Wednesday, July 29th - Amsterdam, Netherlands

We had a relaxing slow start to the day and it felt wonderful with no timelines to go by, other than our own.  We had breakfast at the pub next door, which was the closest breakfast place we could see last night as we wandered around the area.  The breakfast was fantastic so I think we might be going back there a few times.

We then each went our own way to see whatever we might be interested in.  I headed off to the Hermitage Amsterdam but got sidetracked.  That seems to happen easily and frequently.  What caught my attention was a sign about The Shadow Canal that talked about the Jews in Amsterdam during WWII.  I was near the old Jewish Quarter and a new memorial included small gold plaques on the sidewalk at the edge of the canal.  So I turned down that street and wandered along the canal.  For each house number there was an individual plate for each of the people who lived there in the early 1940's showing their age when they died and where they died.  The ages were from the very young to the very old.  Many showed Auschwitz as the place of death but there were some in other camps.  It was quite moving to walk along a quiet canal on a beautiful street and see hundreds of names lining the walk.

So I decided to continue the theme and went to the Jewish Historical Museum and the Portuguese Synagogue.  The synagogue, built in 1675, is very plain inside and out, but also very impressive.  It still has no electricity and no heat.  The windows are large and clear to provide light but if it gets too dark they have large chandeliers with candles that are lit and candles are also placed around the room.  There is a balcony or a women's gallery on two sides of the room.  The walls are white and the ceiling and beams and other furnishings are a dark wood.  The whole facility is still exactly as it was in the 17th century as it survived throughout the years including through WWII.  The oldest Jewish library in the world is in the facility and they also have some very beautiful ceremonial objects in their treasury.

The Jewish Historical Museum was very interesting and it presented the history and culture of the Jewish people in the Netherlands with paintings, drawings, artifacts, photographs, films and 3D displays.  The displays were in several synagogues or the remains of where they had been.  It was very educational and covered literally every aspect: baptism, marriage, death, religious services, etc.   The one room did get into a lot of stories about life during the war, being in hiding, sent to work camps, concentration camps, etc.  After the war the Jews who returned to Amsterdam just had to start over on their own.  The government offered them no assistance because they said if they did they would be as bad as the Nazis in signalling out a specific group and they didn't want that.  I suppose everyone was suffering at the time and asking for help so it did make some sense.  However, in the way it was presented, it sounded pretty cruel since they had lost everything they owned and most of their family members.  The very last part of the museum talked about how they had rebuilt their lives and their synagogue in Amsterdam, but a lot of the Jews left the country because they did not like the way the government dealt with the Nazis and the aftermath.

From there I went to the Hermitage, which was only a couple of blocks away.  I wasn't sure that I was really going to go in because it was almost 3 p.m. but then I decided to go as they only had two main exhibits and they said each would take about an hour.   I quickly ate my ham and cheese croissant (left over from breakfast) and then went in with my audio guide.  The first exhibit was on Alexander, Napoleon and Josephine - A Story of Friendship, War and Art.  I can't tell you a lot of the dates and details but it was aa very interesting exhibit.  Napoleon Bonaparte met and married Josephine de Beauharnais soon after meeting her.  He was just a soldier at the time and she was a socialite from Paris.  They were an unlikely match but they did love each other.   From the battle field he wrote her many love letters and some parts of those were on display.  He also brought her back many items (his spoils of war) which helped her build an impressive collection of art, jewels and other valuables.  Later, as the wife or a rising star, she also had the power and money to commission lots of art and valuables so she had a vast collection in her estate at Chateau de Malmaison.   

As his power increased and he took control of France he needed an heir that Josephine was not providing so he divorced her - sadly for both of them.  He remarried and did have a son but unfortunately the son did not live long enough to marry and have any children so Napoleon's line ended.  Josephine, on the other hand, had a son and daughter from aa previous marriage and her son became famous and married nobility and her grandson married royalty.  Within a century her line included five Kings (one may have been a Queen) in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Belgium and Luxembourg (if I remember correctly).  That was an interesting bit of irony to the whole story of their great love.

