Amsterdam: Highlights (December 2-8)
On Wednesday night, we jumped in a canal boat one last time, this time after dark, to experience the Amsterdam Light Festival. Each year, 25 international artists are invited to create works to display in the canals and to create light projections on buildings in Amsterdam. The boats all follow a recommended tour to pass by many of the installations, which were interesting in their own right and also made for a scavenger hunt sort of feel in the boats.
Daylight is such a premium now. It is completely dark when we walk to school in the morning, with the sun fully rising around 9 am. And, it is already getting dark when we are walking home from school in the afternoon, being fully night by 5 pm. We also notice that even when the sun is at its daily peak, it is still low in the southern sky. And, frankly, a rainy day – which is frequent – makes it feel like the sun really never comes up at all.
All this to say, it makes sense why Scandinavian countries talk of hygge and the Dutch have their own word, gezellig, which is all about being festively cozy. The streets here are lit up with twinkly lights and you find tea light candles for sale in stores by the hundreds. This is a way to make the darkness a little more bright and a little more festive. The Light Festival is a similar celebration, it’s a way to harness the many hours of darkness and turn it into something artistic and fun.
Following the ride, we made our way to the enormous floating Sea Palace Chinese restaurant, which sits on the IJ river, for a festive dinner with our friends. It wasn’t a perfect evening: the kids were hungry and tired and pretty over the whole plan by the end, but it was still memorable and worthwhile.
Over the weekend, Norah disappeared for a full 24 hours to have a sleepover at her friend Trinity’s house. So, on Saturday, Ben and I made our way to the Railway Museum in Utrecht to see what that was all about.
The museum is in a massive former railway station that is dedicated to explaining the nearly 200 years of railway history in the Netherlands. There are trains of every type on display including an original and fully restored steam train from the early 1800’s. There are several innovative rides that tell not just of the invention and evolution of the train, but how the train really changed whole societies and ushered in a new historical era.
Ben loved it but I’m glad we went alone because Norah (at age 10) would have found the whole thing both boring and babyish. I was just impressed (again) with (yet another) superbly crafted museum that makes history, engineering, and science interesting to kids and adults alike.
The whole experience was virtually free, costing only my train ticket: Ben travels free on Netherlands trains and our museum cards give us free admission virtually everywhere we go. This, again, underscores the Dutch commitment (and the broader European commitment) to investing in community and infrastructure. It just makes for so many great –and easily accessible - experiences.
On Sunday afternoon, we took the ferry across the river to Amsterdam Noord and made a quick visit to the Eye Film Museum. The museum is primarily a movie theater, offering something like 10 films per day that vary from international films to art films to blockbusters. But, unfortunately, most of these are inaccessible to us as they are either in Dutch or foreign language films that are subtitled in Dutch.
While we haven’t made it to a movie,, we spent about an hour yesterday exploring some of their other exhibits, including a fun green screen activity where you drop yourself in a movie clip, as well as a fun interactive exhibit where you pull a slot-machine style level to randomly select and watch film clips.
We also went to the super touristy, but worthwhile, attraction called This is Holland. This is billed as a 5D (cooler than 3D) experience in which you feel like you are flying over the Netherlands. The kids loved it, particularly a part where you feel like you’re going to crash into the North Atlantic and they spritz you with water for a full effect. I really loved seeing the sweeping panorama of the Netherlands and hearing Norah recognize many of the places we’ve visited over the past few months. In fact, as we flew over the heart of Amsterdam, part of the sweeping cinematic finale, I might have teared up a little bit because I just love this place so much.
The honorable mention this week is just that Ben seems to be living his best life right now. He has shed most of his little-kid grumps and has really turned into a happy, verbose, and well-adjusted kid. I love his enthusiasm to explore places, puzzle out the metro system, and work Dutch phrases into our conversations.
He just discovered that street vendors sell Ollie Bollen, a Dutch donut, some of which have Nutella filling, and he couldn’t be happier about it. He also has lost four teeth in just a matter of weeks and is determined to spend all his tooth fairy euro loot on souvenirs before we leave.
