Today is a holiday in the city and the streets are quiet. We did not rush to get up but when we did we noticed the quiet streets and very busy breakfast room in the hotel. This hotel has a lot of rooms and it appears that many have decided to take a long weekend and visit the city.
Wes is feeling a bit better today so we decide we should go out and visit the zoo. Artis, short for Natura Artis Magistra (Latin for "Nature is the teacher of art"), is a zoo in the centre of Amsterdam. It is the oldest zoo of the Netherlands. In addition to the zoo, Artis has a planetarium and a zoological museum.
The zoo was founded in 1838 by Gerard Westerman, J.W.H. Werlemann and J.J. Wijsmuller (also known as the three Ws). It is commonly referred to as Artis, because the zoo has three gates with Artis Natura Magistra written above them (as shown on the picture). Usually only the middle gate was open, so people who walked through that gate, looked what was written above it and saw 'Artis', thinking that the zoo was just called Artis. Soon few knew it as Artis Natura Magistra.
Finding our way to the zoo was really easy as we simply took the tram outside our hotel right to the corner by the front gate. On the tram we actually noticed the ‘metro police’ doing a spot check for tickets and saw them giving a young fellow a ticket. We have heard of this, but this is the first we have witnessed.
When we went through the gates at the zoo we were astonished to see a long snaked line up to the ticket office. Our first observation was that since it is a national holiday and here was the evidence. Our second observation was that the majority of the people in the line were young adults with young families, which was very nice to see. Our third observation was that there seems to be a general lack of understanding about how line ups should function and several people were told by those in the line to stop butting in and go to the back of the line. One fellow even went over to the zoo staff and requested that he start to re-direct new comers to the end of the line. Generally everyone seems to be in a good mood and with the comfortable sunny weather we are looking forward to a good day.
As we picked up our ticket we also picked up a zoo map which Wes will use to guide us through. The park is not very wide, but it is deep with paths that criss-cross through the park taking you to many different areas. One area of interest was the reptile house where we were able to watch the snakes being fed. I have a couple pictures to share with Rick, but will not put them on the blog.
According to the map there are over 50 different exhibits noted on the map and we managed to see more than 40 of them. The funniest thing to happen was when we were in the petting zoo area and a goat walked quietly over to Wes and grabbed the map from his hand. Our map now has a full goat sized bite from it and Wes had to chase him down to get the map back.
We also visited the butterfly atrium.
Then we visited the aquarium.
I think it is best to let you check out the pictures. Again, I had over 250 pictures by the time I got back so you can imagine the fun I had in culling and then creating collages. This means there are many pictures to share, but if you see anything that you really want to study in larger form, just let me know.
We returned to the hotel mid afternoon. Wes is feeling better but still tires and I am concerned that he is going to wear himself out since he has kept going today. However, he took a 90 minute nap once we got back and is feeling refreshed.
After dinner tonight Wes was ready to relax and I thought it would be a good time for me to explore a bit of Amsterdam. I want to do a city bike tour tomorrow and so this was a good time to scout out where to get the tickets and get a schedule. Tonight is very warm and pleasant for strolling around. So I headed downtown on my own.
I first learned that taking bus 21 would take me directly to Central Station (which is a very imposing looking building) and this is good news for next week when we head off to Hamburg. The architecture of the city is very impressive and I took several pictures of buildings.
Then I started to walk around and had no trouble finding the ticket place and the meeting place for those with tickets for the bike tour.
I next just started walking up and down the different streets in the area known as the Red Light District. I am not entirely sure I was in the right area or that it was too early in the evening, but I did not see anything that would make it a ‘red light district’. There were some red shutters but they were closed at this time of day. Another surprise was to discover a hotel in the middle of this area called The Convent Hotel – like how does that figure in for a red light district?
Speaking of which, I have started to notice names of businesses in the city and some of them I find very interesting. Here is a collage of just some of the interesting ones I found.
I finished the evening by heading back to the hotel…only I got on the tram going in the wrong direction and did not notice until it reached the end of its run. I should point out that I did start to wonder when I did not recognize anything on the route but figured I was just not being observant earlier. Wes is really good on the metro system so I usually just rely on him and enjoy the ride. Well, when we got to the end of the line I had a good laugh with the tram driver and he got me sorted out and on the right tram to go home – of course the tram was starting at this point so I could not get mixed up again. My 20 minute tram ride from downtown ended up being an hour and 20 minutes, but it was fun to see other areas of the city.
If we can still laugh at the end of the day, then it must have been a good day. I am laughing.
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