Day trip to Amsterdam on a wet , dreary day – Belgium and Netherlands , Part 11

This post is a continuation of a long drawn out series documenting our travels to the beautiful countries of Belgium & Netherlands in the Spring of 2023. We were based in Haarlem and spent 2 days in Haarlem ( Haarlem Canal Cruise & Haarlem by night – Belgium & Netherlands, Part 9 ) and spent a wonderful full day visiting the gardens at Keukenhof ( Keukenhof Gardens – Buds, birds and crowds galore! – Belgium & Netherlands, Part 10 ). We had one full day left in this trip and we still hadn’t been to the city of Amsterdam that is so highly rated by all tourism websites. I am less inclined to spend time is big cities of Europe nowadays preferring the smaller towns. We had spent 4 nights in Belgium without spending a minute in Brussels! But Amsterdam is a different story, I wanted to know which Amsterdam is real – the pretty postcard city or the crowded, dirty city that I dreaded. So we decided to pay Amsterdam a visit on our final full day in The Netherlands.

We woke up to find a grey and over cast day making us thank our lucky stars that we had got a bright and sunny day in Keukenhof the day before. I went on my usual morning walk around Haarlem with my 300mm attached to my camera ( More on that in my next and last post of this series, hopefully soon !) .

Waking up to a grey and over cast morning in Haarlem

I returned from my morning walk and found the rest of the family waiting for me to go to breakfast. So we went down to the restaurant at the ML and had the by now predictably amazing breakfast

Enjoying my breakfast at the ML

We then walked to the train station and bought ourselves Amsterdam and region tickets for 2 days. This ticket covers everything in Amsterdam i.e. trams and also covers trains from Amsterdam to the surrounding region including Haarlem. It also covered the bus ride from Haarlem to the Schiphol International Airport that we would need the next day making it worth the cost for us.

We then boarded the regional train from Haarlem to Amsterdam and a short and sweet 20 minute train ride later we were at Amsterdam Central station. We then used the handy trams from outside the station to give the parents legs some rest and soon we were at the historic Dam square.

At the historic Dam square in Amsterdam

We walked into Dam square and it was crowded as expected at 10 am. What I didn’t expect was the dirty alleys leading to it and the cigarette butts strewn around the place. This is a theme that I don’t want to repeat again and again in this post as I hate writing negative posts and tend to the the silver linings in most things, so I will get this rant out of the way! I have seen all Europeans cities being cleaned early morning only to be dirtied by the crowds next day, but this was the first city that I saw dirty in the morning itself. Broken bottles everywhere, cigarette butts littering the squares, canals with floating garbage and crowds that were just here to enjoy and leave a mess behind in their wake. It made me glad that I had chosen a much much cleaner Haarlem as my base instead of this big city. Ok, rant over!

I then tried to ignore the chaos around and just try to enjoy the beautiful square in front of me. We took photos in front of the Royal Palace and Madame Tussaud’s wax museum having no intention of venturing into any of them. In what is a first for me , I didn’t even try to go inside the New Church (which is actually 600 years old ) as it has become an event venue that holds exhibitions all year long and held no interest for me.

The Royal Palace behind us and the New Church on the right

The parents pose at Dam Square

Amma finds a rare clean & empty bench to rest her legs on Dam Square

Never been inside one of these and intend to keep it that way!

Popular and crowded Dam square, Amsterdam

We then decided to get off the square and move to the pedestrian only Kalverstraat. It is a street lined with multinational chain retail stores which held no interest to us but it had a small hidden church called the De Papegaai Church. This was a hidden Catholic Church in Protestant Netherlands – Catholicism was banned in Netherlands in the 16th century and for the next 200 years Catholics were forced to pray in small, unadvertised churches like this.

Walking down Kalverstraat away from Dam Square

We reached the Church which was hidden in plain sight and went inside to take a look. As I have found everywhere in Europe, the street was crowded but the church was empty! I am not a Catholic and I am not even that religious, but I enjoy churches for the architecture and the peaceful oasis they provide from the mad crowds outside.

The De Papegaai Hidden Church on Kalverstraat

We did our church routine of sitting in the pews and took a few photos of this small but still architecturally pleasing church. After a few minutes of silence and peace we walked back out into Kalverstraat.

The simple but pleasing interiors of the De Papegaai Church

At Kalverstraat I was sad to see the Amsterdam gallery closed so we re routed ourselves to the next stop on our walk.

The door to the Amsterdam gallery is closed on our visit

We then stood in the short line to visit the courtyard of the Begijnhof which is a quiet courtyard lined with houses around a small church which has stood here since 1346.  Similar structures are found in all dutch cities and they housed Beguines who were women who had removed themselves from the world in service of God at the time of the Crusades. Now they provide residence to senior single Catholic women.

