....well, to tell a family secret, my grandmother was Dutch

20-27 March 2009

So, I woke up at the crack of dawn (actually far before dawn) to catch the first train out of Maastricht to Amsterdam so that I could meet Mama’s plane at the airport in Amsterdam at 8am. Crazy! I made it to Schiphol and met up with Mama without any problems. Yay! It was amazing to see her.

We grabbed a cab and headed out to our Bed and Breakfast, aptly called Treetops B&B. The name is apt because the rooms are on the fourth floor of the building and are only accessible by a very narrow, rickety old staircase. It was quite an adventure to try to get Mama’s two giant suitcases (one of which was for me full of goodies from home) up the stairs, but we definitely made it. The B&B was super cute, though. Once we got everything upstairs, Mama grabbed a quick shower and we were off to explore Amsterdam.

The first thing we did was walk downtown. We went through the big garden in the middle of the city. It’s really beautiful with paths and green grass and small ponds. There were also these gorgeous mansions on the one side that we had fun looking at. Our first stop was the Van Gogh Museum. Starry Night was there, so there was a special exhibit going on that was amazing. I love Van Gogh SO much. Mama likes him, but she really enjoyed the Rembrandts more. The whole museum was different from the last time I was there because of the special exhibit. They had borrowed pieces from other museums to make this whole floor of the museum based around night and Van Gogh’s portrayal of it in all his stages. It was really cool.

After we looked around the museum for a while, we grabbed some lunch in the museum restaurant (surprisingly good and reasonably priced). After we relaxed for a minute, we headed out for the Rijksmuseum where all the Rembrandts are. We ran into Grayson outside of the Rijksmuseum and got to spend some time with him too. Mama really loved seeing those paintings. It still blows my mind that people can paint so perfectly. I mean, those pictures are perfect likenesses of their subjects. Honestly, they look more like photographs than paintings. Mama and I are kind of opposite from one another in art taste I guess. I love the Van Goghs and would gladly decorate my house with only Van Goghs. Mama likes and respects the Van Goghs, but wouldn’t hang them on her walls. I am just that way about the Rembrandts. They’re amazing, and I have so much respect for Rembrandt and his students for being able to create such amazing pieces of art, but I wouldn’t want to look at them every day in my house. Mama loved the Rijksmuseum, and I felt terrible because I had to rush her out of it because of our next stop.

We had planned to do a bike tour of Amsterdam that afternoon, so we had to book it back to Centraal Station where the tour was to start. Turns out, the starting point which was “outside Centraal Station by the tourist office” was harder to find than it seemed. Centraal Station is actually a really long, big building and the view of the tourist office was obstructed by some sort of construction stuff. So we ran around and around trying to find the tour guide. Finally we ended up at the bike rental place and they told us the tour guide had just walked out. They actually were able to flag him down, but he couldn’t run the tour with just two people. There had been another two people there earlier, but he had sent them away because he didn’t know we were coming. So that was kind of a bummer that we missed it, but we decided we could just do it the next day instead. So we cut our losses and went into the tourist office to figure out the rest of our plans. We got our tickets for our canal tour and for our tour of Keukenhof and then headed out again.

So we decided to walk over to Anne Frank Huis where the Frank family lived during WWII. It was a lovely walk through the city. The canals are really quite beautiful and the buildings are really unique. We made it to Anne Frank Huis, and waited in line to get in. That place is definitely worth visiting. It’s amazing to see all the background on their hideout and who was helping them and then to actually see the tiny rooms in which all those people were living. It’s unbelievable to think that they lived there as long as they did. It was a hard place to visit at times because it’s just so heartbreaking that none of the family survived except the father, but I was really glad we went. There was some weird exhibit on the way out where people were supposed to vote on freedom issues to see how people think about freedom. We stayed there for a bit, and then headed out again.

We ran back to the B&B to drop off the things we had purchased, and by that time it was getting close to our canal tour. We had decided to go on the pizza cruise that went through the city. It took off from the canal behind the Rijksmuseum and originally we were the only people on the tour. This giant boat was going to run just for us, and we felt kind of silly. Eventually, they got two other groups to go too. The pizza cruise wasn’t exactly what we were hoping for. We were expecting a tour where they would tell us all sorts of things about Amsterdam, but really they just gave us pizza (Domino’s—haha) and ice cream (Ben and Jerry’s—haha again) and all the wine we could drink and left us to our own devices. It was fun even though it wasn’t what we were expecting. All that wine probably helped on that front. We talked and looked at the houses lining the canals and had a great time. Mama kept noticing all the bookshelves in the houses. There were tons of built in gorgeous bookshelves in all the houses. We could see this because almost every house or apartment had huge picture windows on the front and very few of them had curtains. The ceilings were also super high inside. Mama thought that that might have been because of how big the Dutch people are on average. They wouldn’t want to be cooped up in tiny apartments with low ceilings. Anyway, the pizza cruise was a lot of fun. Afterward, we headed home to our B&B and went to sleep.

