Preamble
This letter, undated, was sent to Jessica (Li Jie) in late 2004; and the reference to Kevin is to my brother who was terminally ill. At the time, and because of the difficulties that we were having with the technology, the photographs were sent separate from the letter, as e-mail attachments, but were numbered and referenced in the letter. Here I have brought the two together, and in most instances have removed the references to the numbers that were in the original letter. That said, it is to all intents and purposes the letter that Jessica received. And please remember that you can enlarge the photographs by clicking on them.
Well Jessica, here goes.
With everything else that is going on in the background, relating to Kevin, I hope that I can make this, my account of Amsterdam, an enjoyable and memorable read, and something of a sight-seeing trip as well.
I had two immediate reactions to Amsterdam. The first, that there must be as much water in its many canals, as there is in Venice, and second, that the only place where you could expect to see more bicycles proportionate to the population would be in China. In terms of getting around, Amsterdam is quite unique. You can go almost anywhere by canal bus, canal cycle boat, by tram, or by motor assisted tricycle taxis, by car, and of course by bike, and bikers are no respecters of pedestrians, (which is another form of getting around,) In Amsterdam cyclists come at you from every direction, so, as the saying goes, it’s, “ walker beware.” As for the architecture, I think you would love it. All great cities have their own unique buildings, and many of those in Amsterdam were the homes, in centuries past, of wealthy merchants, homes that were part house, part warehouse, and the status of each of the merchant families was reflected in, or on, their distinct gables.
In popular consciousness Amsterdam is known for two things, sex and drugs. In the “red light district,” women, young and not so young, display themselves in the window, in some instances scantily clad and reclining in armchairs, in others looking out at the passers bye in bikinis, or as in one case in bra pants and suspenders. This aspect of Amsterdam life attracts more people than most of the other popular cultural activities combined, and it was interesting to discover that what are talked of as “windows,” are in fact glazed doors that the prostitute can open to entice someone in, if she believes that they are interested. As for the coffee shops, many of which are places that people go to smoke dope of one form or another, or alternatively to eat “cake,” laced with a hard drug. Well, we didn’t venture in to the more notorious looking of these, but we certainly passed a few people in the street who looked “well out of it.” But apart from these two well-known aspects of Amsterdam life, there is much more in the way of entertainment and culture.
You can not go to Amsterdam, certainly for the first time, and not visit the home of Anne Frank, the young German Jewish girl, who, during the Nazi occupation of Holland, hid with her family in the disguised attic rooms of her fathers warehouse. Eventually the family were betrayed and she died in Bergen-Belsen, (a concentration camp,) just weeks before the ending of the German occupation of Holland, and three months before her sixteenth birthday. Her home is a place of pilgrimage and she became known through the diaries that she kept during her years in hiding, diaries given to her father by friends, when he was released by the allies.
We also went to the Van Gogh exhibition, visited the home of Rembrandt, toured the city by canal bus, and visited the maritime museum, as well as going for a series of recommended walks around “Old Amsterdam.” And in those walks we came across the truly unexpected.
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Starting from, Amsterdam, an aerial perspective, these pictures were taken from the llth floor of the old post office sorting office. The building is temporarily the modern art museum, while the museum proper is undergoing a rebuilding programme over five years. These pictures were taken through the restaurant windows. In 297 we are making our way to the old post office sorting office, along a footbridge across the inland harbour, and as you can see, a canal bus is just passing out of sight.
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In 298 the very dominant and oddly shaped building that looks like the bow of a ship, is the science centre. Designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano, it was opened in 1997 and is known as NEMO, a name that literally means “no one.” And though I don’t understand it, the name somehow refers to “the voyage of discovery between fantasy and reality.”
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In 299 if you look to the left and distant top right, you can see waterways other than the principal one in the picture. Again you have a water bus making its way along and the buildings in the background represent modern as distinct from “Old Amsterdam.”
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In 300, apart from the obvious church spires, you are getting a first glimpse of the architecture of “Old Amsterdam.” In the foreground you can see that extensive construction work is going on, but more interesting is the Boatel, (a floating hotel in the shape of a boat,) and have you noticed the floating Chinese restaurant just behind it. It is a replica of a restaurant in Shanghai. So as you can see Jessica, the Chinese are everywhere, and it is not at all surprising that they are in Amsterdam in some numbers, given that Amsterdam, besides being a North Sea fishing port, was a maritime city engaged in trade with Africa and the Far East. And lastly,
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in 301, a different perspective. Here you can see not just the railway station, but also an expansive waterway twisting into the far distance. All of these pictures are looking out on to the “U” harbour, and the station that was built in the late 19c on three artificial islands.
