Before we got hitched, Liam and I had both enjoyed the many meaty treats of old Amsterdam. Needless to say, it didn’t include a cultural cruise around the august galleries of the world-famous Rijks Museum. These days, life is mercifully more sedate. Randy times with likely lads on the pull are but a distant memory, and nights on the tiles have given way to days on the trail.
First up on our cultural pilgrimage was the Homomonument, a memorial to those poor souls persecuted for their sexuality during the Second World War. Opened in 1987, the monument takes the form of a giant pale pink triangle jutting out into the Keizersgracht. The pink triangle was the badge gay men were forced to wear in the Nazi death camps. And we all know what happened in those places.
This is the one site I’d seen before. Here’s me in the naughty nineties. The second picture is me now. Obviously, I haven’t changed a bit!
Amsterdam
" data-image-title="Amsterdam Homomonument" data-orig-file="https://perkingthepansies.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/scan0047.jpg" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"HP Scanjet djf2200","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" width="796" data-medium-file="https://perkingthepansies.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/scan0047.jpg?w=300" sizes="(max-width: 796px) 100vw, 796px" data-permalink="https://perkingthepansies.com/2016/03/27/its-all-double-dutch-to-me/scan0047/" alt="" height="525" srcset="https://perkingthepansies.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/scan0047.jpg 796w, https://perkingthepansies.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/scan0047.jpg?w=150 150w, https://perkingthepansies.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/scan0047.jpg?w=300 300w, https://perkingthepansies.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/scan0047.jpg?w=768 768w" class="wp-image-22033" data-large-file="https://perkingthepansies.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/scan0047.jpg?w=700" />To my shame, I’d never visited Anne Frank’s Huis, so I was determined to right this particular wrong. It was a sobering lesson in everyday evil. Lest we forget.
And, yes, we made it to the Rijks Museum – huge and impressive but way too busy, I thought. There’s little time to take in the art without being bothered by jostling, happy snappers. Well, if you can’t beat ’em…
The following day we took an audio tour around the well-sculptured Royal Palace on Dam Square with its lofty ceilings and twinkling crystal chandeliers. It was great fun, apart from the couple of young pushy queens who didn’t understand the simple concept of the queue.
As our long weekend coincided with Storm Babet tearing across Northwest Europe, we were expecting lively weather. And we got it. We coped by drinking through it; like we needed an excuse.
Despite the inclement weather (and contrary to the images below), the city was rammed. Weaving through the obstacle course of talkers, walkers, cars, trams and manic cyclists coming at us from every which way was quite the challenge. It’s a miracle we didn’t come a cropper. But we survived unscathed.
The Big Tulip really is cool. We will return.