The following morning we actually got up reasonably early considering our long night, and decided to finally sample the delights of NEMO, somewhere I’d been before but was so impressed by that it demanded a second viewing. NEMO is essentially a giant science centre for kids near the main rail station in Amsterdam. The closest equivalent in the UK is probably @ Bristol if you know what that is, but NEMO is much cooler. We set off with a girl we had befriended at the hostel that morning, and were treated to the worst weather yet, torrential rain and extreme wind almost snapping my brolly in half and soaking us all before we’d even got there. Understandably we were a little deflated by the time we reached the iconic ship-modelled building, but we soon warmed up and got into the spirit of things. It’s one of those ‘learning can be fun’ sort of places, but it can actually back up its claims for once with all these computer programmes (like one where you can age yourself or change your gender), cool simulations and interactive experiment things. Of course, it was Amsterdam, so there was an extensive sex section in NEMO, which was a little disconcerting with all the kids running about. In addition, there was a hilarious demonstration of what happens when you give spiders drugs, with the pothead spider’s web resembling a torn fishnet stocking and the LSD spider’s web looking a little bit intense and tight. Only in Amsterdam.
After the place closed (we’d been there hours and still hadn’t seen it all), we lost our new friend as we decided to Take Art Seriously in the Stedelijk modern art museum. Now I’m not a big art guy, but I’ve been to a few places with my family and an old girlfriend who was an artist so I can walk around the installations pretty cheerfully. They had a couple of Mondrians which were pretty cool, and on the whole the installations were quite interesting. Some were a bit pretentious of course (all rotting bananas and floating screens and stuff) but there was some pretty inspired stuff too and a couple of modern oil paintings that I really liked. Our cultural palettes securely sated, we had a quick dinner then went off to the last activity of our trip, a canal boat tour. As we sat down in the mood-lit boat with a small aromatic candle on our table we realised that perhaps this was a BIT romantic, but decided to go with it. The tour was an hour and a half but it flew by really, and it was really interesting. I learned that Amsterdam’s massive rail station had had nowhere to be built, so they had constructed land in one of the canals for it to sit on, just where we had been earlier that day at NEMO as it turned out. We were also witness to the countless ‘houseboats’ which offered riverfront property at easier rates, but which were actually often luxury apartments inside (and people really didn’t close their blinds. Ohhh, no). There was a bit of a turf war going on between the people with actual houses who thought the boats were impacting on their house prices, and the ‘Yuppies’ (as our guide called them) who resisted, and also tried to sue canal tours like ours for invasion of privacy. I was also relieved to learn that the Amsterdam fire department have a mechanism for pulling horses out of the canal. Y’know, just in case.
We learned loads more on the boat, too much to put here, and got to see Amsterdam at night which is truly beautiful. The buildings are all lit up and shining and the light casts into the water where it ripples and shimmers in the tide as people walk alongside, the city if anything getting busier at night. That was our last night, and although we went to a bar later (Which was a little An American Werewolf in London, if you catch my drift) I think I prefer to leave Amsterdam like that —beautiful, dark and bursting with life. My friends and I had a great time, different to what any of us were expecting but probably better too. I think we saw loads of sides to the city and really got to grips with the culture there, and we met some great people. I suppose you could say that we didn’t dig too deep into the darker side, the reason most lads would go to Amsterdam, but I think our way was just as fun, and just as worthwhile.
Although to be honest, if we had done loads of really debauched things, do you think I’d write about them on here?
What happens in Amsterdam….
