Day 6

Off to Amsterdam....Day 6 is an early morning by normal standards, but Euro Tour standards we got to sleep in. The fact that I barely went to bed when the alarm went off, could be easily seen in my eyes. Thankfully we are off to Amsterdam where if my eyes are red and glossy most people probably won’t notice!!!

It is about an hour and half drive from Wagningen to Amsterdam, which in fact received its name because the city is located on the Amstel River and there are just a “few” dams in and around the city, thus the name Amsterdam. So what have we got in store today...well let’s see there will be some reflection on the loss of the Jewish community in various sectors of the city and a bit of an impromptu walking tour given by our excellent tour director David Harrod, supper in the city and some free time.

We were dropped off at the bottom of city center at around 9:30ish by our wonderful bus driver Will, who hails from the Netherlands, but was born in the country of Surinam. Very nice fellow and unbelievable bus driver!!! Today is a day to be out and about and on foot, all day!!!

Out first look at the old city of Amsterdam is one of ornate architecture on many of the 300-400 year old buildings. Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to see the official home of Her Majesty Queen Beatrix, because the majority of the building is undergoing a “facelift”. David told us that she normally resides in the south of the country, in a city called The Hague, and the palace at Appledoorn that we will be seeing on Saturday is another one of the royal homes....tough life!!!

Seeing as it is early morning and we are on the way to the Portuguese Synagogue we made the decision to take the fastest route there. The reason I say that because we cut across the infamous Red Light district. I can assure your beating hearts right now that much of what you hear about that area is very untrue, especially at 10:00 AM in the morning. Because of the river system that runs all the way through the city, the Red Light area cuts across many side streets and apart from signage there is very little to see or do at this time of the day. It is a very interesting area because many people and families also live along the main street that runs with the river, but the "Red Light" area across in the small side streets that are only accessible by foot or by bike, of which in all of the Netherlands there are millions it seems.

David did an excellent job of explaining to the kids about the liberal culture of the city and the concepts behind the drugs and the prostitution (of which none were around I assure you and those that were had there window shades drawn!). What I didn’t realize was that drugs are not legalized in Amsterdam, the police simply choose to ignore the use of “soft” drugs and their private usage and deal more with the hard drugs and other types of crime that are more difficult and dangerous to cope with.

AS far as the discussion on prostitution, which they will get in grade 11 law classes; David Harrod made an extremely interesting point about the industry. He presented the fact to them that there are more slaves now in North America than there were during the time of the infamous “Triangular Trade” from Africa to North America and back to Europe. Shocking for sure!!! The majority of these slaves are in the sex trades are in it against their will, often kidnapped and taken illegally from Europe, or promised jobs as actresses, etc. In the system in Europe, these women pay taxes on their earnings, receive medical care and insurance as well as pensionable earnings....I realize it sounds crazy but it’s true. Anyways, after a couple of minutes we arrived in the Jewish sector of Amsterdam. You can all relax now that that is over!!!

The first area that we arrived at was the Portuguese Synagogue, although I have spent a small amount of time in the Jewish section of Montreal on tour before, this will be my first trip into a real live synagogue. Before entering the synagogue we were told of the beginnings of Judaism in this area of the world and of course we will learn about the dispersal of Jews during WWII a little later on.

The synagogue was very beautiful and very different from the churches we attend on PEI. First and foremost all of the benches or pews face one another.....I actually liked that a lot. Actually, before that, all of us males had to put on the traditional Jewish Yarmulke, no offence to the Jewish faith but to me it was a beanie. After a few minutes there and quite a few pictures of our Yamulkes, we departed for some more time in the city.......and some SHOPPING finally!!!

As I warned all of the girls prior to the tour, this would probably qualify as the worst shopping trip in history, but the best history lessons in the world would be had in Europe 2010. Well let the “mishegas” begin!!! Pretty good Yiddish for just having the Yamulke on for 15 minutes isn’t!!! By the was “mishegas” is Yiddish for you guessed it, craziness!!! David told everyone we needed to be back at the city square in one hour....one hour...one hour to shop in Amstedam!!!! I am pretty sure I heard an “oy vey” from my usual shopping partners!!! By the way “oy vey” is “Oh woe is me!” and I really think that I should be saying it as Emily, Shannon, Ashley, and Rachel looked right at me and said “gein fest”. Ok I will stop using my new found language of Yiddish...by the way that means “GO FAST!”

