Amsterdam
Facts Amsterdam/ The Netherlands
Flag of Amsterdam
..and The Netherlands and Europe
Inhabitants: 738.763
Inhabitants Greater Amsterdam: 1.498.205
Nationalities: 173
Mayor: 1
Bycicles: 600.000
Trees: 220.000
Parks: 28
City trams: 232
Ferryboats: 9
Markets: 21
Flower Market: 1
Shops: 10.334
Antique Shops: 165
Diamond polishing factories: 24
Canals: 165
Bridges: 1.281
Wooden drawbridges: 8
Houseboats: 2.500
16th, 17th and 18th century buildings: 6.800
Royal Place: 1
Statues and sculptures: 302
Windmills: 6
Museums: 51
Art Galleries: 141
Paintings of Rembrandt: 22
“Night Watch”: 1
Paintings of Van Gogh: 206
Wax statues at Madame Tussaud’s: 140
Animals at the Artis Zoo: 6.100
Concerts and theatrical performances per year: 16.000
(per day: 40)
Theaters and concert halls: 55
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra: 1
Muziektheater: 1
Cinemas: 61
Cafes and Bars: 1.402
Discotheques: 36
Restaurants: 755
Hotelbeds: 38.200
Camping sites: 5
Bednights by visitors from abroad per year: 8.332.600
Day visitors per year: 15.854.000
47,5% of Amsterdam’s population is under 35 years old!
Location Amsterdam:
The History of Amsterdam:
Amsterdam was founded as a fishing village in the 13th century. According to legend Amsterdam was founded by two Frisian fishermen, who landed on the shores of the Amstel in a small boat with their dog. The damming of the river Amstel gave it its name. It was given city rights in 1300 or 1301. From the 14th century on, Amsterdam flourished, largely on the basis of trade with the cities of the Hanseatic League.
Dam Square in the late 17th century: painting by Jan Adriaensz. Berkheyde (Gemäldegalerie, Dresden)
Historical centre
River Amstel by Night
The 16th century brought a rebellion by the Dutch against Philip II of Spain and his successors, escalating into the Eighty Years’ War which ultimately led to Dutch independence. The Dutch Republic became known for its relative religions tolerance and Jews from Sapin and Portugal, prosperous merchanst from Antwerp (economic and religious refugees from the part of the Low Countries still controlled by Spain), Hugenots from France (persecuted for their religion) sought safety in Amsterdam. It was the rich, refined migrants from Flanders who set the tone (their Brabant dialects became the basic of standard written Dutch) and made Holland a mercantile power.
The 17th century is considered Amsterdam’s “Golden Age”. In the early 17th century Amsterdam was the richest city in Europe. Ships sailed from Amsterdam to North America, Africa and present-day Indonesia and Brazil and formed the basic of a worldwide trading network.
Amsterdam’s merchants had the biggest share in the VOC and the WIC. These companies acquired the overseas possessions which formed the seeds of the later Dutch colonies. Amsterdam was the most important point for the trans-shipment of goods in Europe and it was the leading finacial centre of the world. Amsterdam’s stock exchange was the first to trade continuously.
The population grew from slightly over 10,000 around 1500 to 30,000 around 1570, 60,000 around 1600, 105,000 in 1622 and almost 200,000 around 1700 ( a twenty fold increase in 200 years). Thereafter, the population did not change much for another century and a half. During the century before World War ll it almost quadrupled, but then remained fairly constant again to this day.
An amsterdam canal with the Waag in the background
The 18th and early 19th centuries saw a decline in Amsterdam’s prosperity. The wars of the Dutch Republic with the United Kingdom and France took thier toll on Amsterdam. During the Napoleonic Wars Amsterdam’s fortunes reached their lowest point. However, with the establishment of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815, things slowly began to improve. In Amsterdam new developments were started by people like Sarphati who found their inspiration in Paris.
