Amsterdam Nooks and Crannies

Discovering the less-visited sections of a town or region is our modus operandi, and Day 2 of our time in Amsterdam delivered several hidden gems.  Despite the hustle and bustle of a million residents, you could find quiet areas, especially along neighborhood canals such as this one near our hotel.

Now skilled with the public transportation system, we navigated our way to the Jordaan.  Amsterdam’s trendiest, hippest neighborhood today began as the area for workers who served the rich families living in the Grachtengordel, and became a working class neighborhood in the middle of the 20th Century. 

At that point, the conditions in the neighborhood were awful, with tons of people living on top of each other with poor sanitation.  Today, Jordaan is an interesting mix of the working class and yuppie; carefully executed renovations have maintained the look and feel of the neighborhood. 

Brouwersgracht is a lovely canal on the northern end of the neighborhood; it was once the place where you’d find all of the breweries (hence the name) with vast warehouses. Now, it’s one of the most picturesque canals in this part of the city.

Old cities in the Netherlands have many hofjes, or little courtyards. They are usually hidden - tucked away from the main streets and behind the tall historical facades.  I had read about several of them, and was able to pinpoint them on our city map.  Locating them in person was a little more challenging until you know what you are looking for – often an open doorway leading through a tunnel to the courtyard.  But the treasure you see is worth the effort!

A superb example is Karhuizerhof, a courtyard that was built in 1650, intended for approximately 100 older, unmarried women and widows with children. Daughters were allowed to stay until their 18th year and sons until their 19th year.  Intriguing, right?  Today the houses here are normal rental properties.  

It became obvious that for most of the residential areas, your “real estate” on the street is small – a door, perhaps a window.  A couple of chairs.  A few flowerpots.  Of course, a bicycle.  Houses go UP – many of them three stories or more.  Despite this, and the preponderance of concrete, beautiful, bountiful wisteria flourished in this urban environment.

We strayed from our quiet area strategy to visit the district called “9 Straatjes” – Nine Streets – which refers to a relatively small slice of the canal belt centered around a three street by three street rectangle where you’ll find some of the best canal views in the city. Tourists and residents alike also throng here for the vibrant shops and cafes.  We chose an open-air café (along a canal, of course) and admired the wait staff as they maneuvered from the kitchen on one side of the street to our table, managing to avoid teeming bicycle and motorized traffic.

And can I digress here for a moment? I am a staunch supporter of alternative forms of energy, including human – observing the full embrace of bicycles in Amsterdam was fascinating to me.  Estimates show that there is 1 bike per resident – nearly 1 million of them!  And the infrastructure is set up accordingly – designated bike lanes, right of way for bikes, and so on.  Crossing a street is a complicated affair with multiple lanes of traffic including bikes that are zipping along at quite a clip.  We managed not to get run over by a bicycle, but there were a couple of close calls!  The variety of bikes was also captivating – more than once my head was turned by the bicycles with a large, sturdy front bucket that can hold up to four kids, complete with seat belts and suspension.  As close as you can get to a car in all but name and form of energy!

 

 

Ok – back to Nine Streets.This section of the city is part of Amsterdam’s first expansion in the 16th and 17th Centuries, when the Dutch Golden Age was beginning to transform the city from a small fishing and merchant village to the center of the biggest empire in Europe at the time.

The houses you see here – the tall, skinny houses that Amsterdam is well known for – were largely owned by wealthy families during that time period, and there are even some original buildings still standing (you’ll see the years on some of the buildings, which indicate when they were first built).

 

 

We passed the famous Anne Frank House near here, with its long lines of tourists.  Behind it towers Westerkerk – it is said that Anne admired its steeple from the windows of the house during her time there.

It is not a coincidence that, while walking around the neighborhoods, we saw numerous "Stolpersteine", or "stumbling stones", which commemorate victims of Nazi extermination or persecution and are placed outside their last-known freely chosen residence.  I wrote about this previously in a post about our visit to Hamburg.

Our next stop was Begijnhof, a residence for devout Catholic single women, located in this quiet part of Amsterdam for over 600 years.  These women, the Begijnen, did good works, especially in caring for the sick and later in education.  However, they did not want to live in a nunnery and had not taken vows.  From 1578 to 1795, Catholics in Amsterdam were not allowed to openly profess their faith, and church property was often confiscated when the city government became Protestant.  The Begijnen and their houses were left alone. 

In 1671 two houses were combined into the Begijnhof Chapel.  The last Begijn died in 1971, but the court is still inhabited by only women, currently numbering 100.   

The courtyard also features a display of façade stones that have come from other parts of the city following the demolition of buildings.  All of these stones date to the 1600s.  (In the mosaic, I have included one picture of a façade stone that I snapped elsewhere in Amsterdam – I wish now I had taken more!)

One of our ideal forms of “nooks and crannies” are sidewalk cafes, particularly in quiet pedestrian zones.  Imagine our delight when we found this treasure directly outside the entrance to the Begijnhof!  Sold! 

It was time for a break at the hotel.  We utilized the trams extensively, and yet we still did a lot of walking.  We were so impressed with the stamina of our companions, for their age.  And they would still beat us to the hotel bar before dinner!

We closed out our day with a fabulous dinner along the Amstel River at the De Ysbreeker Restaurant.  We had hoped to eat outside, but after 10 to 15 minutes standing in the queue in the beating sun, we gave in and retreated to the cool interior.  That first drink went down fast!  We left the site nourished and prepared for another day of discovery.

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Linking up to I Like Thursday with LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color.  Prompt this week: "Do you like red and green? does it lift your spirits? what shades do you like best?"

I do like red and green.  Different shades evoke different feelings for me - the traditional Christmas red and green bring back many happy memories of the season, and can always put me in a jolly mood.  I use this deep red in much of my decorating, even outside the Christmas season. Interestingly, I have very few pieces of clothing that are red. As a gardener, I never met a shade of green that I don't like.  Most green hues make me think of spring, which is a happy time for me, as we emerge from winter and there is so much new life.  I am always bringing green into the house in the form of cuttings from the garden and the forest, and I own numerous pieces of green clothing.

Linking to Thankful Thursday 

Linking to Mosaic Monday