The river Amstel runs through the city, and “old Amsterdam” is cris-crossed by a network of canals that were constructed over centuries. Combined, they cover a distance of 62 miles or 100 km. As you know Holland is flat, hence the dykes, and the fact that Amsterdam is built on land reclaimed from the sea. Being flat, makes riding a bike in Amsterdam, easy, and an attractive feature of the city, given the absence of hills, are its many arched or hump-backed bridges. Here are a few of them:
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144, and 146, a canal intersection where Jenny, colour coordinated is map reading.
162 was taken from our hotel boat as we explored the canals for the first time. It is the oldest boat on the canals, and some distinguished visitors have travelled on it in the past. Around the edges of the picture you can just see something of the ornate décor of the boat.
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And here Jessica at 139 I am cheating. As well as getting a good sense of perspective on crossing the bridge, you are getting a glimpse of the architecture. And note that the roadway of the bridge, like the narrow side streets that parallel the canals, is made of interconnecting or intricately laid bricks. As for the canals themselves, they were full of the shades of autumn, so here are a few more pictures to enjoy.
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This lovely picture 137 with the autumn leaves draped across the canal, was taken from the pavement outside the home of Anne Frank To the left people are waiting patiently to visit it, and you can see on the opposite bank the canal houseboats. They were not there during Anne Frank’s years in hiding. They are, in fact, a by-product of the Second World War, and were accepted as a way of dealing with the shortage of housing at that time. The number of these houseboats, or canal homes, is restricted to 2,500 and as of next year, each of these canal homes has to be connected to the city sewage system.
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Note Jessica that I drew a distinction between houseboats and canal homes. Clearly the canal house in the centre of this picture (with its narrow patio of plants to the front,) is not a boat, but a structure built on a pontoon.
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In this picture 0145 the canal homes are antiquated and may, by some, be considered not much to look at, but they have electricity running water and air conditioning, and they are structurally maintained, in that every five years they have to be towed to a dry dock for inspection for insurance purposes. And yes, that is “grass” that is growing on the roof. And if the houses themselves look a bit dilapidated I can tell you that the mooring rights can be sold at a premium, and of course, the better your position on the canals, the more these mooring rights cost.
Given that these homes are not yet linked into the sewage system, I should also point out that the canal water is fairly clean, because they have a system of sluice gates that they operate overnight, to flush out the canals.
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The Hotel Pulitzer was where we stayed and here in 142 is the hotel boat. From this picture you would never guess that the hotel has “230 stylish bedrooms.” That’s because the facade of the original houses has been preserved, though their interiors have been converted into hotel accommodation.
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Now Jessica here are some pictures with a difference, pictures that unmistakably give a flavour of times past. They are of The Amsterdam, a replica of the East Indiaman, a ship that belonged to the Dutch East India Company. Ships such as these were used on voyages to Asia, and the original of this particular ship, (on her maiden voyage in 1748,) ran aground off the south coast of England and she was lost. Over a six-year period 400 volunteers built this replica, a task that in the era of the ships, would have taken nine months. 0263: The Amsterdam and the harbour beyond. Beyond The Amsterdam, is the science centre and behind it, the top of the old post office sorting office from which the earlier aerial views were taken. On the stern of The Amsterdam you can see elaborate and brightly painted carvings. The one on the left is Mercury the god of commerce, and on the right, Neptune the god of the sea.
Another view of the stern and a picture that conveys something of the scale of things.
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267 Climbing aboard.
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Looking towards the bow and the forecastle, the deck on which most off duty sailors spent their time – weather permitting.
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Looking back towards the stern. The highest of these decks is the Poop Deck, where chickens were kept, and the deck below is the Quarter Deck, an area reserved for officers and Dutch East India company officials, and it is through this deck that you get to the quarters in the stern. The building to the left of this picture is the splendid maritime museum of which The Amsterdam is a part.
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Inside the captains’ quarters in the stern.
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From the deck of The Amsterdam, a better view of the science centre and the old post office sorting office beyond. Jenny has no particular interest in ships, but she waited patiently while I strolled around two floors of the maritime museum. On display were models of sailing ships of every kind and some remarkable seascape paintings, to say nothing of maps and charts from centuries past.