The other interesting part was their relationship with Tzar Alexander, the grandson of Catherine the Great who was being groomed to be the next Alexander the Great.  Alexander thought highly of the Bonapartes and they thought highly of him.  When Napoleon invaded Russia he expected an easy victory with Alexander as his friend, but instead the invasion proved quite the opposite and the Russian troops defeated the French.  Alexander joined the Allies against Napoleon and eventually invaded  and took Paris.  The French loved him and he was charmed by Josephine.  She gave him a pendant which Napoleon had given her as she believed it to be of his ancestors.  In fact it wasn't but I''m not sure he ever knew that.  The gift was to appease him and hopefully gain his favour so he would not send her out of Paris or to prison.  The two became good friends but she died soon after.  He gave much of her art collection to the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.  Years later when her son's family had connections with Russian royalty, they gave even more of the collection to the Hermitage and that is why the whole exhibit is possible.  

Aside from the three individuals, their lives and loves, the exhibit also included war details and artifacts with a model of the Battle of Waterloo, with over 10,000 figurines, being one of the main exhibits.  Everything was beautifully displayed in the rooms and hallways at the Hermitage Amsterdam and it was a really pleasant way to spend an hour.  Now I'll just have to do a bit of reading on these three individuals to see what the story really was.

 The second exhibit was the Portrait Gallery of the Golden Age and it was full of large and small paintings.  Some of the group portraits were huge and took up entire walls - and these were big walls.  One of the really large rooms had about a dozen of these group paintings plus an electronic project of The Night Watch by Rembrandt, the original of which is in the Rijksmuseum.

The Hermitage Amsterdam has only been open for a couple of years.  The exhibits come mainly from the Hermitage n St. Petersburg which has over 3 million pieces of art in its collection.  It is located in some old buildings but I didn't have time to go through the exhibit that explained the facility.  I did get down one hall where the old kitchen was located and at that point it explained how many meals had to be made each day for thee patrons of the building.  From the way it was worded I would say it was a senior's home or hospital or something similar.

Now back to the second exhibit.  The large group portraits are from the 17th century and rarely seen because of their size.  The room the Hermitage displayed them in was massive and very impressive.  Other parts of the museum look down on this hall and it is equally impressive from those floors as well.  The paintings show us groups or guilds of people in their period dress and in their period settings.  Most of the people looked pretty serious but there were a few who looked more relaxed and were smiling.  I really liked how they had this exhibit staged.  Just standing in the large central hall was good enough but the lighting was amazing and they had us looking (through early exhibits) at four prominent individuals who we were supposed to find in the larger paintings.  Then every so often the lights would dim and the spotlights would highlight specific figures or paintings and explain who they were, what they were doing and why.  It was a great way to sit (yes, there were some benches in the hall) and learn about the pictures and the people in them.  Of course all of this was done through the audio guide that I once again had.  They work great and give you so much information in a very short time frame.

On the next floor of the exhibit they had smaller paintings from the same period and showing the development of and live in the city over those years.  it too was interesint but not as wonderful as the floor below.  With the Dutch sailing all over the globe and the trading through the Dutch India Company, the exhibit clearly showed how they became such a diverse, multi-faceted and tolerant society.  Once finished the exhibit, or rather kicked out of the exhibit at closing time, I wandered back to the hotel and got there just in time to freshen up and go for dinner.

We went out for dinner with Karen and Mario an Australian company we met on the ship.  They had picked out the restaurant and it turned out to be a great choice.  It was a huge place inside and lots of seating outside.  Due to the cooler weather conditions we sat inside but had a great view outside.  My entree was lamb three ways (rack, sausage and stew) and all three were delicious.  The stew was probably my favourite and that really surprised me.  The others agreed (we were all tasting bits of everything) that the stew was great but none of us really knew what the white sauce or paste was on top.  We just knew it was really good on the stew.  The others had the special which included swordfish and lobster salad for an appetizer and guinea fowl for the entree and a dessert of strawberry and raspberry ice cream with a piece of white chocolate with raspberries sitting on it and a little bit of fancy pink candy floss to top it all off.  It was very pretty and they said it was delicious as well.  I went for something called delicacies for dessert and it turned out to be 5 small bites of various chocolate delights so I really enjoyed it - as did all the others who had little bits of my little bites.

Following dinner we said our goodbyes and headed back to our respective hotels.  Karen and Mario have to leave early in the morning to catch their flight so they wanted an early night.  We didn't last much longer.