The next morning, we got up in time for our bike tour and even made it to the place on time without incident. There were six or seven people on the tour and it was really fun. Our tour guide, Alex, knew a lot about Amsterdam and had a fun sense of humor as well. I was a little nervous on the bike at first because riding in Amsterdam is treacherous because of all the bikes and cars and pedestrians. We made it, though. We got to see most of Amsterdam on the bikes. Every once in a while, Alex would stop and explain some site to us or tell us interesting stories. I was so glad that we got to hear from him because there were things I never would have known otherwise. For instance, there are hooks at the top of all the buildings and Mama asked him why. As it turns out, all the houses in Amsterdam have those narrow crazy staircases and it makes it nearly impossible to move furniture in. The hooks are there so that the movers can get your stuff up via a pulley system. Alex also told us a story about how the women of Amsterdam staged a really strange protest. There are free urinals on the streets of Amsterdam for men to use. The women got angry that there wasn’t any free place for them to pee, so one Saturday in the sixties, a couple hundred women all went to this one bridge in Amsterdam, lifted their skirts and peed all over the bridge. They said that they would keep peeing on bridges until there were free places for women to pee in the city. Amsterdam responded quickly to the protest and built a whole bunch of free toilets on street corners. Unfortunately, they were all closed and boarded up in less than a year because junkies were using them to shoot up more than women were using them to pee. So now they’re basically just used as advertisement space. The bike tour was awesome.

After the bike tour, we had to book it to the Keukenhof tour starting point. Keukenhof is the country’s largest garden and the flowers and everything inside are so beautiful it almost seems fake. We jumped on a bus from downtown Amsterdam that took us to the garden about an hour away. The tour guide on the bus gave us the kind of tour we were expecting on the pizza cruise. As we drove out of Amsterdam, she pointed things out and explained them and talked about various historical facts that pertained to what we were seeing. It was awesome. It was also really cool because she was outrageously talented. She would say the information in English, Dutch, Spanish, and German each time. Crazy! We got to Keukenhof around 3pm and the bus was set to leave again at 6pm. We thought three hours would be plenty of time to wander around, but it turns out that we could have spent twice that. The garden is HUGE, with different sections each named after a different member of the royal family. The crocuses were all out and gorgeous all over the park. The tulips weren’t quite in bloom yet naturally, but they had a big greenhouse where they had artificially gotten some of them to bloom. It was amazing. The flowers were so vibrant and I just took pictures like it was my job. There was also art throughout the park and there was even a zip line thing that I did at one point. There is a part of the park with a big old windmill, and Mama and I took some pictures of it and on it. It sits in front of a HUGE field of tulips that wasn’t quite blooming yet. Mama took my picture on the top of the windmill in front of the field where the flowers weren’t quite blooming and when I go back again in late April, I will take a picture in the same spot, but with the flowers in bloom. Mama thought of the idea and it should be a pretty cool effect.

Our time in Keukenhof was over way too soon and we jumped back on the bus. We both slept a little bit on the way back and then decided to go to this Chinese restaurant Alex had told us about on our bike tour. It’s a giant boat that was made to be a replica of restaurant in China. The Dutch wanted it to be so similar to the one in China that they hired the same Chinese architects who built the original boat to build the new one. They asked them to make it so that it could fit something like 2000 people. When the boat was completed, they had a big opening gala, and all the important Dutch people were invited. The Queen was on board along with the other 1,999 people when the boat started to sink. The Chinese architects had built the boat to hold 2000 Chinese people, not 2000 Dutch people who are significantly bigger on average. The problem was fixed, but I thought that was a pretty amusing story. Mom and I walked over to the restaurant and it was really nice. The food was amazing (although ridiculously expensive) and the wine was really tasty. There was even a sommelier! In a Chinese place! It was a bit different from Chinese restaurants at home. Haha…After dinner, we went back to our B&B and went to bed.

