Amsterdam Museum & the Beginhof (But not Anne Franks' House)

Now my first target for Amsterdam was to but an annual Museum Card which allows unlimited access to petty much all Holland's Museums for about 60 euros. Which given entry for most is between 10 and 20 euros and I can easily do two a day, should be a good deal. So my aim was to find a not very busy Museum (ie not the Rijksmuseum) to purchase it (since you can only buy one at a participating museum).

The Amsterdam Museum was a good choice on the grounds of not being busy. It is the Museum which attempts to tell the story of Amsterdam (compare say the Museum of London). It is housed in a bit of a rabbit warren of buildings that had once been an orphanage. The guidebook did recommend acquiring a floor plan because the layout was confusing. Scrap "confusing" and replace with "utterly baffling". Infinitely the worst museum I have ever been in for trying to find your way around. I had thought I had gone round it before I found a further staircase to another half of it.

The exhibition in the basement was pretty crap but the mirrored entrance way was quite cool.

In a somewhat disjointed way this museum tries to tell the story of the city via a collection of art and miscellaneous items. Not keen on much of the modern art apart from this superb image of some Ajax players in their heyday. And yes the bottom figure is a young Johan Cruyff. A brilliant composition apart from anything else.

A slightly earlier image of Amsterdam - the food market. Might not quite pass modern hygiene standards.

 Ignoring the quirky housing of the collection the museum does offer a tranquil oasis in the middle of a bust city with lovely courtyards.

Very close by is one of Amsterdam's better known free attractions, the Beginhof. A square of almshouses, still occupied. It is interesting how what were once paupers dwellings are now seen as the most attractive places in a city. Perhaps not a great reflection on modern social housing. I can't imagine Tottenham's estates ever becoming a tourist attraction.

Anyway, this little square is very appealingly twee and cute. You would want to live there. Even with the gawping tourists.

 Getting my bearings I wandered into the main square - the Dam, with its muscular but not very attractive (except to pigeons) national monument.

Following which I had an early dinner (well I had an early start) at an "all you can eat" sushi restaurant. Not (unsurprisingly) a patch on sushi restaurants in California. Not really all you can eat either, although amounted to it. There was a big menu, and you can order up to 5 items in 5 rounds, so 25 items in all. Which is more than enough for any normal mortal. Although the most attractive dishes (especially my favourite sashimi) were all extras. Anyway, upshot is I ate too much but not of what I most liked, so maybe not again. Oh, and cleverly to stop you over ordering, they charged you for any dishes you ordered but did not eat. And also you have to buy a drink and they "were not able" to serve tap water. All in all not my favourite.

So I meandered back for an early night. A pretty enough walk home.

And I should get this out into the open right now before you read any more of my blog entries. Despite spending a whole week in Amsterdam and that Anne Frank's House was only a few metres from my flat - literally just up the road - I never visited it. Why? No, not anti-semitism. Because of this :-

And that queue then goes on down the next road too. Now I know it sounds a bit churlish not being willing to queue for a couple of hours when the poor girl hid from the Nazis in a cupboard and then was murdered in Auschwitz, but still, I am on holiday and really don't enjoy queuing.