Amsterdam

We have many wonderful memories of the Avenue Saloon on Crystal Symphony Serenity including going by ourselves, with cruising friends, with family to enjoy beverage, conversation and/or music.

On our second cruise on board Symphony in 2004, almost each evening we would go to the Avenue Saloon at around 7:30 pm with two couples who we met the first and second days of the cruise respectively each night.  This was back in the day when we had late night dining at 8:30 PM.

Waterside dinner menu from last evening where we dined.

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Our Senior Waiter and Waiter Hannah and Abhiskek.

Ross Martin who returned to Crystal to working in corporate and oversees service, food and beverage on board the ships.

Since 2002, Crystal has made it possible for us to visit a significant number of cities and countries throughout the word including sailing each of the seven continents and to see each of these places through our own eyes. Yesterday, was an example of this.
 
Yesterday’s tour of Amsterdam was amazing. It was our first visit to this great city. We had a terrific tour guide, Kaleigh.  She has lived in the Netherlands for ten years and her fiancée was born there. She is from the USA having lived in New Orleans until Katrina struck and then moved to Colorado. She has a Master’s in Art History.
 
We started at the Portuguese Synagogue, also known as the Enoga or Song whose congregation is Orthodox. It opened in 1675.  Its structure is unique as its height is enormous. It was supposed to be used for deportation of the Jews, but the Nazis were talked out of this. They were able to conceal Jewish ritual items for the deported Jews in the sanctuary ceiling and attic floor.  

During our visit we also learned all about its history and about the impact World War II had on the Jewish Population. Sadly, most of the Jewish population died in the Holocaus as was the case in many European countries. As we walked the city there are markers outside many of the homes where the Jewish people who lost their lives lived. It is very impactful seeing the names of the individuals, the year they were born, when where and how they died. It is not only impactful but very respectful. We spent several more hours seeing walking around several blocks of Amsterdam including learning about its history.  Like any city, one could spend months here and not see it all.
 
We were impressed to learn that all new businesses must be local. For example, while there are places such as USA food chains in the city no longer can new ones go up. Even new local stores must be local and not tourist shops.
 
Evidently, they are also looking for ways to balance the amount of tourism with the enjoyment of the city by the locals.  This is not all that different than other places around the worlds are dealing with such as Venice, Bar Harbor, Maine and Charleston, South Carolina.
 
When it was time to have something to eat, we opted to get French fries at what the tour guide said was the best place to get a French Fries in the city. They make them from scratch, and after we placed the order we waited for them until they were fully cooked.  There are several choices of toppings but our tour guide recommended two of them. One is a mayonnaise which we slected but unlike the type of mayonnaise we would get back in the USA.  The other topping is a sauce containing various ingredients mixed with peanuts.  It is topped with onions. They come in three sizes; small, medium and large. Our tour guide recommended that Anne Marie and I share a medium one and she was right. Later, we went to a bakery where a traditional cookie is made which is two cookies with a filing inside forming a cookie sandwich.
 
We visited several churches, saw many different homes, visited museums, visited an historical complex for single women, and learned all about the history of the city including its architecture.  We learned that taxes are based not on the height of the buildings but on their width, so some places are very narrow.  It was analogous to a country we once visited where homes are not taxed if they don’t have a roof showing or where homes are not subject to tax if not completed.  Some buildings are tilted as their foundation is on wood and the water below them has resulted in the wood deteriorating.
 
We learned about the remembrance of the dead which commemorates all war casualties since the start of World War II.  Traditionally the main ceremonies occur in Amsterdam, and it is a true two minutes of silence where pretty much everything comes to a halt. In many areas people come together and gather around a monument and listen to speeches and lay down flowers to commemorate the dead. We were struck with the importance of this so that the youngest generation learns of what happened, so they never forget. 
 
The number of bicycles you see is in Amsterdam staggering. There are around one million people who live in Amsterdam and there are one million eight hundred thousand bicycles.  Laws are enforced for those in automobiles and their speed is restricted. 
 
We have plans to return next year to this very interesting city and have a good idea what we will see the next time in addition to a visit inside the Anne Frank Museum/House. We did stop by and saw the outside and expanded our understanding and learned about other issues impacting the country from the war including starvation that took place as the war was winding down.  This issue I already knew was not isolated to the Netherlands and why President Truman enlisted the help from former President Herbert Hoover who had expertise in this area to help provide relief all over Europe as the scarcity of food was a big issue.  
 
There is so much more we saw and learned about, and we  could write pages upon pages about this. However, this alone is quite long.

Today's Daily Reflections.

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We are enjoying a wonderful day on-board Crystal Symphony and tomorrow we look forward to a tour as part of our first visit to Belgium.

Cheers,

​Anne Marie & Keith