Amsterdam: Highlights (November 18-24) — Finkel Family Adventures

We just wrapped up a low key and very fun week with our last visitors to Amsterdam, Eli’s mom, Candida, and Aunt, Karen.

Most of our week was spent going to our favorite neighborhood spots, giving them a sense of our routine, and doing more than our share of eating. Although Candida and Karen had both been to Amsterdam before, they had not seen the city in many years and certainly not through our eyes. We walked the city, went to several museums, shared in a canal side cocktail, and helped them select some special Amsterdam-specific souvenirs for family back in the US.

The whole visit really highlighted the differences in our familiarity with Amsterdam now, in December, compared to when we first hosted my parents in August. I believe we have now graduated out of the amateur-ex-pat category into something more intermediate. Basically, this is the not-blundering-around-all-of-the-time category and it feels quite good.

On Sunday, we decided to visit the Zuiderzee Museum, about an hour north of Amsterdam in a town called Einkhuzen. This is another open-air museum, like Zanse Schans nearer to Amsterdam, that tries to recreate life in a Dutch Village around the late 1800’s.

As soon as we got off the train I realized something unusual was going on. To reach the museum, you take a free ferry from the train station, and there, among us, queued up for the boat were dozens of Dutch children in Zwarte Pete costumes.

The Zwarte Petes make up Santa’s mischievous band of merry helpers. Think elves. More on them in a minute…

Sure enough, from the holiday music playing on the ferry boat, to the crew of festively dressed Petes giving out handfuls of pepernoten, small gingerbread cookies, to all the kids on board, and (finally) spotting a poster promoting what was going on, I realized that the Zuiderzee museum had been transformed (for just one week only) into Pete’s Village!

All of the usual attractions were closed: no weavers or clog makers or friendly fishermen in sight. All had been replaced by dozens of merry Petes and festive holiday decorations.

So, there we are, including my Orthodox Mom-in-Law, among all these Dutch families happily singing Christmas carols, and Eli turns to me and says, “I am thinking that no Jews have ever landed at Pete Town before.” To which I said, “Yes, I believe we will be the first…”

As we have done on many occasions over the past several months, we did the only thing we could and we jumped in with both feet. We rode the rides and played the games and decorated clogs. We watched a band go by and Ben jumped in a conga line with a bunch of Dutch kids.

Ben shows off a little pepernoten gumdrop sandwich of his own invention.

Fishing for presents. The prize? Pepernoten, of course!

Making clog steamboats. (A steamboat is Sinterklaas’ means of transit in the Netherlands).

Helping a Fiets Pete (Bike Pete) fix a flat tire.

Can you spot the imposter in this line up?

By the end of the day we all unanimously agreed that the whole thing was much better and more fun than a typical day at the Zuiderzee Museum. Plus, it was a look into Dutch culture that most visitors don’t see.

Okay, so Pete. According to the Dutch story, Pete was a Spanish Arab who arrived, along with St. Nicholas, to bring gifts and joy to the people of the Netherlands. As the website “Stuff Dutch People Like” helpfully explains, Pete’s arrival kicks up some controversy each year.

This is because, while the story and traditions are beloved by the Dutch people, there are basically old school and new school views on the character himself. Old School Pete is portrayed with a painted black face, curly wig, and big red lips. The similarities to racist American blackface is striking and frankly, off-putting.

New School Pete got a rebrand. The blackface has been replaced by make-up representing the chimney soot that accumulates helping Santa down so many chimneys (and in most cases the wig and red lips disappear in this portrayal too.)

Both portrayals alive and well in the Netherlands. We saw plenty of both versions in Pete’s Village.

Ben and Eli fishing for presents with all kinds of Petes.

Petes are everywhere in Amsterdam right now, and it’s interesting to witness the Dutch grapple with these issues of cultural identity, tradition, diversity and inclusion. Here’s an example of the contrast, right from our little window into life here. The first photo, below, are chocolates sold at the boutique shop on our corner. The second photo is a newsletter from school that makes it clear that Zwarte Pete may not align with school values. Old school, new school. Tradition or cultural sensitivity.

Honorable Mention This Week:

We had the chance to enact our Amsterdam Emergency Metro Plan last Monday. Specifically, as we were on our way home from school, Ben along with Norah’s friend Trinity, stepped onto a train, while the rest of us (Norah, Trinity’s step-mom, and I) did not. As the doors sealed shut, the realization that we had been separated and an “Oh! This is really happening” feeling of total panic set in.

But, Ben pantomimed to me through the window of the now slowly departing train “ONE STOP” and it put my mind immediately at ease. This was what we had discussed, at length, when we first arrived:

If ever, anyone was separated from anyone else getting on a train (or tram or bus), the person(s) on the train would go to the next step, get off, and then wait. The person(s) left behind would take the next train and catch up with them there.

If ever, anyone was separated getting off a train, the person(s) who got off would wait there and the person(s) who went on would double back to meet them.

The fact that he knew the plan, and that he was also in the company of Trinity (age 10), meant that this wasn’t an emergency at all. Sure enough, after catching the next train, just a few minutes later, we arrived at the next stop to find them waiting there for us.

We had a good laugh of relief when we all met up again and then continued on our way home. I was super proud of everyone: for having a plan in the first place, for Ben knowing just what to do and being super nonchalant about it, and for everyone staying very calm and relaxed through the four minutes or so that we were apart.

I was also really impressed that a friendly stranger, another American woman, happened to see this unfolding and waited with Trinity and Ben on the platform until we arrived. The kids told her our plan and she hung back, waiting to contact us by phone if for some reason we didn’t meet back up immediately. (Incidentally, my cell phone is also attached to a card on Ben’s backpack as an In Case of Emergency Plan B).

So three cheers for emergency preparedness and scenario role playing with kids. It really made all the difference in this situation.