Annual Anne Frank Advice

This was the queue outside Anne Frank house this morning, sometime around 9.30. Spot the difference – the same view this evening at about 8.30. The queues for Anne Frank House at this time of the year get really long, which means a long wait to enter – in fact you’ll spend more time in [...]

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Photos of the Jordaan

I went to an exhibition of photos taken in the Jordaan in the sixties by Dolf Toussaint, I’ve been meaning to go to it for ages, and now it’s only on for one more week. Dolf Toussaint photographed ordinary people in the Jordaan, and it was fun to see a lot of places that are [...]

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This year’s rembrance ceremony disrupted

I’ve just seen it on the news, apparently a man began shouting during the two minutes silence and chaos resulted. I’ve found a short video. It is in Dutch but you’ll get the general idea, some event caused a lot of people to panic, the royal family are accompanied to safety, a few people are [...]

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Lest we forget

Today is memorial day in the Netherlands, so all the flags around town were at half mast, the one shown is on the top of the Palace on Dam Square. I did see some flags outside people’s houses as well. It’s a serious event, and commemorated across the country with two minutes silence at 8pm. [...]

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65 years since liberation today…

… or yesterday, depending on whom you believe. There are two villages in the south of the Netherlands that claim to be the first villages liberated in 1944, Mesch and Noorbeek. The people of the villages can’t agree, both villages have monuments commemorating being first, and apparently the historians can’t decide either. There’s more in [...]

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Did you see this in Amsterdam?

I picked up a guidebook published in 1978 with sites in Amsterdam – some of the more obscure sites – and the history. It’s called Zag u dit in Amsterdam? “Did you see this in Amsterdam”, by J.H. Kruizinga with photos by Joop Steussy. Apparently there are 2 more volumes to find. I’m fascinated. I’ve [...]

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Liberation Day

It was “Bevrijdingsdag” on Tuesday, Liberation Day. It’s only a holiday every five years so the only noticeable difference was some flags flying high and these signs indicating sites related to events in WWII, with archival photos. This one was near towards Blauburgwal, “11 May 1940. A German plane was hit by anti-aircraft artillery over [...]

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Multatuli

It’s a modern sculpture but of a man who lived 150 years ago. Multatuli was born Eduard Douwes Dekker back in 1820. He defied his father who wanted him to join the merchant navy, and became a civil servant in the colonial offices in Indonesia. After more than a decade in service he began to [...]

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Zaanse Schans

Zaanse Schans must be the best day trip out of Amsterdam, yes it’s touristic, but the windmills are in working order and are fascinating, and there are several other mini-museums in the village. The windmills are all working mills, and the perform various functions, including a saw mill, a paint mill (grinding pigments), and oil [...]

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The Gaper is not Yawning

These figureheads were used outside buildings to indicate that it was a pharmacy. The one pictured at right is still above a pharmacy (on Herenstraat) but one near this is the sign for the “de Vergulde Gaper” a cafe on Prinsengracht. They’re named “gaper” because they appear to be yawning, in fact they’re not yawning [...]

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