Europe Day 39 of 59, Amsterdam

We were both up very late last night. I would say we woke up this morning refreshed, but by the time I felt awake enough to look at the TV it read 13:07 in the corner. Yes, we slept until 1 PM. And it was wonderful.

The Amstel River in the afternoon. That is one of the great city name origin stories in this world, by the way. They put a dam in the river Amstel. They called it Amstel Dam. Over the years, the place came to be known as Amsteldam and finally Amsterdam. Brilliant. My hometown is called Los Angeles because some Spaniards went to California for minerals and to convert some indigenous people to their superior European religion and they called it The City of Angels in Spanish. I just wonder if in 500 years it will be officially named, "El Lay."

The lobby of the Amstel Hotel is, shall we say, opulent.

A neighborhood with a neighborhoody feel, no?

The Amstel Hotel from the bridge crossing the Amstel River.

The Heineken Brewery. We did not go inside. Yet.

The Rijksmuseum. It took two contests to come up with this design, as apparently they looked at all the designs of the 1863 contest and said, "They're all rubbish." In 1876 a design was picked and in 1885 it opened. It's a quite stunning building.

Even the rain gutters of the Rijksmuseum are impressive.

The Rijksmuseum is of the mind to not allow photography. I no longer fight these rules. I am defeated, you might say. Below are two public domain images of the Rijksmuseum's two best works, both by Rembrandt.

The Syndics of the Clothmakers' Guild, 1662

The Night Watch (or The Militia Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq), 1642

I do not mean to ruffle feathers, but I think that The Syndics of the Clothmakers' Guild is the superior work. I think by this time Rembrandt had even better mastery of painting than he did for The Night Watch, and that people get hung up on The Night Watch because it is bigger with perhaps more variety of subjects, but The Syndics of the Clothmakers' Guild goes beyond it with the way he captures these men as if you have walked into the room and surprised them, one of them even beginning to stand to greet you. There. I said it.

The brick arch behind the Rijksmuseum. Unlike Barcelona, no fantastically pretty young woman walked up to me and asked me to take her picture in front of it.

We make no claim to be unpredictable. Though it finally occurred to me to establish a theme restaurant in Chatsworth, CA devoted to memorabilia from the adult film industry and call it, "The Rock Hard Cafe." Investors?

I wanted to shout, "You already lost a Bishop? A Bishop! Get off that board! Get off!"

By now you're wondering why I'm not going on and on about Amsterdam's architecture. I really should. The Dutch reached their "Golden Age" in the 17th century and they consciously planned out this beautiful city of half-circle canals and streets. All of the buildings you see are clearly of this time and are simply stunning.

It's as if you took Venice and grabbed its twists and turns to force it to make sense.

Walking along the canal, Barbie noticed Stars of David on this church. We went around to the nearest bridge to get a closer look.

De Krijtberg, a Roman Catholic Church. Why they adorned it with Jewish symbols and why this pic uploaded sideways are both mysteries.

Inside it was incredibly ornate. There was also a service in progress. The iPhone is silent and flashless, so I snapped this and exited. Barbie picked up a pamphlet that explains it was built between 1880 and 1883 on the remains of an older, "secret church."

Remember what I said about the architecture. That building is a mall. It is used as a shopping mall. Show me a building that beautiful anywhere else in the world that is mall. (I would name Milan's Vittorio Emanuele Galleria. That's it.)

On the site where the Amstel Dam once rested, you have Dam Square. The wonderful Kelly Winnik used up all the Dam jokes with her pics of the road that goes across Hoover Dam. Let it just be said that this is a crowded Dam Square. The white obelisk-ish structure is the National Monument, erected in 1956 to memorialize the victims of World War II. A block behind those buildings one finds the Red Light District, which we have not visited yet but has apparently been nearly wiped out in the last few years.

It seems that everyone comes here and thinks, "Time to sit for a moment."

Across from the National Monument is the Royal Palace, which served as the city hall from 1655 until its conversion to a royal residence in 1808. You know that they still have a Royal Family here? I did not.

A closer view of the Royal Palace.

We both took pictures of this sculpture, not knowing who Multatuli was. But after the fact much learning can take place. From WIkipedia: Eduard Douwes Dekker (2 March 1820 – 19 February 1887), better known by his pen name Multatuli (from Latin multa tuli, "I suffered a lot"), was a Dutch writer famous for his satirical novel, Max Havelaar (1860) in which he denounced the abuses of colonialism in the colony of the Dutch East Indies. He denounced colonialism? Way to go, even if your pen name is a tad emo.

The Westerkerk ("western church"), a Protestant church in Amsterdam, built in 1620-1631. Amsterdam is cool because all the churches have practical names like, "Oude Kirk," "Niewe Kerk," and "Westerkerk."

We studied this map for hours.

Back in our room, at my favorite of our three windows... DRAW BRIDGE TIME!

Up we go...

Here comes a bigger boat, let's go up some more...

There we are...

Go right on through, my tall boat friend. Is it as exciting in pics as it was live? You're right, it's MORE exciting.

You cannot see the river, but it is just outside this window.

Magic Hour out my favorite window. I think I want to plan for everyone I know to take a picture of some part of their city at sunset, when you can still see a little light from the sun but the city's lights have turned on.

The same view a short time later. See how magical the magic hour is?

Room service again? Absolutely.

Salad for her, lobster soup for me, risotto to share.

We ate dinner in our robes. The robes have hoods. I looked in the mirror and could not decide if I looked more Lord of the Rings or Lords of Alabama. I took this pic so that you could decide for me.