In terms of its origins, Amsterdam, in the 12c, was one of three settlements on the delta of the rivers Boerenwetering and Amstel, that over time grew towards each other until they merged into what we know today as Amsterdam. And it was in this early period that the first dams were built. The first canals were excavated between 1342 and 138O. The next significant period of development was between 1586 and 1613. In that time, (a period of less than thirty years,) the population increased ten fold to 100,000. But there was more to come. Over the next sixty years, new canals, new suburbs and shipyards were built, and on a scale unknown elsewhere. It was, as our guidebooks points out, “the largest city expansion that the world had ever known at that time”, and it was a prosperity founded on brewing, herring, wood and grain.
Although in 1323 Amsterdam obtained exclusive rights to import beer from Hamburg, the water in European cities became so polluted that the people of Amsterdam took to brewing their own. Known as Scharrebier and with an alcoholic content of 1%, it became the new clean “drinking water.” And here Jessica, I have a confession to make. If only not to loose face with Leo, we had to visit the Heineken brewery, to enjoy the “Heineken Experience,” but as Leo knows, I wouldn’t thank you for larger beer. It simply isn’t to be compared to real ale. We did though enjoy the visit, for the brewery runs a slick high tech presentation that takes you through a mock up of old Amsterdam in the early days of brewing. At one point you can look through a window and watch the master brewer at work, watch until he notices you and comes across and with a disapproving look shuts the curtains. It is of course a hologram. At another stage we went into a small cinema, a simulator, where supposedly we had the experience of what it is to be a bottle, one of thousands rattling along on the production line. With the floor moving under us, we were washed, shaken, steamed cleaned, polished, filled to the top, capped, labelled, packed and unpacked, and turned upside down as the drink was poured and we were, (as from the bottom of the bottle,) staring at a colourful disco ceiling. Later, in another simulator we sat in mock-ups carts to enjoy the sensation of delivering beer around the narrow streets of “Old Amsterdam.” As we went, steering the team of horses, we tipped forwards and fell sideways, as we took tight corners, or passed over a hump backed bridge. And the population of Amsterdam were there at every stage, welcoming us, and presumably the beer also. It was all very clever.
With access to the North Sea where vast stocks of herring were available during the mating season, it was inevitable that fishing would be a part of Amsterdam life, but it was much more than that.
Each year hundreds of ships passed through the U harbour either to sell or store their freight and the city itself imported wood, grain and salt from countries along the Baltic Sea. The end result Jessica, was that Amsterdam became what was known as a “pile market” or transfer harbour, where products from both northern and southern Europe were stored, processed and sold. So by the end of the 15c Amsterdam was the largest grain marked of the northern Netherlands, and by the end of the 16c it was the largest seaport of this region, known today as northern Europe.
Strong and purposeful though it was, life in this evolving city had its own political dimension, and it was the religious wars in Europe at this time that undermined the unity of Holland. A product of these religious upheavals was the emergence in 1517 of the Lutheran Reform Movement. At that time, the King of Spain Philip 11 was also sovereign of the Netherlands, so it was inevitable that Holland became caught up in a Catholic Protestant divide. Against this background, many Dutch cities rebelled against this Catholic occupation, and while some cities changed allegiance, Amsterdam remained strongly Catholic, that is, until the Spanish withdrew in 1578. Some months later, a group of wealthy Calvinists came to power in Amsterdam, and as a consequence, many wealthy Catholics in the city moved to live in the southern Netherlands, but those who remained had to live with a new reality. The Catholic churches in their city were now in the hands of the Calvinists and were being used for Protestant worship, or for other non-religious purposes, and the practice of the Catholic religion was banned. And it was in this context Jessica, that the walking tour, threw up the truly unexpected.
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Have a look at this, picture. What you are looking at are three houses, each with their distinct gables at the top.
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Now look at this 0250 and 0255. This church is known as “Our Lord in the Attic” and this is how Catholics in the 16c got around the prohibition on the practice of their faith. They built churches in their houses, and as long as the city authorities did not see any evidence of Catholic worship, they turned a “blind eye” to the practice. When I arrived at the top of the house I could not believe the scale of it. What I had expected to find was a small room used as a chapel, perhaps with just enough room for 10 people, husband, wife, children and a servant or two. What I was looking at was a church with seating for 150 people, with a High Altar and Side Chapel and with two upper galleries running around the four walls. The first picture of the body of the church is not quite in focus, but the scale of it is clear. And here in 0255 we are at the highest point, looking down to the gallery below and the sanctuary or altar area below that. Even now when I look at these pictures I am moved at the lengths to which people went to uphold their beliefs. And I never expected to find, in Amsterdam, such a striking monument to the past.
