Ellen and I left right after class on Thursday afternoon to catch our Eurostar train to Brussels, where we were scheduled to get off, and catch an Intercity train to The Hague, where my cousin, Alesia, lives. However, fate had other things in store for us. First of all, our train was delayed a half hour because of "infrastructure" problems in the Channel Tunnel, and then, when we had finally got on the train and were about to go through the Channel Tunnel, our train came to a screeching halt and it was announced that now there was an ELECTRICAL problem in the Tunnel, and consequently we were delayed close to an hour more! By then, I was seriously stressed out, because we still had a two hour journey from Brussels to The Hague, and I hoped we would get there in time to catch another train!! Luckily, we were able to catch one, but because of all the delays, we got to The Hague two hours later than we had originally planned. The train gods were definitely not smiling on us. But once we met up with Alesia, all my stress melted away.
It was really good to see Alesia! The last time I had seen her was probably ten years ago, at my great-grandmother's (her grandmother's) 90th birthday party in Canada. So much has changed since then, like my entire person. haha. It was really fortunate for us that we were able to stay with her while we visited Amsterdam! She took us to her apartment and we were able to catch up a bit about our extended family, so that was nice.
Although she lives in The Hague, she works in Amsterdam, and so the next morning, we took the train with her into Amsterdam, where she turned us loose for the day, armed with a map and guidebook of Amsterdam. Amsterdam is a beautiful city, and although it was bitterly cold, it was sunny for most of the day, so we got to see Amsterdam shown off to its full advantage (albeit in the winter). The canals and buildings are all so pretty and quaint! The street names are impossible, though. So hard to pronounce. Luckily, Dutch people are very nice and most speak very good English, so we had no qualms about asking for help if we needed it.
Our first stop in Amsterdam was to visit the Anne Frank House, where she was in hiding with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during WW II. On the way there, we learned the hard way that pedestrians DO NOT have the right of way in Amsterdam. Bicyclists do. The bike lanes are very nice for those who ride bikes, which is to say, nearly everyone in the city, but for us poor pedestrians, it was nearly literally a crash course in road safety. Those bicyclists take no prisoners!! Neither do the cars. So many were driving partially on the sidewalks. Madness, sheer madness!!
Anyway, Anne Frank House. Yes, we went there, and I found myself really impressed and moved by the whole exhibit. We got to walk through all the rooms where Anne and her family and friends hid, which was really cool. Excerpts from her diary were super-imposed on the walls, so that added a personal touch. Of course, not everything was left exactly as things were before they were captured, because the Nazis came through and raided the place. However, some things remained, like photos of actresses and famous people that Anne had tacked up on the wall in her bedroom. Going through the house, I really got a sense of her bright, indomitable, hopeful spirit that has captivated millions of people worldwide. When I got to the room that told all about what happened to Anne and her family after they were betrayed and captured, I actually felt a little close to tears. It was so horrible what happened to them, and millions of other Jews and homosexuals and gypsies and other people that the Nazis deemed "degenerate." Everyone in their group, except for Anne's father, met their deaths in the concentration camps. What was particularly tragic about Anne's death was that she died only two weeks before her camp was liberated by the Allies. There was also video of her father and people who had known her, who all talked about her and how she affected them and what her story meant to them. Probably the coolest thing in the exhibit was her original diary on display. And thanks to the exhibit, I learned something new: before she was captured, Anne actually rewrote a good portion of her diary in the hope it may one day be published, after the Dutch government asked Jews who were in hiding or captivity to record their experiences for posterity. The Anne Frank House was definitely one of my favorite things we did that day, and now I want to read her book!
Our next stop in Amsterdam was the Kalverstraat, which is a big shopping avenue with lots of designers and stores like H&M and such, so that was fun to walk down. After a bit of lunch, we made our way to the Hermitage Museum, where the famous Van Gogh paintings were on display. Normally they are displayed in the Van Gogh museum, but since it is under construction, they moved all the paintings to the Hermitage. It was AMAZING to see those paintings!! They had it set up very well, where you could learn about Van Gogh's life and what he was going through when he painted each of his masterpieces. Although the Starry Night wasn't there (it's in NYC), I did get to see the famous Sunflower painting and the yellow room painting (which both feature heavily in an episode of Doctor Who), his self-portraits, and so many other wonderful paintings. I feel like I have a deeper appreciation for his art now, as well as the artist himself. Such a tortured soul. The museum also housed many other Impressionist paintings, so those were fun to see too.
The rest of the day was spent mostly wandering. We happened upon a cool street market, and made our way to the Red Light District, because that's what you do when you are a tourist in Amsterdam. So many sex shops and "coffee" shops and eateries selling "magic" truffles. So hilarious and crazy! I saw one of the legit red lights on a door, so I knew business was in session, but I didn't see any prostitutes in the windows. I probably was there too early in the evening for that. haha. Oh well, I feel like it would have been weird to see them in the windows, soliciting for work. Then, we met back up with Alesia and her Dutch friend Adrian for dinner that evening. We went to this really cool place of which I forget the name, but it was the Dutch word for "resistance." The restaurant was in a warehouse that had housed a newspaper that printed resistance literature during the Nazi occupation, so that was pretty neat! And the food and conversation were excellent :)
The next day was Saturday, which was a bit of a relaxed day, which was fine with me after the craziness of Amsterdam! We had a leisurely morning, during which I introduced my cousin to the delights of Downton Abbey (I am happy to report that she is completely addicted now). After that, we walked around The Hague. Although Amsterdam is the capital of The Netherlands, The Hague is the seat of government. So we took a walk to see the Queen's palace, a deer park, the Dutch Parliament building, and just walked through the downtown area. It was all so cute! We then went to a museum where we saw this really amazing, enormous 360 degree panorama painting of a beach and historical fishing village scene. It was quite impressive! Afterwards, we had Thai food for lunch (my first time, and I loved it!) and then puttered around the shopping area because it was quite cold and rainy outside by this time. We went to a huge department store, an H&M, and some other stores that had really nice clothes and things. It was a struggle for me, because I am not a shopper at all! But at least we were inside. Then, we got to be pretty tired, and it was disgusting weather outside, so we trekked it back to Alesia's apartment, where we watched the movie Shakespeare in Love (so good!), two more episodes of Downton, and had cheese fondue and bread and salad for dinner. A lovely girls' night in!
The next morning we had to leave very early for the train station, because, just like the Tube in London, there is construction work on the Intercity railways in Europe. So basically we had to take a train over one stop to one station, catch another train to another station, get off at that station, take a replacement bus to another station, and then catch a train from there to Brussels, where we had to catch our Eurostar back to London! What is normally a two hour journey took three hours because of this, but I was able to get some quality shut-eye on the trains, and we left super early to give ourselves plenty of time in case there were more delays. Luckily, everything went as smooth as silk, so we arrived to Brussels three hours before our Eurostar was scheduled to depart. Oh well, at least I can say I've been to Belgium, even if I never left the train station because it was SO COLD OUTSIDE. We didn't arrive in London until 4 pm, so we essentially spent eight hours travelling that day. Needless to say, I was completely exhausted. Although I enjoyed myself immensely in The Netherlands, and got to reconnect with my cousin, after a long weekend of travel and exploration and a tiny bit of stress, I was definitely happy to be back in my lovely London :)
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