Friends of friends in Portland got us in touch with Juliet Hochman who moved from Portland to Amsterdam with her family last year. After claiming that she would slit her wrists if she had to walk through the Van Gogh exhibit one more time, she met Liam, Kai and I outside after we finished our Treasure Hunt inside. She played bike tour guide for us, taking Kai on the back of her bike, with Liam and I staying close behind as we could manage.
First a quick lunch at Cafe Marcella, a cafe chosen because it has a square outside where Liam and Kai could kick the football around if they chose to (Juliet brought a ball with her). They did for a short time before they were overwhelmed by school-aged Dutch boys who didn't have a ball to play with and they wanted Liam and Kai's -- you can guess who got to play football and who came running back into the cafe.
Next stop was the Rembrandtplein, Rembrandt Square, where there is a nice statue of Rembrandt (sorry, cut off his head in this photo), and sculptures of each of the civil guards who appear in his painting, Night Watch. Juliet brought along a photo of the painting so we could pick out the individual guards depicted in the painting and match them with their figure on the square. The painting is famous because it was commissioned by 33 guards who expected a grand painting of them eating a merry meal or some other boisterous event. The very progressive Rembrandt decided to paint them actually doing their work, on the job, much to their dismay, so much so that some refused to pay him their share of the commission. The painting was later donated to hang in the town hall, and when it was found not to fit on the wall between two windows, some 30 cms were cut from either side to fit. Three civil guards did not survive the surgery. We took to joking about how someone must have gone down in history as having the grandfather who sliced up a Rembrandt.
Next stop was the Amsterdam, a replica of an East Indiaman ship used by the Dutch East India Company that was lost on its maiden voyage in 1749.
The Dutch trade with Asia in the 17th and 18th centuries was the primary reason for Amsterdam becoming the center of European trade and wealth during this time. Now wonder it was called the Golden Age. I was amazed to learn that the Dutch held a monopoly of any outside trade with Japan for about 200 years! Porcelain brought from Japan was copied by the Dutch and the Dutch made a fine business of it, turning their version into Delft Blue (which is now subjected to being copied).
On either side of the captain's quarters are two small rooms with a beautiful view off to port and starboard.
That's what this room is for??
A meal set out how the crew would eat.
Walking back across the dock from the ship, Kai's mitten was taken up by a gust of wind and blown into the water below, a good 5' down. I would've given it up for lost and went out to buy another pair, but Juliet's bold and friendly tenacity brought three workers out of their blue box resting on a raft where they had been taking a break. One got into a boat tied to the raft and puttered around to pick up the mitten and toss it back!
We returned to Juliet's house and met her 12 year old son, Thomas, who had just come home from school, picked up Juliet Stumpf from the train station and had a terrific pizza dinner with lots of fun conversation. After dinner, Liam and Kai lounged on the couch with Thomas and a game...another late night!
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