Amsterdam (Day 1 - afternoon) - the 22th of September 2011

We reached Amsterdam Central Station at about lunch time and as we would have to wait   for a few hours until we could do the hotel check-in, Mia and I decided to wander around and try to make the most out of the promising afternoon, as the weather was quite good.

From across the Station stood the Neo-Baroque and Neo-Renaissance 1842-19121 Saint Nicholas Church, which we visited and whose interior impressed us, though the dim light didn't allow us to thoroughly appreciate some of the paintings on its walls.

We then continued walking along Oudezijdsvoorburgwal Canal  heading towards Munttoren. I must confess I was impressed with it in a way I cannot exactly express.

 

To one side of it the huge tower of the oldest remaining church in Amsterdam dating back to 1300 and to the other the renovated Restaurant in de Wag located in one of the oldest city gates (1488), both of which impressive in different ways. 

Right behind the Old Church main entrance were a few "flourishing" Red Light District narrow streets, which we walked along (out of curiosity, I must confess) ... and though at the beginning it looked rather shocking that these should be virtually encircling the oldest religious bastion of the city ... in what might look like a provocative approach to religion ... it led me to realize that we were just coming across one of the oldest (if not the oldest) professions in the world ... so why not? ... Religion and "sin" side by side ...

As we reached the Grimburgwal there was a boat cleaning up the canal by pulling bicycles and other vehicles out of it.

We headed left in the direction of the Waterlooplein trying to locate the Hermitage Museum, as the hotel we would be staying at was to the side of it overlooking the Amstel.

We had booked a room in a quite interesting old house dating back to the 18th century, which had like many others been adapted into a hotel.

The Hermitage Hotel

We fell in love with the little attic room on the 5th floor almost instantaneously irrespective of having to climb up the steep stairs in order to get into it. ... we had a magnificent view over the Hermitage Museum and the Amstel and that seemed worth it ...

Having dropped our baggage we headed back to town this time in the direction of the Dam via the Jodenbreestraat and the Oudezidjs Achterburgwal, not before having had a look around the flea-market at Jordenplein and tried the typical chips with mayonaise.

Soon after we reached the Dam Square considered to be the very heart of Amsterdam with its classical Koninklijk Paleis, the Nieuwe Kerkhe  and the obelisk commemorating the Dutch killed in World War II it began to get dark, though street performances and other events were being carried out.We hanged around for a while but then considered it best to head back to the hotel.

The walk back to the Hermitage Hotel was quite hard as we were both exhausted, but it allowed us to have a different perspective of what Amsterdam might look like in the evening ...

As I reached the third floor of the hotel I had to sit on the stairs and regain my breath ... Apart from the tiredness this first afternoon in Amsterdam had been really worthwhile ... A good night sleep would certainly determine the following day's mood ...