At the end of the 19th century the Industrial Revolution reached Amsterdam. The Amsterdam-Rhine Canal was dug to give Amsterdam a direct connection to the Rhine and the North Sea Canal to give the port a shorter connection to the North Sea. Both projects improved communication with the rest of Europe and the world dramatically. They gave the economy a big boost. Between 1850 and 1900 population doubled to about 500,000.
The end of the 19th century is sometimes called Amsterdam’s second Golden Age. New museums, a train station, and the Concertgebouw were built. Amsterdam’s population grew significantly during this period.
Shortly before the First World War the city began expanding and new suburbs were built. During the first World War, the Netherlands remained neutral. Amsterdam suffered a food shortage and heating fuel became scarce. In riots caused by the shortages several people were killed.
Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940, taking control of the country after five days of fighting. The Germans installed a Nazi civilian government in Amsterdam that cooperated in the persecution of Jews. More than 80,000 Jews were deported to concentration camps, of whom perhaps the most famous was the young German girl, Anne Frank. Only 5,000 Jews survived the war. In the last months of the war communication with the rest of the country broke down and food and fule became scarce. Many inhabitants of the city had to travel to the countryside to collect food. Most of the trees in MAsterdam were cut down for fuel.
Source: http://www.wikipedia.de
Holland and the Netherlands
What is the difference?
There is often confusion about the name Holland. Some people call the Netherlands Holland, but its not the same. Holland is only a small part of the Netherlands and like the Dakotas, Carolinas and Virginias, there are two Hollands.
‘North Holland’ (capital city Haarlem) and ‘South Holland’ (capital city The Hague)
Amsterdam - The town as a brand
There are some free guides, little magazines, which give you information about visiting Amsterdam (written in english)
In that I’ve found some good information about the Dutch and life in Amsterdam:
They started a survey, where they asked in eight countries questions about the pleasure and guilt they felt from eating, shopping, sex, drugs, listening to music, goofing off and similar things:
The result:
Compare the Dutch to other nationalities:
-Germans living up their stereotypes, took the least pleasure, yet felt the guiltiest
-the English: made a respectable showing somewhere in the middle, with both pleasure and guilt
-the Dutch enjoy life most, and feel the least guilty about its pleasures
The Dutch psychological mindset, combined with Amsterdam’s historic landmarks, modern attractions, creative scene and simple beauty might just explain why the city is so wunderful!
What “Gezellig” is…
The Dutch love “gezellig” things and places. A gezellig environment is one that allows good times to happen. A gezellig place is cosy and inviting and full of gezellig things that makes it so gezellig, for example a two hour leisure meal with friends is gezellig, eating on your lap in your car isn’nt.
A good advice to explore the town:
The best way to explore the town is to rent a bike. You can rent one for example at “Mike’s Bike” for 7Euro a day.
It’s more fun than taking the trams and it beats walking and the beautiful countryside filled with windmills really exists and is only 30 minutes out of town by bike. They also give daily tours of the city and surrounding areas (March-Nov.)
Some Worth Sights of Amsterdam
The Dam
Its the most famous square in Holland. The fishing village which was later transformed into Amsterdam was built right on this very spot in about 1270.
Right throughout the sixties, hippies and provos from all over Europe met at the Dam.
It is the Dam that gave the city its name. In this square the Waterlanders, who originally lived in the North on the sea, built the Dam, blocking the flow of the Amstel and separating it from the IJ, a wide arm of the Zuidersee
National Monument
The Dam is the traditional starting point for all sightseeing tours of Amsterdam.
A white obelisk rises up in the centre of the square. It is the Dutch national monument built after the second world war to commemorate its victims.
The four male figures recall the tragedies of war, the woman and the child symbolize peace while the men with dogs portray resistance to the invaders.
At the back of the obelisk are twelf urns: eleven contain a fistful of the earth from each dutch province, whereas the twelfth is earth of Indonesia, the last ex-colony of the vast Dutch empire.