Sunday we decided to just spend a little time in the city before heading back to Maastricht. We went to Madame Tussard’s wax museum, which was neat. There were wax figures of all sorts of celebrities including Barack Obama, Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Tom Hanks….Pretty much anyone you could think of. It was neat. I’m not sure it was worth the amount they charged to get in, but it was really neat. After the museum, we watched a street performer do an escape from a chain and straight jacket. He was okay; he talked too much and performed too little, but it was funny at times. After that we decided to head back to Maastricht. Unfortunately, then I got into a weird funk because they were working on the tracks to Maastricht so we had to change trains twice and I forgot my awesome bottle of champagne at the B&B. We got ahold of Gisele, the lady who runs the B&B, and she said she’d hold it for us until we got back to Amsterdam Thursday night, which was great. But I was definitely in a funk.

We made it back to Maastricht (after 4 hours…changing trains really adds to the length of that trip) and met a couple of friends on the way. This guy from Belgium was on the train. He had his little daughter with him and he was running for the train and just kind of threw his bike and bike trailer thing for this daughter to sit in and his daughter on the train as the doors were closing. He tossed his daughter to me and ran back to get the bike and for a minute we were just on the train with his kid and I was holding the train doors open trying to make sure he could get on. It was crazy. Anyway, when we got to Maastricht we went to The Guesthouse to drop off our stuff first. It was seven or eight o’clock and Mama skyped Eddie and Tiff and then we headed to the Preuverij where we enjoyed some delicious soups and sandwiches. After that, we squeezed into my tiny bed and went to sleep.

Monday I had Organization Design from 9-10:30, but I found out that my class was canceled on Thursday! Great news! After class we hung out around Maastricht for a bit, but Mama’s foot was bothering her so we just chilled in the room for a while. Mama read a bunch of books over the week when I had to go to class or whatever because it rained the whole time she was in Maastricht (what a bummer). We explored a bit on Monday afternoon as well. We saw the Sint Servatius church on the Vrijtof. It was a little creepy because there were a lot of relics in the church. Mama had to explain to me that relics are pieces of dead saints and that is just grody to me. Also, the organist was playing the world’s creepiest music, so it was just strange. Hahah…Monday night, though, Mama and I headed to the Jazz club!! I was so excited to show her what I do on Mondays. She really enjoyed it. We drank and listened to the music and talked. I sang Summertime and Fever, and Mom got to meet all the jazz club people. It was really fun. I am so glad she went even though it was so late.

Tuesday I had Inter-cultural communication from 4-6 and I had to give my presentation. So Tuesday was a little bit stressful just because we had to prepare our presentation and powerpoint and then do the presentation. It went fine. Mama walked to class with us and read in the lobby while we were in class. She went out walking for a while, too, and made it back without getting too lost. Yay Mom! We grabbed some dinner at Preuverij again (it’s so good!) and then Mama and I went to see a movie at the Lumiere art theatre. It was Last Chance Harvey and honestly, it wasn’t that good.

Wednesday we wandered around Maastricht in the morning before my Dutch class and Mama helped me study for my Dutch speaking exam which was that day. We also went to the hot chocolate place where you pick your flavor and they bring you a cup of hot milk to melt your chocolate chunk in. It’s delicious. Haha…After class, I showed Mama my favorite park in Maastricht on our walk to the train station. We walked over the river on the walking bridge, which is really cool looking. We also went into a church on the other side of the river that she had said she wanted to go into. We then jumped on the bus to Aachen to have dinner in Germany. Unfortunately it was raining and freezing cold and we couldn’t find the restaurant we were trying to find. Eventually we just went into an Italian place and had dinner then headed back to Maastricht.

Thursday we woke up and hung around the room for a while reading and just relaxing. In the afternoon, we headed back to Amsterdam on the train (and had our discount card taken away because it had Kyle’s name on it instead of mine…bummmmmer). We dropped our stuff off at the hotel and went out into Amsterdam to have dinner. We found a really neat little Dutch restaurant by the Leidsplein and had hodgepodge, which is just a giant pile of mashed potatoes topped with some sort of meat mixture. It’s actually pretty tasty. After dinner we walked around a bit, and decided to go see this comedy show called Boom Chicago. It’s just like Second City, but in Amsterdam. They had a whole show based around the differences between Dutch and American people. It was really funny. We had a great time, and met a fantastic couple from South Africa at our table. We walked back to our hotel by the train station after the show and went to bed.

The next morning, we went to the airport for Mama’s flight, and after she took off I headed back to Maastricht. It was a whirlwind week. I had more schoolwork to do the week Mama was here than I did in the whole rest of the semester, but she was cool about it. I wish it hadn’t been that way, but there was nothing I could do about it. I love it here so much, but it’s going to be nice to have my family near me again when I go home.