Europe to Africa

23 Dec 2019

Up and out this morning for a free walking tour of the city. Our guide, Mike, spent two and a half hours teaching us about the evolution of Amsterdam. We started in the red light district in front of the "old church". It used to be a Catholic Church, but is now Protestant. Back in the day, when Amsterdam was a hub for sailors and merchants, the Catholic Church capitalized off of their infidelities. Surely men will be adulterous they reasoned, so better allow them to be adulterous with sex workers, rather than the pure dutch girls living in the city. The sailors and merchants were afraid of sinning in the eyes of God, so were absolved of their sins in exchange for a small dowry, courtesy of the Catholic Church. The church even went as far as to allow sailors to confess prior to commiting their sins 🤣 However, in the 1700s there was a Protestant revolution. In the middle of the night Protestant activists destroyed the saintly relics on the outside of the church and claimed it as their own. Catholics then had to worship in secret, which explains the hidden churches in apartment buildings in Amsterdam.

The church looked the other way, not only for prostitution but also for drugs. Many wealthy Catholic merchants went in and out of the city and brought with them marijuana. In the meantime, Chinese merchants came with opium. Chinese tea houses sprung up everywhere, which caused an opiod epidemic. The Dutch government decided to focus on rehabilitating opiod and heroine addicts as opposed to cracking down on marijuana usage. The opiod crisis was successfully addressed because clinics popped up with gradual release programs that helped people quit slowly as opposed to quitting cold turkey. To this day it's still considered the 'Dutch method' when governments address drug crises in this way. Although smoking weed at a coffee shop won't get you in trouble, growing or distributing weed is illegal. Hhhmmm... So how do the coffee shops get their weed? Good question. I guess the government learned a thing or two from the Catholic Church.

After learning all about drugs and their uses, we visited the gate to the city, which is the second oldest building in Amsterdam (it's also at the highest point in Amsterdam) On the gate is a crest of a doctor. Doctors felt the need to educate the people, so if a prisoner was executed his body was then used for public dissection. Dutch men and women could buy tickets to this exhibition and then watch before their eyes as organs were pulled out of the body, all in the name of science.

Next we walked to one of the three universities in Amsterdam. The current administrative building used to belong to the VOC, the first publicly traded company in Amsterdam. After traveling by ship to Indonesia, dutch sailors found pepper, and brought it back to Amsterdam. It was INCREDIBLY popular so the value of it soared so much so that at one point it was worth more than gold. However, sailing to Indonesia was dangerous, so merchants and sailors banded together to create the VOC. Everyone shared in the losses, but everyone also shared in the profits.

Our story then wound its way through a darker part of history. Before WWII wealthy merchants were invited to enter Amsterdam, which resulted in a quite sizeable immigration of Jews. The Jewish people were allowed to live and worship freely within Amsterdam, a luxury not afforded to them everywhere in Europe. However, when the Nazis invaded The Netherlands (it took them only 7 days to conquer) they asked the government to hand over he names and addresses of all of the Jewish inhabitants, so the government complied. Slowly Jewish people were removed from their homes and put into a ghetto encircled by barbed wire. From here, Jews were transferred to concentration camps. Not even one tenth of the Jewish population living in the Netherlands survived the war. However, those that did had nothing to come back to because their homes had been pillaged for firewood.

While it's so important to hear these stories, it's also incredibly depressing, but Mike knew just what to do. He offered us each a small stroopwaffel to enjoy on the way to our next destination, the Amstel River. Here he shared a common dutch phrase, God created the earth, but the Dutch created Amsterdam. It's a city that's below sea level that only exists because of barges and levees. Because of this building is incredibly difficult, but never fear, the Dutch have solved that problem as well. The buildings are long and narrow with tiny stairwells, therefore most homes are constructed with pulleys so that all big items are hoisted in and out.

Last but not least, we stopped near (not at because it was POURING) the Royal palace. The monarchy is strictly for show but nevertheless the citizens celebrate the king and queen by wearing orange on the King's birthday each year. As said by our your guide "the King's a bit socially awkward, while the queen is anything but" which proves that opposites really do attract.


After the tour Mark and I went to Westergas, which is a big community of industrial buildings that used to be the gas works, but have now been converted into shops, restaurants and event spaces. There was a lovely holiday market with seasonal foods as well as a vendor fair however because of the cold and rain Mark and I chose to eat inside at a small train cafe. We tried the famed pea mash soup and attempted to try the famous loaded fries, however I felt those would have been a bit more authentic had we gone to one of the many "fry" houses you see around the city.

After a leisurely lunch Mark and I made our way back to the hostel to grab our bags. We were airport bound. Nairobi here we come!