It was yet another peaceful oasis in crowded and noisy Amsterdam. We walked around the pretty courtyard and took some photos. The small church was being renovated so we didn’t get a chance to go inside. But it is well worth your time to stand in line to see this small piece of Dutch History or just get away from the hustle bustle of the rest of Amsterdam.

The peaceful Begijnhof in Amsterdam

The ladies enjoy the peace and quiet

The small church at the centre of the courtyard

A statue of a beguine inside the courtyard at the Begijnhof

We then walked out back into the chaos of Spui square and took the tram to Leidseplein. The advantage with the Amsterdam and region travel card was that we could hop on and off trams without thinking about it.

At a tram stop on Spui square in Amsterdam

Sadly as in the rest of the city the Leidseplein square was also undergoing major restoration and covered in barricades except for the end with the international theatre. It also housed the ABN AMRO bank head office that my grandfather was the Mumbai branch manager of. ABN doesn’t exist in India anymore but it was good to see the building my grandfather must have visited in his visits to this city decades ago.

The International Theatre of Amsterdam at Leidseplein

The parents outside the ABN AMRO head office in Amsterdam

With that uniquely nostalgic for our family visit out of the way we took the tram again. This time to Museumplein, a huge park surrounded by famous museums including the Van Gogh and the Rijksmuseum. We had no intention of spending the rest of our day inside the Rijksmuseum as the rest of the family had no interest in art. If I ever return to Amsterdam again I will surely spend a day inside. For now we enjoyed ourselves in the blooming cherry blossoms in the park before moving on. 

Enjoying the Cherry blossoms in Museumplein

We then decided to go to one of the biggest parks in Amsterdam the Vondelpark which was close to Museumplein. So we crossed the busy street and walked to Vondelpark. I always enjoy these city parks and gardens and even on this grey day Vondelpark was a good choice. I put on my 300 mm lens that I always carry with me and got some decent photos of the birds that had made this park home.

Parakeets at Vondelpark Amsterdam

An Egyptian goose poses for me at Vondelpark

A male mallard poses for the 300mm

A fearless urban grey heron

A portrait of the Grey Heron at Vondelpark

A brown headed gull

Mallard mom and ducklings

Mr Vondel’s statue isn’t spared by the birds

It then got very overcast and started drizzling so we went to the nearby Park Zuid restaurant in the park itself. It was well past lunch time anyway so we got ourselves a table and enjoyed the burgers and beer / hot chocolate. By the time we finished our huge burgers the rain had stopped and we took the tram in the direction of the Jordaan Neighbourhood which has some of the iconic canals of Amsterdam.

Enjoying huge burgers at the Park Zuid in Vondelpark

The Jordaan neighbourhood was pretty with its gabled houses lining the narrow lanes. We ducked into the St Andrew’s courtyard – a smaller courtyard like the Begijnhof and refilled our water bottles at the fountain there.

The Jordaan neighbourhood of Amsterdam

Refilling our water at the small St Andrew’s courtyard

Even though this neighbourhood was far prettier than the rest of the city it was still littered beyond belief. So we just posed in front of the Leliegracht and Herengracht canals before catching a tram to the station and a train back to Haarlem.

Leligracht in the Jordaan Neighbourhood

The bigger Herengracht – another iconic canal of Amsterdam

A quirky cow museum / shop !!

On the train ride my parents were frank enough to tell me that they were glad that we were staying in Haarlem & that Haarlem which was much prettier in their opinion than the famed beauty of Amsterdam – I wholeheartedly agree.

We reached Haarlem to find the quiet and beautiful town that we had come to appreciate in our time there.

Happy to see Haarlem is still as quiet and beautiful after a day spent in Amsterdam

The parents were tired from the day’s exertions so we decided to pack a meal from a local supermarket and eat in the peace and quiet of our room. The better half and I would step out again after dark to enjoy a gelato and then a walk around the old town of Haarlem. Since I have described these places before I am just going to let the photos do the talking this time.

Enjoying a gelato on a cold night in Haarlem

St Bavo’s just before the lights take effect

Jousting knights statue next to the Church

More photos of Haarlem by night

It had been a busy day and even though we hadn’t enjoyed Amsterdam to be honest, it would have been criminal to stay so close and not give it a try. You may enjoy Amsterdam but it reinforced my belief of spending more time in the smaller towns in Europe while giving the big cities a brief visit.

We had one more half day left in The Netherlands and the plan for that was a visit to the beach at Zandvoort , provided the weather was good enough. Whether it would turn again for the better after the grey and rainy day we had encountered is a topic for another post, some other time, some other day.

Till then,

Bye