I don't actually understand what I amsterdam means. Is it supposed to be like i phone? Anyone?
The opening ceremony of the conference
... to present my PhD findings.
Speaking to Dr Michael Grusch. First time meeting him.
Looking at other people's work
I also visited a cancer institute, Nederlands Kanker Instituut - Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Ziekenhuis (NKI-AVL) whilst I was there to meet up with one of the scientists too.
Well, obviously, visiting Amsterdam is not all about work for me! I couldn't not visit the city famous for its canals and art museums!
A canal in the city
The boats on the right in the picture above are house boats where tourists can stay. We wanted to experience that but Chin Fei was afraid that I'll get sea-sick if the boat rocks continuously.
More house boats on different canals
Chin Fei and I aren't people who appreciate art. So we decided not to waste our time to visit the famous Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum. On the last day of our Amsterdam tour, my boss actually said that we should have gone to both the two museums to compare the paintings done by Rembrandt, during the Dutch Golden Age and Van Gogh. However, it was too late to organise a visit and so we left the city without knowing anything about the artists. Quite a waste, to think of it now.
Outside of Rijskmuseum
Each window has a different head sculpture on the top
Well, at least we visited Anne Frank's House! I've always wanted to visit the place, ever since I heard about it when I was in my high school. I couldn't imagine that I was really inside, and experiencing the small little place that Anne used to hide in to escape from the Nazis.
We went to Anne Frank's House early in the morning when the doors were first opened and we didn't have to queue at all. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside. Nevertheless, it was indeed an eye-opener visiting this small annexe and the feeling inside the place was so surreal. There were videos about Anne and her family, photos of them when they were younger, letters and pages from the diary written by Anne. It's amazing how the entire family kept themselves from everyone for 2 years. They weren't allowed to use the bathroom at night for fear that people might hear the sound of water down the pipe in the warehouse, when no one is supposed to be in at that time.
We spent a good whole 3 hours visiting this place even though it was very small. There was so much to see and read. It was just a pity that Anne's father, Otto Frank, only wanted the rooms to be left vacant. Although a mini replica was built according to his detailed explanation, I think a higher impact could be created if the rooms were left as how they were when the entire family went into hiding at that time. By the time we exit the house, we were stunned to see a long bee-line waiting at the entrance. I heard that only a small number of people are allowed into the house one at a time, considering it is very small.
Amsterdam city is built on water, well at least a very wet land and apparently, the land is lower than sea level. The reason of having so many canals running throughout the city was to pump the water out or else Amsterdam will always be flooded! So if you take notice, the buildings are not only narrow and colourful, some of them are crooked! It seems like the ground is so unstable, that very old buildings are now lop-sided, leaning on other buildings! The walls of some of the crooked buildings were cemented to the walls of the straight buildings so that the straight buildings can support the crooked ones! There have been numerous cases that some weak structures have collapsed already. Because Amsterdam city is listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, they aren't allowed to rebuild the old buildings but conserve them as they are.
Amsterdam city itself is like a spider web, if you look at in on Google Maps. There are so many alleys forming a shape of a pentagon of some sort.
The popular tourist attraction in Amsterdam city is Dam Square where you can find the National Monument, Royal Palace, Nieuwe Kerk (New Church), Madame Tussaud and the busy transportation hub, Centraal Station.
I like the Dutch architecture, especially their classic windows! Funny enough, all the windows look the same. Long rectangular ones with prominent windowsill and flowers decorating the sill. :) While walking past, I had hoped that someone would open up the window and water the flowers. It would certainly be a lovely picture!
Most of you would know that prostitution and drugs are legal in Amsterdam. At night, the red light district is a place not to be missed...Well, to see, I say. Young ladies clad in only their bra and panties, so fancy, small and tight that you wonder how the hell they can breathe in them, start exhibiting themselves, illuminated with red light, behind the glass windows. Apparently, each lady pays about 180-200 Euros to rent a window and she will try to lure every man who walks past into their small little cosy room, enough for 2. The lady has the right to choose and will open the door for the man. The man is not allowed to open the door himself or else the lady can report to the police patrolling the area. This is to protect the safety of the prostitutes. Our tour guide also said that the lady charges between 30-50 Euros per service and so to break-even, she has to provide service to 6 men a night! And it'll be a lot more of hard work to make profit from this. Photography of these women aren't allowed but we saw one female tourist taking photos of them and we could see the prostitutes weren't happy at all. Fair enough. They kept yelling at her and asking them to delete the photo.
There are many coffee shops too. Unlike the many kopitiams we have in Malaysia and the cafes in Australia, coffee shops in Amsterdam sell drugs. You can buy cannabis to smoke (which stinks like hell, worse than tobacco!) and brownies and cakes containing all sorts of drugs. Some even sell magic mushrooms which makes you fly. Or at least you think you can fly. Obviously, we weren't the people dare enough to try any of these sorts of things.
Actually, before our flight to Amsterdam, we happened to watch an episode of Amazing Race Australia where the teams had to fly to Amsterdam and then take a train to Prague. In Amsterdam, the teams had to eat some doughnuts, which looked really good! Unfortunately, during our 5 days stay in Amsterdam, we didn't know where to find those doughnuts. What a shame. But we did try the famous chips with mayonnaise and boy, it really tasted good! Something different compared to the normal ketchup! :)
Other places we briefly stopped by were Vondelpark, Nemo Science Centre, Skinny Bridge, Maritime Museum, Heineken brewery (we weren't fans of alcohol and my brother who went there earlier, said it wasn't anything special so we didn't enter) and the Amsterdam busy port, IJ-buurtveer.
