Amsterdam Day 4
Today was very interesting! In the morning, I walked over to visit the Amstelkring Museum, also known as "Our Lord in the Attic" museum! (The name made me chuckle and is reminiscent of Our Lady Under the Chain in Prague!) This is a 17th century Roman Catholic Church that is built into the 3rd floor and attic of a 17th century merchant's home. At the time of the Reformation, Roman Catholics were not allowed to build churches and were not supposed to worship in Holland, and the churches that were here were stripped of their iconography and turned into much plainer, Protestant churches. But the Dutch Roman Catholics did not disappear. They merely moved their worship into house churches. This particular one was active for over 200 years here in Amsterdam, in the home of a very rich merchant. The first couple of floors contain his family's living space, and then the third floor and attic are a church, complete with altar, sacristy, confessional booth, lady chapel and organ! The home itself was obviously quite elegant in its day. They say that over 200 people worshipped regularly in this attic church, arriving and entering the church by a side door in the alleyway next to the house. The museum is undergoing significant renovation at the present time, but there was still a lot to see and it was really fascinating to see how they managed to build a bona fide church right inside a house!
That museum happens to be right on the beginning edge of the Red Light district, so since I was there anyway, I walked a few blocks just to get a feel for this famous part of Amsterdam. Even at 11:45 AM there were a number of women in the windows offering their services at that early hour. By later in the day all of the "shops" have the windows full, but I saw enough to get the idea and, frankly, the whole scene is somewhat disturbing to me, so I didn't want to spend much time there. The sex shops are all over the place in that district too. I had not planned to visit the Red Light district at all, but since the museum was there, I figured I should at least have a quick look. After all, it is one of the most famous sections of Amsterdam. So I can now say I saw it.
Then I returned to my apartment and had a sausage roll and stroopwafel for my lunch with a good cup of tea, and my Amsterdam hostess (whom I found through an organization called "Women Welcoming Women Worldwide" aka '5W'), Jeannine Van Dam met me at the apartment and took me out for the afternoon. She lives here and has a car, so she drove me out of the city to see little seaside villages out in the countryside north of Amsterdam known as the Waterland. She tells me that this neighborhood where I am staying is one of the most sought after neighborhoods in Amsterdam. When she picked me up she wanted to see the apartment just to see the inside of the building and get a feel for the place. We first stopped at her own little summer cottage, not far outside the city, on a lake, and then we drove to Markem, a famous seaside village, popular with the tourist crowd. We parked outside the village and walked in along the lake to the harbor and then walked around the streets of the village. It was a lovely walk although out by the water the wind was fierce! I returned to the city at the end of the day feeling completely windblown! Markem is a prototypical Dutch seaside village. After we left Markem, we drove to another little village, considerably less touristy and got out and walked around and had gelato while watching the boats, and then we drove to Edam (home of Gouda cheese) and walked around there for awhile as well. It was lovely to see a bit of rural Holland and to have a local resident show me around. Her little cottage is really quaint, like something out of a storybook. Not elegant at all, but very homey and sweet, right on the water, with a small dock and little motorboat. Jeannine lives in Amsterdam, but spends a lot of time at her summer cottage except during the coldest months of the year. Once outside the city, the landscape is large green pastures, full of cows and goats, with windmills and canals and lakes. Lots of bicycles too - the Dutch really love their bikes! When we were finished in Edam, Jeannine needed to get back home for an evening commitment so instead of driving back into my part of the city (which would have taken forever!) she dropped me at a ferry in North Amsterdam that goes directly to Central Station. By then the weather had gotten very cloudy and a light rain was starting so the ferry ride was rather chilly and wet! Once I was back in the city, however, the weather improved and I walked back home and had a little rest before going out to a small pub/cafe in the Jordaan neighborhood for a light supper. The place was packed with 20/30 somethings enjoying beer, wine, munchies and some kind of trivia game that had them all carrying on at loud decibels! I watched the crowd and mused at the similarities and differences between what I saw in Morocco and what I am experiencing here in an upscale European city. In Morocco, after sundown, the town squares were completely buzzing with activity, but the revelers are drinking tea, coffee, water or fruit juice, and there is considerable sex segregation. The men party with the men and the women are off with other women and with children. The women are all covered in hijabs and long dresses and long sleeves, and the men also wear long sleeves and long pants. Here the crowds are a mix of men and women, beer and wine are flowing freely, the girls are in tank tops and shorts, as are a lot of the guys, and everyone gets merrier as the evening wears on and the alcohol and pot do their thing! In Morocco, the partying is interrupted by the azzan - call to prayer -and everyone goes off to pray and then returns to continue socializing and partying into the wee hours, but completely sober, whereas here, as the night moves on, the behaviors get more and more raunchy! We humans are very social animals and we love to party, but the way we choose to do so certainly varies depending on cultural norms!
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