Friday, June 19, 2015

Day 19: Canal Boat and The New Church

Hello beautiful human beings.  I hope you're doing well.

Today, we all left the house around eleven and took a tram to Central Station where we bought tickets for and boarded a canal boat, "rondvaart".  The boat would take about an hour and a half to show us around Amsterdam via canal.  It was a rainy/cloudy day, so naturally, I took a seat in the back so I could be in the rain.  The captain, although he told very bad jokes the whole time, did a good job of telling us the history throughout the tour.  It was a great tour and had beautiful photo ops the whole time.  After getting off the boat, we were all starving so we walked down the street to find a place to stop for lunch.

  We ended up in a cute little funky restaurant.  My mom, Grootje, Tony, and I all ordered the croquet with farm bread, "2 ome kees croquettes op boeren brood," and my dad ordered some really good spicy chicken "heete kipfillet."  If you don't know what a croquet is, you poor thing, it's basically stew that's rolled in breadcrumbs and fried in the heavens.  It's not legal.

Upon finishing our lunch, we headed down the street and ended up at The New Church, "Niewe Kerk," (which is a total lie because it's like 615 years old.) which had up an exhibit for World Press Photo of the Year 1955-2015 which was incredible but depressing as it had up photos that described awful world tragedies.  It was actually really hard to look at any of the pictures for very long since they were so sad.  It was so humbling to see the world's problems next to your own.  The architecture and decorations around the church were really amazing as well.  The entire floor of the church was made up of tombs of war generals and other people who were important in Holland's past.  The lovely fellow I posted a photo of in a previous post, saying he was our relative, Michiel De Ruyter, was actually entombed there, along with an impressive carving of him.  It was really amazing to see the someone I happen to be related to was so important in the past of the Netherlands.  He also had licorice and cookies with his face on them in the gift shop, but that's not the point.  The sign said that his tomb was one of the largest and most impressive of it's kind.  Wow.  After the church, we left and decided it was time to go home.

 Before getting on the tram, I was approached by a very lost looking American tourist family who asked for directions on the tram. (apparently I look like a local, *flips hair*)   They were going to the Anne Frank House.  The little girl happened to look a lot like me at the age when I went to the Anne Frank House, and we all know what happened then. (If you don't, then keep up.  I got hit by a bike and broke my leg in front of the Anne Frank House.)  I hope she had a better fate.  We made our way back home after that.  My dad and I walked down to the grocery store and also grabbed some soup for dinner to bring back.  We've just finished dinner and now are all doing various leisurely activities.

I don't currently have the pictures uploaded from today, but I'll try to get them up ASAP!

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed!

-Sophia :)
On the canal boat



Mother & daughter :)

In the Niewe Kerk World Press Photo Of the Year exhibit 

The tomb of Miguel De Ruyter 

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