Having spent some time on the “saints,” Jessica, I want to return to the “sinners” before moving on to other intriguing aspects of Amsterdam life. With regard to the “sinners” here are some statistics and a little more besides. There are 5,000 prostitutes working in Amsterdam, it is a 24-hour business, and 1,000 of them work in what is known as “window prostitution.” Because there are only 450 small rooms in one square kilometre, these “ladies” behind the windows, have to work in shifts. On any one shift, a prostitute might have nine customers, and working four shifts a week her net weekly income will be in the region of £800 or 9,666 uan? . But there is a darker side also related to the prostitutes who work on the streets, many are addicted to heroin and work unprotected, and a significant number of them are homeless. In ouch circumstances these prostitutes are abused by their clients, and it is not unknown for them to disappear. And a curious fact about “liberal” Amsterdam. Famed for its “red light district,” and though legal, prostitution in the Netherlands, is socially taboo
All of this Jessica is in marked contrast to the life of the Chinese, who are one of many minority groups living in Amsterdam. Many of the people who worked in our hotel were either from Indonesia or the descendant of Indonesian immigrants. As for the Chinese, our guidebook had this to say: -
“It seems that the crowds pass by the Chinese unnoticeably. They work hard and at first glance their life looks a lot simpler than the life of the average Dutchman. While the Amsterdammer looks for peace and quiet in the Vondel park, where, in the summer, it becomes so crowded that you step over bodies, the Chinese relax closer to home, through meditation, or in some cases through the opium pipe. The Chinese community is very closed, but this is perhaps also the reason why the Chinese can settle anywhere in the world. They take care of each other and remain loyal to their traditions and customs, without annoying others with these.”
And here Jessica is further proof if it were needed, that the Chinese are well established in Amsterdam. This Buddhist temple that goes by the name of “Fe Guang Shan He Hawa,” was built in the year 2000 and it is run by an abbot and four nuns. Fe Guang Shan is a new branch of Zen Buddhism, and the temple is dedicated to the female Buddha Guan Yin or to the “wise one full of mercy.” And 023; a picture of the largest Chinese department store in the Netherlands.
You might ask Jessica, where could we possibly go from here? Well ”cheek by jowl” with the “red light district,” is an oasis of calm known as Begijnhof. This enclosed courtyard dates back to the 14c and it was built originally for the Begijintj, a Catholic sisterhood; women who lived like nuns but without taking religious vows. Today the houses are occupied by single women and pride of place among them is Het Huten Huis. It is the oldest house in Amsterdam and dating back to 1420. Here it is in picture 0195.
It is impossible Jessica to convey in words the tranquillity of this place. Perhaps one day you will have the pleasure of standing there and sensing it for yourself, but here are a few more pictures to enjoy.
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197 an uninscribed statue that captures, judging by the dress, the women of that era, and there in the background is Jenny absorbed in her own thoughts.
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200 The central garden with its statue of Christ.
And now Jessica, for a more random view of Amsterdam. Here people are cuing to visit Anne Frank’s house.
The house with its original entrance.
The floating Chinese Restaurant as seen from our our hotel boat.
Jenny on the steps of Rembrandt’s house, and notice how her shoes are colour coordinated with the window shutters.
The university, and with no need to explain how the students get there.
An architects paradise.
0234 a street scene.
And here, Jessica at is a restored wooden framed house built originally in 1605, and on it, but not visible in this photograph are emblems signifying the fact that it was built by a Russian from the city of Riga.
And lastly, because we have to stop somewhere, this, with Jenny almost, but not quite colour coordinated. It is the “In den Aepjen” (a 16c tavern or drinking house) and it is the only other surviving timber fronted building from that era. Notice that it hangs forward. This was the norm, and the reason was practical, for it allowed goods to be raised and lowered from the floors above, without damaging the front of the building. “In the monkey” is a popular expression in the Dutch language, and it takes its origin from this inn. In year’s gone bye, when sailors were, unable to pay their drinking bill, they would bring a monkey from the tropics in settlement. So as the story goes, this inn was not just full of monkeys, but also, full of lice.
Well Jessica, I wish to end with three personages. Anne Frank, Rembrandt, and Vincent van Gogh.
I have opened her diary at random, for “Wednesday, 23 February 1944
“My dear Kitty
The weather’s been wonderful since yesterday, and I’ve perked up quite a bit. My writing, the best thing I have, is coming along well. I go to the attic almost every morning to get the stale air out of my lungs. This morning when I went there, Peter was busy cleaning up. He finished quickly and came over to where I was sitting on my favourite spot on the floor. The two of us looked out at the blue sky, the bare chestnut tree glistening with dew, the seagulls and other birds glinting with silver as they swooped through the air, and we were so moved and entranced that we couldn’t speak. He stood with his head against a thick beam, while I sat. We breathed in the air, looked outside and both felt that the spell shouldn’t be broken with words. We remained like this for a long while, and by the time he had to go to the loft to chop wood, I knew he was a good, decent boy. He climbed the ladder to the loft, and I followed; during the fifteen minutes he was chopping wood, we didn’t say a word either. I watched him from where I was standing, and could see he was obviously doing his best to chop the right way and show off his strength. But I also looked out of the open window, letting my eyes roam over a large part of Amsterdam, over the rooftops and on to the horizon, a strip of blue so pale it was almost invisible.