The shopping went well as everyone split with an adult, but since the commercial district is really on one street they all would have been fine, but better safe than sorry. I will have to admit that between Amsterdam, Paris and Rome, I have felt much safer here....seriously. I have been keeping my eye out for pickpockets and petty thieves, mainly because we have some "green"(and I don't mean TOSH green) travelers, but I have seen nary a one!!!

Following the Dutch version of speed shopping(don't know the Yiddish translation for that) we reconvened and made our way across town to another Jewish quarter where we were scheduled to visit the Amsterdam Holocaust museum, the Auschwitz Memorial and the Auschwitz Museum before supper at the Hard Rock.

Powerful stuff was told and seen as we looked at the list of names of all the Jewish families who were deported through Amsterdam in the 1940’s once the Germans invaded and the Dutch capitulated. Out of the roughly 120,000 Jews that lived in the city at that time, 104,000 of them never returned. No need to say more. This museum is actually located in an old Jewish theatre that served as the deportation house for the Nazis during WWII. Very eerie and extremely sad when you heard the Jewish guides talk about members of their own family and their round up and deportation.

From there we went to the Auschwitz Memorial located in a nearby park and spoke to a wonderful lady who told about her grandparents and other Jews and their struggles during those times. Another very powerful moment in our tour for sure!

The Jewish section of the tour continued as we continued to learn more about the Jewish people, their faith, their lives and their traditions. The kids had a great day learning about the menorah and the hannukiah as well as the Torah. They had a great time in the children’s section of the museum as they learned about all of the famous Jews in the world such as Steven Speilberg, Lenny Kravitz, Mr. Spock, Marilyn Monroe, Bob Dylan and of course Sammy Davis Jr. Personally I learned about famous Jewish people through the Adam Sandler Hannukah Song, if you haven’t heard it you should youtube it! Its clean and quite comical, in fact there are 3 versions now.

We learned about kosher meal preparations and Jewish music and literature. Coming from mono-cultural Summerside, this was another great learning experience for your children. Off to the Hard Rock Cafe and then to another highlight.....but first a little more free time for.

I may as well tell you now, I was late!! They all had a great time laughing their butts off as I showed up 15 minutes later for the walk to Hard Rock. I think the lack of sleep caught up with me this afternoon. After we left the museums, David said that we have about 2 hours before our dinner reservation...”Oy Vey,” More shopping!!!! Well this time I told the girls I would take them to a couple of stores then there were getting dumped onto Kelly or Marliyn, so I could shop as well(can't come home without things for the fam)!! Well, let’s just say I lost track of time, not shopping all the 2 hours by any means, but wandering aimlessly on the same street everyone else was on and I showed up 12 minutes late. Brendan took great pride in running towards me and telling me that “my tardiness would no longer be tolerated any further on the trip!” The things I have done for these kids and they are chirping their heads off about being late!!! All in fun!

We proceeded to the Hard Rock with about 20 minutes to spare(I could have shopped for another 10 and we still wouldn't have been late!) and sat down for some good music and a good ole Cheeseburger and chips (fries). Following the quick 45 minute supper we were off to Anne Frank House. More learning!

As we waited outside the museum/house we all brushed up on our Anne Frank story. Although I know the story very well, I have not read the book and a number of them were very excited because of their love of the book. As we wound around the beginning of the museum before we actually enter the house, Anne Frank’s writing on the walls is chilling to say the least. I am not sure if I can describe what we saw over the next hour, I just know that I was speechless when I left. I will post a couple of videos pertaining to the house and leave you to form your own opinion...it is a must see I will finish with.

Tomorrow we are back in Amsterdam with a guided tour of the old district I believe and then onto Voorthuizen for the afternoon and the military tattoo. Looking forward to our second last day in Europe....I mean that in a good way!!


A gute nahkt,
dc