Up next, Amsterdam's transportation and flowers! :)
We spent a good whole 3 hours visiting this place even though it was very small. There was so much to see and read. It was just a pity that Anne's father, Otto Frank, only wanted the rooms to be left vacant. Although a mini replica was built according to his detailed explanation, I think a higher impact could be created if the rooms were left as how they were when the entire family went into hiding at that time. By the time we exit the house, we were stunned to see a long bee-line waiting at the entrance. I heard that only a small number of people are allowed into the house one at a time, considering it is very small.
The long queue outside Anne Frank's House
Amsterdam city is built on water, well at least a very wet land and apparently, the land is lower than sea level. The reason of having so many canals running throughout the city was to pump the water out or else Amsterdam will always be flooded! So if you take notice, the buildings are not only narrow and colourful, some of them are crooked! It seems like the ground is so unstable, that very old buildings are now lop-sided, leaning on other buildings! The walls of some of the crooked buildings were cemented to the walls of the straight buildings so that the straight buildings can support the crooked ones! There have been numerous cases that some weak structures have collapsed already. Because Amsterdam city is listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, they aren't allowed to rebuild the old buildings but conserve them as they are.
Westerkerk (Western Church) near Anne Frank's House. This church was frequently mentioned in Anne Frank's diary. This is also the place where Rembrandt was buried.
Resting on a very big chair
Amsterdam city itself is like a spider web, if you look at in on Google Maps. There are so many alleys forming a shape of a pentagon of some sort.
The alleys in Amsterdam
At night when everything comes alive!
The popular tourist attraction in Amsterdam city is Dam Square where you can find the National Monument, Royal Palace, Nieuwe Kerk (New Church), Madame Tussaud and the busy transportation hub, Centraal Station.
National Monument to remember the victims of World War II
Royal Palace Amsterdam
Wax museum, Madame Tussaud
Centraal Station in daylight
Centraal Station at dusk
I like the Dutch architecture, especially their classic windows! Funny enough, all the windows look the same. Long rectangular ones with prominent windowsill and flowers decorating the sill. :) While walking past, I had hoped that someone would open up the window and water the flowers. It would certainly be a lovely picture!
Most of you would know that prostitution and drugs are legal in Amsterdam. At night, the red light district is a place not to be missed...Well, to see, I say. Young ladies clad in only their bra and panties, so fancy, small and tight that you wonder how the hell they can breathe in them, start exhibiting themselves, illuminated with red light, behind the glass windows. Apparently, each lady pays about 180-200 Euros to rent a window and she will try to lure every man who walks past into their small little cosy room, enough for 2. The lady has the right to choose and will open the door for the man. The man is not allowed to open the door himself or else the lady can report to the police patrolling the area. This is to protect the safety of the prostitutes. Our tour guide also said that the lady charges between 30-50 Euros per service and so to break-even, she has to provide service to 6 men a night! And it'll be a lot more of hard work to make profit from this. Photography of these women aren't allowed but we saw one female tourist taking photos of them and we could see the prostitutes weren't happy at all. Fair enough. They kept yelling at her and asking them to delete the photo.
The red light district
There are many coffee shops too. Unlike the many kopitiams we have in Malaysia and the cafes in Australia, coffee shops in Amsterdam sell drugs. You can buy cannabis to smoke (which stinks like hell, worse than tobacco!) and brownies and cakes containing all sorts of drugs. Some even sell magic mushrooms which makes you fly. Or at least you think you can fly. Obviously, we weren't the people dare enough to try any of these sorts of things.
Actually, before our flight to Amsterdam, we happened to watch an episode of Amazing Race Australia where the teams had to fly to Amsterdam and then take a train to Prague. In Amsterdam, the teams had to eat some doughnuts, which looked really good! Unfortunately, during our 5 days stay in Amsterdam, we didn't know where to find those doughnuts. What a shame. But we did try the famous chips with mayonnaise and boy, it really tasted good! Something different compared to the normal ketchup! :)
Vending machine selling burgers!
What surprises us was that in Amsterdam, there are no free public toilets, or at least we couldn't find any. Funny enough we spent 25 euro cents on a bottle of 1.5 litres of water but had to pay 30 to 50 euro cents to enter the public toilet! Once we found that the cinema provided free access to toilets, we frequented that a lot. :P However, our first visit to the toilet in the cinema was pretty amusing. Instead of F and M for female and male, it was written on the door D and H. And Chin Fei nor I knew what D or H meant! We had to stand outside the toilet door, waiting for someone to enter or exit the toilet to know which was the ladies and which was the gents. Turns out D stands for Damen, ie for female and H stands for Herren, for male.
Other places we briefly stopped by were Vondelpark, Nemo Science Centre, Skinny Bridge, Maritime Museum, Heineken brewery (we weren't fans of alcohol and my brother who went there earlier, said it wasn't anything special so we didn't enter) and the Amsterdam busy port, IJ-buurtveer.
Museumplein
Sea Palace, China Restaurant, similar the Jumbo Kingdom in Hong Kong
NEMO Science Centre in the backdrop
Skinny bridge
Up next, Amsterdam's transportation and flowers! :)
3 poked Ai Ling:
I live in Belgium, speak french and flamish (same language is spoken in the Netherland). I olso understand a few words in English ...
I am sterdam can be translated to "I am a big big star" :I am = from english and sterdam = from flamish and means "ster = star" "dam = décameter or a lengt of 10 meters"
Thanks for the explanation! I'm glad to take a picture with the words now because I feel like I am a big star! :)
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