West entrance to the Kiel Canal
... and fowl
Looks a lot like Virginia county side
The Lion King Theater, view from our cabin window
The first thing Iva looked for in Hamburg was a park and a lake, and so we found some amazing ones! Hamburg had to be totally rebuilt after the War, so much of the efforts have been on green space. We walked through Elb Park, Grosse Wallenlagen, and Alter Botanischer Garten. These parks had it all- waterfalls, fountains, playgrounds, roller skating rink, water gardens, metro stops, lakes, bog plantings, and even this shallow area for dogs to cool off their feet and get a drink! We spent most of the morning walking through the flowers and ponds in the park. We first hiked by a huge statue of Bismarck (getting a face lift?) with graffiti around the base. There also was a huge botanical garden that we walked past on the way to lunch.
A pool for dog's to drink & cool their feet
Alter Botanischer Garten
Iva was delighted to have her first French Fries since leaving C'ville while Bill had a wonderful German beer and a brat. Since Iva had gotten in her hiking time, we next headed up to the Alster Lakes so we can get some paddling, where Iva had determined they had boats rentals. While we wished for kayaks, our choices were sailboats, paddle boards, or row boats- so Iva chose the row boat for Bill to row! Part of the time we shared the rowing, which was as entertaining as the paddle boarders.
After our boat rental, we traveled back a different way through the city and saw many familiar shops- Foot Locker, Urban Outfitters, Abercrombie and Fitch among them. We got back to the ship early in order to be ready for our trip to Amsterdam the next day.
We left at 8 AM for the 6 hour bus ride to the Netherlands, with the driver making a number of wrong turns. Also, every 4.5 hours the bus drivers must stop for 45 minutes due to local laws. We drove partially on the German Autobahn with sport cars going by at 100mph+. It was agrarian and flat and included many wind turbines along the road. We arrived in downtown Amsterdam at 3 PM just in time for a bike ride in the city. Amsterdam is a vibrant city with lots of colorful flowers, people and energy. Made up of hundreds of canals, the oldest part of the city is at the center, and it gets younger as the rings of canals extend outward. You should also know that the we on this adventure was 53 students and 6 older adults in 2 buses. If you have never biked in Amsterdam, let me tell you- it is harder than in the US! Even David would have had trouble! Since our group was rather large with 60 people, we were broken up into groups of 20 for the tour. While we had 3 tour guides in bikes, only 3 of the older adults biked, so each group had its challenges. Bill took off with a tour guide and within minutes lost half of the group due to the tour guide going too fast among the congestion of pedestrians, cars, and bikes, which overwhelmed us. Since Bill was sweep he immediately stopped the students he still had and waited for the tour guide to return. After a short time she came back but a small group of students was still missing, and were not found until the end of the tour. Some of the students were not very good at riding bikes and had a hard time keeping up. One student was doing so badly that he hit the side of a car and dented it. We just rode on, as the Dutch do! Iva's group also struggled to stay together since in single file, it was impossible to get through the bike traffic lights at one time. Our guide wound expertly through town with all of us just trying to keep her in sight. All the guides were astonished at how much trouble we had keeping up as a group.
We did stop a number of interesting places within the city but we were so distracted trying to keep the students together that we really did not get to appreciate what the tour guide was saying. We did make detour through the red light district as requested by some of the students, but were not allowed to take photos. There is a statue to the sex workers called "Belle" and a Hash, Marihuana, & Hemp Museum which are a notable parts of Amsterdam to the tourists. After about an hour and half it started to rain which made things even more difficult. By now most of the students were wet, tired and a little freaked out by riding bikes in the city. They were also very hungry, as they always are, so we stopped to get a bite to eat. We biked back to bicycle shop where we found the missing students and eventually our group was all reunited. Needless to say we doubt Semester at Sea will have a bike tour of Amsterdam anytime in the near future.
By now it was early evening so we headed to our hotel, which was a number of miles out of the city center. Even with a local tour guide in the bus, we still made wrong turns. After settling into our hotel rooms, everyone was on their own for dinner. We walked from the hotel and sat outside at nice restaurant on one of the canals and had a much needed late dinner and adult beverages.
The next day was a tour of the Anne Frank House. We had reservations so we got to bypass the very long line waiting to get in. It was sobering to walk through the tight, steep stairways, and walk through the space where 8 people had to live silently for 2 years. While the rooms are bare of furniture at the request of Anne's father, the only surviving occupant, there are quotes from her diary written on the walls and movies and letters from friends during the time. No photographs are allowed, but here is a picture of the church next door where she heard the church bell mentioned in her diary.
Next the group went to the van Gogh Museum, which was stunning. Many of van Gogh's works are here since he is one of the most prized Dutch painters. The exhibits tracked the changes in van Gogh's style of painting, relating it to the history of his artistic development. It was poignant to hear that he never sold a painting in his lifetime. If not for the financial and mental support of his brother, an art dealer, he may not have survived as long as he did. Despite his early death, he was a prolific painter, creating over 800 works in just 10 years. One part of the museum allows use of microscopes to examine in detail the painting surface. Every hands-on display to explain nuances of his painting worked easily, and the walking audio visual tour was extraordinary. It was amazing to see a Monet here, since a large influence on van Gogh, and several Gauguin's, as they painted together for a time until Gauguin realized that van Gogh was mentally unstable, and accused him of trying to kill him. Iva was so impressed with the museum, that she stayed here over 4 hours, after the rest of the group had departed (that is why there are so many pictures from the museum!)
Gauguin
van Gogh's last painting which was unfinished
Afterward, Iva wandered toward the Rijksmuseum where they had a large display of the statues of Henry Moore and some modern art in Vogel Park. She also enjoyed some spontaneous street performance near the I AmSterdam sign.
Bill had decided to head into downtown Amsterdam to see the local sites unescorted. He provided no further information about his afternoon hmmm...
John S, is this what Aussie food is all about?
That all American favorite of questionable meat
The Flower Market
Iva met up Bill in central Amsterdam for an early dinner. After dinner we popped into a local grocery store for snacks, then took one of the streetcars back to the hotel, which was an easy trip. The rest of our group also had the afternoon and evening on their own, and we were pleasantly surprised that the students were mostly punctual for our departure the next morning and had a good time in the local bars and restaurants. Our final day was on the bus returning to the ship after an awesome European breakfast of meats, cheeses, breads, fruit, eggs, smoothies, cucumbers, cereals- YUM! While Iva wore a bruise from hitting the cobblestone pavement when falling from the bike, we had a remarkable time, and would like to return again for more time in this breathtaking city.
.... to be continued
