When last we stepped in on me in Amsterdam, I was talking about places that were on my list of “must see”s in Amsterdam. Anticipating a lot of relaxation in Amsterdam, I hit al of those places early in my trip. I also hit a few others, though.
If you remember from earlier posts, I have a thing about Olympic Stadiums. I visited the one in Berlin built for the 1936 Olympics and in Munich for the 1972 Olympics. Until I went to the Dutch History Museum, though, I didn’t even realize that Amsterdam had hosted the Summer Olympics (in 1928) and had an Olympic Stadium all it’s own, called the Olympisch Stadion. It took a 30-minute tram ride to get there, but I decided to go.
Olympisch Stadion was about as humdrum a stadium as I’ve ever encountered. Just a big oval of concrete that holds about 60,000 people – expanded from the 23,000 or so it held during the 1928 Olympics. I couldn’t get a good picture from outside because of sponsor crap hanging from everywhere in preparation for next week’s Amsterdam marathon. I went inside to see if they were open for the 5 euro tour. The guy behind the counter said that it was open, but it was all in Dutch and all indoors, so it probably wouldn’t be worth it to me. I told him that all I was interested in was taking a few pictures from inside the stadium. He said that since it was only me, I should feel free to just walk out on the field and take some quick pictures. So I did. That was pretty cool. In Munich and Berlin, I got to walk down the stands to the front row of the stadium, but in Amsterdam, I got to walk around the track and onto the grass of the stadium. I loved that, but like I said, the stadium was just so-so.
I hopped back on the tram to return to my hotel near Dam Square and about halfway back, something caught my eye. It was the Concertgebouw. Now, I don’t know anything about the Concertgebouw except that it was mentioned in “Rock Show” by Paul McCartney and Wings back in the 1970s. But I’ve been to the Hollywood Bowl and I’ve been to Madison Square Garden, so I felt the need to hop off the train and at least take some pictures of the Concertgebouw. One is included here for your viewing pleasure.
Another place I ended up visiting was the Homomonument. I had never heard of it before my trip, but I saw signs pointing to it while I was walking back to my hotel from the Anne Frank house, so I decided that with a name like that, I had to check it out. I’ll tell you what I know, which is practically nothing. It honors gays and lesbians, but I’m not sure which ones. That is to say, I don’t know if it’s honoring anyone in particular or commemorating any specific event. There was a plaque, but it was all in Dutch and I couldn’t figure it out. Anyway, I took some pictures and moved on.
Okay, if you’re waiting for the stuff from Amsterdam that interests everybody in Amsterdam, that’ll be in another post to come shortly.
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