise. But, given the uncertain health and foreign affairs situations, we thought being under Viking's protective umbrella the whole time was the better part of valor. And their extensions offered the bonus we wanted, making the long journey more worthwhile by adding an extra 4 or 5 days to our European stay.]

The extension gave us two nights in a very nice hotel right on a canal (in the picture at the left), a guided walk from the hotel to Rijksmuseum (more about the museum later!) on the edge of the old city, and help with getting around to see things on our own. The weather was not ideal, being cold and a bit rainy/sleety, but we were prepared with plenty of warm clothes and didn't let the cloudy skies deter us. 

The big museum (which we visited the next day) is definitely an architectural highlight of the city. Built about the same time as their gorgeous train station (which I showed you in my teaser post) it resembles that structure but is even more grand:

Not far from the museum is another building that's famous around the world, and also quite handsome:

And, as in any European city, the churches are just spectacular...

Basilica of St. Nicholas, seen from the train station

this *might* be the Oude Kerk (Old Church),
just glimpsed on our walk to the boat

Dazzling as these large community landmarks are, however, I found normal Amsterdam domestic architecture to be just as photo-worthy. Here are some examples:

just across the bridge from the Rijksmuseum

just a cafe...that looks like a castle

examples of Amsterdam's famous gabled houses

You can see one of the most interesting things about Amsterdam domestic architecture near the tops of the gables in the photo above. (We learned about this from our helpful Viking guide, in addition to very important lessons about watching out for bicycles—which were everywhere—and in astronomical numbers!) Every house has them: hooks for transporting furniture in and out of the apartments, when residents change. The stairs inside are apparently so narrow that it's the only way to move big items like beds and tables, not to mention pianos!

Here are some shots showing these essential appendages more closely...

In spite of the cold wind and occasional sleet, we loved walking around Amsterdam. As the first steps outside of my [admittedly quite privileged] constricted bubble in so long, it brought me a joy deeper than I was expecting: to be able to enjoy being in a new place, with wonderful things to see in every direction...Let's hope we can all experience this euphoria again soon!

happy tourists

---

Architecture postscript:

Just so you don't believe Amsterdam is a city stuck in the past, its wonderful old buildings notwithstanding, here are a few examples I spied out of the bus windows on our trip to see what the Netherlands is mostly famous for—which I'll show you next time...