“As long as this exists,” I thought,” this sunshine and this cloudless sky, and as long as I can enjoy it, how can I be sad?”
The best remedy for those who are frightened, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be alone, alone with the sky, nature and God. For then and only then can you feel that everything is as it should be and that God wants people to be happy amid nature’s beauty and simplicity?
As long as this exists, and that should be forever, I know that there will be solace for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances. I firmly believe that nature can bring comfort to all who suffer.
Oh, who knows, perhaps it won’t be long before I can share this overwhelming feeling of happiness with someone who feels the same as I do.
Yours Anne
PS. Thoughts: To Peter
We’ve been missing out on so much here, so very much, and for such a long time. I miss it just as much as you do. I’m not talking about external things, since we’re well provided for in that sense; I mean the internal things. Like you, I long for freedom and fresh air, but I think we’ve been amply compensated for their loss. On the inside, I mean.
This morning when I was sitting in front of the window and taking a long, deep look outside at God and nature, I was happy, just plain happy. Peter, as long as people feel that kind of happiness within themselves, the joy of nature, health and much more besides, they’ll always be able to recapture that happiness.
Riches, prestige, everything can be lost. But the happiness in your own heart can only be dimmed; it will always be there, as long as you live, to make you happy again.
Whenever you’re feeling lonely or sad, try going to the loft on a beautiful day and looking outside. Not at the houses or the rooftops, but at the sky. As long as you can look fearlessly at the sky, you’ll know that you’re pure within and will find happiness once more.”
An unexpected aspect of our visit to Amsterdam, for me at least, was our visit to the home of Rembrandt, a Dutch painter of the 17c. Apart from knowing of him, I knew little else, so it was an unexpected pleasure to walk around his home, to see it almost as he knew it, and to sense something of his genius: “a giant in the history of art.” Relying on those who know, he was, “a master of light and shade” and his drawings we are told, “constitute a vivid record of contemporary Amsterdam life.” He married “the beautiful” Saskia van Uylenburgh, in 1634 and she became the model for many of his paintings, but not in this one: The Music Party, painted in 1626
A picture that is in marked contrast to this: The Anatomy Lecture of Dr Niclaes Tulp 1632.
Rembrant as well as being a highly successful painter, was a collector of the work of other artists, and by the 1650s his house and his paintings had to be auctioned to clear some of his debts. Fortunately the inventory drawn up for the sale was preserved and was used to help restore the house to its former state to be preserved as a museum.
I knew a little more about Vincent Van Gough. I think Jenny introducing me to his work when we first met. We have several copies hanging on the landing, and of course his life was celebrated in the contemporary song “Starry Starry Night” by Don McLean, the title taken from the painting “The Starry Night” In the popular consciousness he is known to most people for the fact that he was for a time mad, cutting off part of his ear. Eventually he shot himself. The Paintings I was aware of were those of vivid colour, yellows, greens, and browns, and turquoise etc, colours that found their way into everything. Paintings such as this, I think the last painting that he did before he died, the: “Wheat Field” with the black crows sweeping through the canvass.
Or this, atmospheric and beautify painting: “The Old Mill” painted in 1888.
So imagine my surprise, and pleasure when I went around the exhibition of his work, and realised that I had much to learn. That he had begun life attempting to follow in the footsteps of his father, a clergyman, and that it was his brother Theo who not only encouraged him to take up painting, but who supported him financially thorough his life. And that besides being mad, at times, he was an intellectual, a man of ideas, who in his later paintings was influenced by Japanese art. But apart from this, there was another Van Gogh that I was unaware of, the man who painted this: “Potato Eaters”
Supported as he was by his brother Theo, what has also come down to us, are the letters that they exchanged over many years. So I am reading them now, in part, because in my poems, and in one in particular, I might use the the ida of the wordsmith, struggling with language, in the way that the artist might struggle with colour. But also, I am reading these letters because I am interested in the man. And among the many things that Vincent Van Gogh is remembered for, Jessica, are his paintings of sunflowers.
To my Sunflower Girl
Take care
Cormac
