netherlands – Tara’s Adventures

Amsterdam Where the Past Meets the Present

Dec. 5, 2024

Amsterdam is a lot of things. It has a lot of history that can still be seen all over the city.

It’s the city where Anne Frank wrote her diary:

It’s the city where Rembrandt became a prominent portraitist:

It’s a city with its own dark past. After all, I t’s seen everything from the Spanish Inquisition to witch trials and Nazi occupation. Some of its buildings still signal these darker times.

For example, take the Spinhuis. This is a former women’s prison, which is now a University of Amsterdam women’s dorm. And, the building has a scene above the door showing a woman’s beating:

The city also turns 750 next year (October 27, 2025 to be exact). In celebration, the city of Amsterdam recently launched “Amsterdam Monster Factory” (amsterdammonsterfactory.com), which includes eight monsters that each represent a different value of the city.

The monsters primarily live in virtual reality, which can be accessed via the Amsterdam Monster Factory App. So, you can see most of them, this is an image from the app:

But, we spent the afternoon trying to track the monsters down IRL. We found a few of them in stores and parks across the city.

We found Moki at the Amsterdam train station. He “represents Courage (one of the Xs on the city shield), and the open mindedness, tolerance and spirit of the city of Amsterdam.”

We caught up with Kiki and Kima in the I Amsterdam store. They “represent Compassion (another X on the city shield) for others and openness to help those in need.”

I found Gretel on a sign in Westerpark. She “represents Freedom of Expression, and Amsterdam as a city of no taboos – a place where the entitlement to speak your mind is a fundamental right.”

And, Biggie was near by. He “represents the future of the open minded spirit of Amsterdam.”

From there, we jumped on a canal cruise to take in the Amsterdam Light Festival. This is the 13th edition, and the theme this year is “rituals.” (amsterdamlightfestival.com/en)

I didn’t fully understand this one (there were also several human figures swimming, sitting and running…), but I thought the artistry was amazing:

Another fun one were these tulip petals:

Anyway, this is the last email from this trip. We fly home tomorrow, and then it’s back to reality. Thank you for sharing our adventure with us.

All our love,

Tara (and Steve)

Windmills, Clogs and Cheese

Nov. 21, 2024

Hello friends!

I’m sure you all know this, but adjusting to a new time zone is the worst. We’re still working at it, because today we found ourselves working to burn a couple of hours until breakfast opened at 6 am. As soon as we were done, we went back to bed for a nap.

Like I said, we’re working on it…

Anyway, after we got up the second time, we headed over to the Albert Cuyp Market. (Imagine if a flea market and farmers market had a baby. It’d be something like Albert Cuyp Market.) I found a few knickknacks, and Steve met a new friend:

Then we spent a good chunk of the day exploring Zaanse Schans. It’s a Netherland’s heritage site full of windmills and houses from the 18th and 19th century that are filled with makers of clogs, cheeses, candies and much more . Some of the buildings are original to the location, but many were relocated to the city when they were put up for sale and / or scheduled for demolition.

In short, it’s painfully adorable:

While we were there, we watched a guy make a clog:

Saw clogs that were probably made for Liberace:

Tasted all sorts of cheeses:

And, made the brilliant decision to climb to the top of a windmill while it was snowing:

We also found the jewel of my clog photo collection. It’s so good that I may need to stop collecting.

I mean, seriously, how can I top this?

The good news is that we made it back to Amsterdam in one piece. However, I don’t know how much longer we’ll stay that way.

As Steve put it, walking through Amsterdam is long “playing Frogger.” You’re dodging bicyclists, pedestrians, smart cars, etc. Luckily, we’ll get more practice tomorrow!

All our love,

Tara (and Steve)

What You Should Know Before Traveling with Me (Or – Why Steve is a Saint Among Men; Or – Just An Excuse to Share Silly Photos)

Dec. 4, 2024

Our train to Amsterdam was 50 minutes late. While we were waiting, I decided to send out a recap e-mail. Primarily, because our last travel days cause me to take a writing break, and someone reached out to make sure that we were okay. (Thank you, Nicole!)

If you’ve been lucky enough to travel with me – you know that I like to take a series of photos. I like to use selfies as an excuse to channel Tyra Banks (from her “America’s Next Top Model” days), and get a variety of angles (i.e., facial expressions).

This is one of the many things that Steve loves about traveling with me…

Exhibit A: Between the clogs, cheese and windmills, we found time to ham it up in Zaanse Schans. And, no, Steve was not in the middle of saying something:

While wandering around Amsterdam, we happened upon a (monster) family that represented different characteristics appreciated by Amsterdammers. If you were wondering, Steve’s trying to pacify me with this photo: