forward to the past

When I mentioned Amsterdam to my peers as my first stop in Europe, a smirk and a snicker would usually follow. I suppose this three syllable destination conjures similar thoughts as if you heard about your co-workers future visit to Vegas–but there are always other, more wholesome reasons to visit. Yes, the city is home to the legendary red light window shopping. And the magnetic scent of one of Amsterdam’s over 400 coffeeshops is always high on the agenda. But once you see through the fog, it’s clear that Amsterdam’s cultural notoriety should never overshadow a deep, rich historical past.

The Dutch Golden Age was in the mid 1600s. After a successful protestant revolution against Philip II and catholic Spain, trade overseas extended and Holland became one of the most powerful countries in the world–once buying the island of Manhattan for $24 from Native Americans. The Dutch were leaders in whaling, inventors of the pendulum clock, founders of international law, and of course wonderful painters.

Rembrandt and the rest of the Dutch Masters (painters not cigars) depicted intensely detailed scenes and portraits of life in a bustling 1640s Amsterdam. The most exclusive collection of art from the Golden Age can be found at the Rijksmuseum (like “bikes-museum). Walk only a couple hundred meters west and you will arrive at the Van Gogh Museum and into the late 1800s. See Sunflowers and Bedroom in Arles in a chronological exhibit focusing on Van Gogh’s later years leading to his suicide. Below the Rijksmuseum looks down over the Van Gogh Museum.

Like the majority of Europe, Amsterdam was fell under Nazi control during World War II. From 1940 to 1945, Amsterdam’s Jewish community of over 75,000 either hid, fled, or were captured by the German forces. Visiting the Anne Frank House allows you to see what 25 months of hiding from the Nazi terror was like. Taking the hidden passageway behind a bookshelf on hinges sends you back to a cold and confined 1943. Eight People lived in a secret annex in the back of Anne’s father, Otto Frank’s jam factory. The living space was little less than 1,000 sq ft.