From Toronto to Amsterdam to Venice!
We fly from Vancouver to Toronto and then on to Amsterdam for an eight hour layover, before continuing on to Venice. Not wanting to spend the whole time sitting in Schiphol, the airport in Amsterdam, we venture to the train station and head for downtown. We arrive at Amsterdam Centraal Station and go out into a fast-paced but laid back city. Europe, as a whole, is a continent of contradictions, where the collision of the old world and the new world is often times disorienting. Everywhere you look in Amsterdam is history, from the lovely canals and cathedrals to the quaint crooked and leaning buildings and homes. This is surrounded by teeming traffic, both cars and bicycles (a population of bicycles the likes of which I have never seen), small pubs, hydroponic stores, and people walking around openly smoking marijuana. No visit to Amsterdam would be complete without a walk through the fabled Red Light District, where incidentally, they really don’t like to see cameras come out, which I found interesting- even though prostitution itself isn’t against the law, the taboo of buying and selling sex is still pervasive.
After quaffing back a Heineken (because really, we were in Heineken country), we decided to embark on a canal trip. This is a really lovely way to see Amsterdam. We passed upscale neighborhoods, passed under little footbridges, and did a slow almost reverent pass of the once secret hiding place of the Frank family. I remember as a young girl reading Anne Frank’s Diary- as a reader there is always a safe and comfortable distance one has, even knowing you are reading a work of non-fiction, you are safely ensconced within the confines of your own home- seeing her little house and the window she would sneak looks out of, felt very poignant. One needs those reminders, those markers in history, to remind us of how very lucky we are to be living in the world we live in and to remember that it was gifted to us through the lives and sacrifices of many people. If history is doomed to repeat itself, then the greatest weapon we have against that is to remember the moments and events which changed the course of history and learn from the consequences of our mistakes. But I digress . . .
After our canal trip, we return to the station and after some confusion, are able to make our way to the airport and on to Venice.
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