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Amsterdam, Netherlands
Now here’s a church, here’s the steeple, I like the party favors but I hate the party people
This was not my first time in Amsterdam, or my second, or even my third. Years and years (perhaps at this point decades) ago, I used to favor the Northwest/KLM flight from Newark to Amsterdam. And also years and years (perhaps at this point decades) ago, I also used to favor overnight trains on long, multi-country trips. More than once, I recall killing time in Amsterdam waiting for midnight and an overnight train to take me to Berlin or Copenhagen or somewhere less creepy than Amsterdam Centraal Railway Station.
For all of the time and hours I spent there, this was the first time I actually decided to stay the night in the city and do my best to actually enjoy Amsterdam, instead of trying to work the timing right so I didn’t miss my train or plane headed somewhere far away from here.
The first (or second) time that I came to Amsterdam, I made it a point to see the Rijksmuseum, however in all of the subsequent visits it lost its high priority status. Nothing but giant, dark Rembrandt paintings and crowds of tourists checking off a checklist was all that I seemed to remember. This time on my unofficial “Give Amsterdam another chance” tour, I went back to the Rijksmuseum and was pleasantly surprised. First off, a renovation by architects Antonio Cruz and Antonio Ortiz created a cleaner museum overall as well as an interesting entry hall. And inside there were still all of the giant, dark Rembrandt paintings and crowds of tourists checking off a checklist, but this time I dove deeper into the museum and deeper into the collection than before and came out far more impressed. And I even think I came out with a greater appreciation for some of those giant, dark Rembrandt paintings that I seemed to dismiss all those years ago.
So what else did I make a priority on my unofficial “Give Amsterdam another chance” tour? Did I take a tour boat around the canals? No. Did I go back to the Van Gogh Museum? No. What about the Anne Frank House? No. What I did instead was see the city by lining up a few audio walking tours and headed out on streets and bridges and back alleys that I somehow missed despite this not being my first time to Amsterdam, or my second, or even my third.
I have not been to Cologne as often as Amsterdam, although I have been there more than I probably really wanted to go. It’s just so damn convenient and a great place to change trains between Amsterdam and Brussels and Hamburg and Frankfurt. And if you’re going to be getting off the train and waiting for another one anyway, you might as well add in a few hours to check your bag and see Cologne again.
One of the great cathedrals in the world (even if you have cathedral fatigue) is luckily only steps away from the train station in Cologne. It’s almost (but not quite) the tallest in Europe and despite its 700 year construction schedule (and however many change orders that entails), it feels, when you’re there, like you in the most important place on earth.
Despite visiting cathedrals across Europe from Saint Peterburg to Spain, I have not yet suffered cathedral fatigue. I did however get continually frustrated about how hard it was to take a decent picture inside one. All of that stone and stained glass created great in person experiences but usually weird, dark photos that felt like you were in a deep cave as opposed to an often transcendent space. Luckily modern technology has finally caught up for all of us with cathedral bad photo fatigue. Using constructed panoramas (AutoPano)and HDR post processing (Photomatix) and cameras that can finally take a halfway decent picture in low light conditions without a tripod, you can finally see in pictures what it’s like to actually be inside a space like the Cologne Cathedral.
If you have, I don’t know, let’s say two or three hours in Cologne, the first thing you’re going to do is go to the cathedral. It’s right next to the train station and hard to miss or pass on by without stopping in. Then maybe you’ll head over to the very photogenic bridge over the Rhein, or walk along the river to the Fischmarkt and take pictures of all of those pretty colored buildings. Then probably you’re going to head back to the railway station and wait for your train to take you onward and away from Cologne. But if you do that, you’re missing one of the great buildings in Germany.
Only a few blocks away from the cathedral is Kolumba, the diocesan museum of Cologne. It is housed in an amazing building designed by Swiss hero architect Peter Zumthor, one on top of and surrounding a historic church destroyed in World War II. Zumthor uses perforated brick walls that create magical experiences inside and probably a hell of a lot of great places for tiny birds to hide in a rainstorm.