In 1956 Queen Juliana dedicated the monument to the All Soul’s Day, the 4th May, a public holiday; and every year Dutch kings or queens pay honour to war victims at the Dam.
At eight o`clock in the evening of the same day, the whole country comes to a standstill for two minutes silence.
The Royal Palace
In front of the national monument, the imposing neoclassical facade of the Koninklijk Paleis or Royal Palace, which is open from mid-June to mid-September, dominates the Dam.
The first stone was laid on the 28th Octobre. Ten months beforehand the 13,659 piles supporting the entire palace were set in the marshy ground.
For over a century the palace was the city’s seat of government. Only in 1808, when Loius Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother, crowned himself King of The Netherlands was the palace transformed into a royal residence. It was a short-lived reign: Bonaparte was forced to leave a matter of two years later and he left behind in the halls of the palace one of the most complete collections of Empire style furniture in the world.
After Bonaparte’s abdiction, William l., the new King of the Netherlands gave the palace back to the city, but the government of Amsterdam could not cover the huge cost of upkeep of the building. William remained there as a temporary guest. In 1936 the Royal Palace became State property and the royal family uses it only for official ceremonies, prefering the Huis ten Bosch residence in the outskirts of the Hague.
Nieuwe Kerk
Alongsidethe Royal Palace, the New Church, Nieuwe Kerk, occupies a corner of the Dam. The consruction of this basilica commenced in about 1400 in the fruit orchard of the house of Willem Eggert, a rich banker and treasurer of count William Vl of Holland.
Today the Nieuwe Kerk is a covered extension of the Dam; conferences, exhibitions and debates are held in its interior as in all Protestnat churches. Even a cafe, “t nieuwe cafe” occupies a corner of the church and opens onto the square.
Van Gogh Museum
Opened in 1973, this modern square building made of plate glass and unfinished concrete, with large halls and vast areas brightly illuminated by daylight, was designed by Gerrit Rietveld to house van Gogh’s work. On view here is the largest and most important collection of his paintings, donated to the city of Amsterdam by the artist’s brother, Theo, and by his nephew, Vincent-Willem. This is one of the city’s museums that should not bemissed. A new wing that has extended the exhibition space considerably, was designed by the Japanese architect, Kisho Kurokawa, and opened in 1999; temporary exhibitions are held here.
The Van Gogh Museum contains 200 of the artist’s paintings, about 500 drawings and over 700 of his personal letters. A large collection of paintings and sculptures by other 19th century artists is also on display.
Anne Frank House
To the left of the Westerkerk is a small statue. It portrays a little girl: Anne Frank.
Photograph by Dirk van der Made
Her house is very near: at number 263 Prinsengracht, a place of pilgrimage for thousands of people.
Anne Frank, house-museum is convincing, lasting evidence and a constant accusation of Naziism. In this house Anne Frank hid with their parents, her sister Margot, the Van Pels family and Mr.Pfeffer for over two years, from July 1942 to August 1944. Anne Frank house is like thousands of other in the old part of Amsterdam. It was built in 1963 by a trader. Steep, narrow stairs, use made of upper spaces in the houses, one on top of the other and separated by a courtyard.
But the building on the Prinsengracht is much more than a simple museum: on the first floor of her house are collected and updated accurate evidence and documents on new forms of social discrimination, and antisemitism.
The Central Station
It is no surprise that a station is tourist attraction. Amsterdam station is in fact an authentic monument, a masterpiece by Pieter Cuypers, the architect who also designed the Rijkmuseum.
It was designed and built at the end of the 19th century and was erected on three artificial islands facing the port on 8687 piles. It is necessary to cross its immense halls to appreciate its beauty. The square in front of it is like an enourmous parade ground which gives you a semicircular view of Amsterdam while the station interior is almost a cathedral with its nave and aisles. One can enter it to get to the back door, which looks directly onto the IJ the arm of sea that flows into the IJsselmeer and onto the port of Amsterdam. On looking to the left, a skyscraper is the port’s tower: the Havengebouw.
