First Full Day in Amsterdam

Last night we took an evening walk down the Zeedijk, a narrow little street that runs from the Nieumarkt Square almost to the train station. We looked at a lot of restaurants before deciding to try the Bird Thai Restaurant. We each had a set menu with chicken satay, spicy soup with shrimp, and beef and coconut milk in paneg curry. The spicy soup was really spicy, but other than that everything was great. We made it back to the B&B, put on our pajamas and tried to read before falling to sleep. I think that Vicki passed out before 8:00 p.m., and I made it until almost 9:00.

Vicki:  I added a glass of Thai Iced Tea to my meal.  I had not had that since the 80s.  It’s as sweet as I remember.  I did fall asleep pretty early.  Then awoke around 2:30 and tossed and turned until 4:30 or so.  I think I fell back asleep before we got up a little before 6:00.  I hope to stay asleep all night tonight.

Of course, we woke up really early. So we were out and about by 6:30 or so (that’s 11:30 p.m. back in Nashville! We walked to Centraal station where we caught bus 172 around 7:00 a.m. for an hour ride to the big flower auction in Aalsmeer. The auction opens at 7:00 a.m., and it’s done by 11:00 a.m. Flowers come from all over the world, are sold, and then shipped out—the building is next to Schiphol Airport. The building is the largest in the world in terms of footprint (321 acres, 13 acres of that is cold storage).

They sell 34.5 million flowers a day in over 100,000 transactions. The flowers are sold by “Dutch auctions,” where the price starts high and goes lower with time so that as soon as it drops to the highest bidder, it’s sold. A single auction takes a second or less. Once the auctions are done orders are sent to the floor where the flowers are and pallets of flowers are driven across the storage floor where individual bunches or boxes are placed on to customers’ pallets for delivery. So a driver might take a pallet with 50 boxes of plants or flowers and drop 5 off at one location, 20 at another, etc. It’s fascinating to watch. I’ve posted a video of the drivers on my FaceBook page if you want to watch.

Vicki:  It was really interesting.  We watched the same process over and over.  It was just like nothing we’d ever seen before.

After the bus ride back into town we did a little more walking around and got sandwiches for lunch at the Café Van Zuylen on the Singel Canal. We had a leisurely lunch on the bridge over the Singel before walking back to the hotel.

After a brief rest, we set out walking again, headed for the Dutch Resistance Museum. This museum chronicles the Dutch resistance movement during World War II and all the hardships and atrocities inflicted on the Netherlands by the German occupiers. It was a sobering experience.

Vicki:  This museum was really well done.  The Dutch were faced with the decision to “adjust, collaborate, or resist” when Germany invaded.  They were shocked that Germany invaded.  They thought they could remain neutral as they did in WWI.  Stories were presented from all people who had adjusted or collaborated or resisted.  It made me wonder what I would have done. It took a great deal of courage to resist.  The Nazis were brutal in their dealings with the underground.

We made it back to the hotel by around 4:00 p.m. and read and rested before going out for a light supper. On our return my phone was registering 16,372 steps for the day. Hoping to stay awake until 10:00 p.m....