Set off along one of Amsterdam’s main streets, right in front of the station: the Damrak, a large thoroughfare that leads directly to the Dam. It is a commercial road, full of shops, antique dealer’s shop, boutiques and pubs. Points of interest: the Museum of Sex at no. 26 and a wellstocked English bookshop, Allert de Lange, at no. 64.
A long red-brick building stands outside to the left of the Damrak, It is a squat, imposing parallelepiped built between 1898 and 1903. It was one of Amsterdam’s business centres: the Stock Exchange. It was built by Hendrick Petrus Berlage, pupil of Cuypers, and for its times it was listed among the ultramodern houses the Beurs van Berlage Museum.
On reaching Beursplein, make a U-turn around the building and come back towards Damrak basin along the back of the Stock Exchange. At the bottom, turn right, crossing the imaginary boundary between the business part of Amsterdam, full of rich buyers, and the Red-Light District, Walletjes, meaning Little Walls, a triangle of very old, crumbling houses which has developed around the port and the oldest church in town, the Oude Kerk. An area famous for its prostitutes on display behind glass windows, it is not recent history dating back as far as the 14th century.
Madame Tussaud Scenerama
This waxworks museum is in the Dam Square, about ten minutes walking distance from the central railway station. It is one of the many museums spread all over the world that bear the name of the french sculptress who specialised in making wax models of the head s of famous people guillotined during the French Revolution.
Madame Tussaud opened her first museum in London in 1836 and to this day the wax models are still made in the London workshops and according to her methods.
Before a model is made, hundreds of photographs are taken of the subject as well as all the measurements then, when it is finished, a wig of real hair is applied to the head. Present-day celebrities immortalised in wax sometimes donate articles of clothing and accessoires from their personal wardrobes.
Thanks to the audio-animatronic system fitted in the Madame Tussaud museum in Amsterdam, visitors can watch scenes depicting daily life during the Golden Century in Holland, or even see Rambrandt himself busily painting away at his easel. A ‘live’ representation of a Vermeer painting, or a sudden face-to-face encounter with a famous politican or film actor, still alive or from the past, can make the visit even more amusing.
Children love the Scenerama attractions, though some of the scenes might frighten the smaller ones.
There is a beautiful view of the Dam from the window on the fourth floor.
Sources: Casa Editrice Bonechi: The gold guides: Amsterdam; Florence, Italy www.bonechi.it; www.bonechi.com
http://www.wikipedia.de
My trip through Amsterdam
Amsterdam is one of the most beautiful capitals I’ve seen. Arriving on Friday, I could spent some holidays with friends there. At first we were most time busy to find a cheap parking place. Parking is very expensive in the city, for an half hour you pay about 4€. So we chose an outside parking place and travelled the rest with train or bus.
The first impression I had from Amsterdam is that the city is very full, full with young people, tourists and many bikes.
The Dutch are wellnkown for their bikes, this is a parking garage only for bikes:
It’s not easy to see, but its full with bikes.. one is nearly falling down!
Amsterdam has the biggest old town and that is not hard to notice, there are so many old refined buildings. It’s interesting why the buildings are more high than wide. At earlier times they had to pay taxes on the width of their house. So if they had a very wide house, they had to pay more taxes. Because of that they built the houses more height up.
On Sunday evening I was on my own. So I took the time to explore the city.
Surprised by the coolness and chicness of the city, I was first only running around, without any plan. And just running around, maybe looking like I’m searching for something, I got to know the first Dutch.
Very friendly they asked me if they can help me in any way. This scene was repeating a few times. Every time I was standing with the map, searching or getting lost the way, somebody came and offered me his help. That was great!
Accomodation I found in a nice little youth hostel. In ‘my’ room were 13 other multicultural people, always changing, but mostly girls.
On monday morning I got to know another young student. Her name is Marie-Luise and we are still in contact.
Marie-Luise, student form Graz, Austria
It was very interesting, because she comes from Austria and studies at the university of Graz culture-anthropology and ethnology.
She came to Amsterdam for relaxing some days, before that she was for five weeks in Brussels and worked for the EU-Parliament.
The Monday we spent walking through the town. It was her third time visiting Amsterdam, so it was a great help.
We were also at the university of Amsterdam and took some information for studying in Amsterdam. They have a great offer and a lot of courses about Europe!
The first thing I did on Tuesday morning was searching for the town hall.
In Amsterdam it is very easy to find the wrong way, but anyway you always find the central station.
The city is a little bit built like a circle and there are many bridges (about 1.300) which lead you over the streams.
Arriving at the town hall, which was a new building, most of it is glass.
Europeans are welcome…
At 12 o’clock I started my trip. Making many photos, I walked through the town in the opposite direction of Lüneburg.
Direct in front of the town hall is a little market.
At first it was nearly all similar .. nice refined old buildings, bikes, bridges, streams, narrow streets. But the more I went to the outskirts of Amsterdam, the more changed the image of the town. The buildings become more simple, the roads are wider and there are more cars to see.
For comparison..
Picture from the city:
Picture from the outskirts:
At 14 o’clock I arrived at multifunctional centre with cafe, internet, physiotherapy and some more functions.
Maybe ten minutes later, was the ‘real’ outskirts of Amsterdam. The more you go outside the city, the more parks, trees and water you can see.
After this trip I decided to visit the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum. In the Rijkmuseum you can see the “Night Watch” of Rembrandt. Back in the youth hostel about nine or ten o’clock in the evening I was really falling in my bed.
The Rijkmuseum:
On Wednesday morning at first I visited the house of Anne Frank. It’s a little terraced house near the Westkerk. It was very interesting to see the scene of her famous diary. It was also depressing to see, how a family can live for years because of fear and expulsion.
After this historical shock I had some hours for the Questionairre. It was also a little shock, because it was not easy to persuade the people to answer my questions. The Dutch are very friendly, for sure, but they are also very direct. They say what they mean. At first I took a first try on the street, but it was always the same answer… “No, sorry, I’m in a hurry” or “No, I’m not interested”. After the first ten people, who didn’t want to give me help, I was so depressed that I was nearly giving up. But I tried it a second time at the university.
Two of five buildings of the University van Amsterdam:
There were many students, who answered my questions, but the next problem was that they were too much interested in the project. So sometimes it took an half hour before I could fill out one completly. Because of that I don’t have all, but many and there are many surprising answers!
All in all it was agreat trip and I was sad leaving the twon, but with many new impressions I came back to Germany. For me I’m sure that I will visit Amsterdam again, maybe for the next holidays.
A little story: Christmas in The Netherlands
In the Netherlands they celebrate the ‘Sinterklaas’. He comes from Spain by baot as the guardian angel of the sea-navigators in the last November-Weekend. They get the gifts of ‘Sinterklaas’ on the 5th Decembre. He comes with a white horse and his helper the ‘Zwarte Piet’. Both, ‘Sinterklaas’ and ‘Zwarte Piet’ are riding with the white horse over the roofs and throw gifts into the chimney. 
The kids put a bucket of water, a carrot and a little bit hay in front of the door. Natutrally the poor old nag of ‘Sinterklaas’ eats everything and that makes the children happy. In the evening of the 5th Decembre all Dutch families celebrate Christmas. A very big fun are the poems of the Dutch, which are in every gift. They are undersigned by the ‘Sinterklaas’ and they are kidding the family members.
The holy evening has no big sense in the Netherlands. So Christmas runs much more quiet than in Germany.
Source: http://www.entdeckeeuropa.de
Christine Ehrich
contact: tineepunkt@web.de
038848/20565