Sabbatical Sayings: Amsterdam, Susan and Duncan

The Royal Palace, Amsterdam

Interior of Our Lady of the Attic Church, Amsterdam.

Exterior of Our Lady of the Attic Church, Amsterdam.

Coming out of Amsterdam Central Rail Station is one of the worst feelings in the world. I believe Dante Alighieri must have had some premonition of it that he used when writing about hell in his Inferno. Because of the canals, there is a tremendous bottleneck of people both going and coming. The area also has many kiosks where companies do there best to get you to take their canal cruise. Lastly, parts of Amsterdam City just attracts undesirables and this is just one of those parts. After “running this station gauntlet” as if it were some type of worthiness test one can experience a picturesque city of canals, restaurants and cafes, museums and even churches.

Side Aisle View of West Church, Amsterdam.

After my time in Breukelen I was able to enjoy Amsterdam. While I visited the Van Gogh and Rembrandt Museums and, of course the Anne Frank House, I most enjoyed the Museum of Our Lord in the Attic. It’s the museum that houses a clandestine or hidden Roman Catholic church. The church is not visible from the street because it is hidden within a row house along a canal. The reason it is hidden is that after the Reformation Catholics were not allowed to practice their Faith openly. Now the Dutch were relatively pragmatic and tolerant and so Roman Catholics were not persecuted to the same extent as in other places so this church was tolerated as long as it was not visible. The museum is a tribute to the generous benefactor who bought the three homes, the craftsmen who retrofitted the building and the Faithful who came and enhanced the two-tiered church.

Museum Anne Frank House, Amsterdam.

There are other more impressive church structures in Amsterdam. The Protestant ones seem to be just concert halls and the four Catholic Churches have limited liturgies. The first Catholic church built after Catholics were allowed to worship openly, the Basilica of St. Nicholas, is only open three hours a day and the 12:30 Mass is in a different language (other than Dutch) each day.

Basilica of St. Nicholas, Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is not much of a walking city. Besides (or on account of) the canals it is very congested in the historic or old city and the bicycles are silent and deadly. Because walking was difficult I stopped by a café by a major canal thoroughfare to sit and watch the boats go by on a gorgeous summer Saturday afternoon. While sitting there an English couple arrived and asked if I was using the stools. Well that led to a wonderful conversation with Susan and Duncan. They are from just outside of Cambridge and are quite the travelers. They were in Amsterdam for a long weekend. It was great sharing part of my afternoon with them. We ended up in that cafe for almost three hours chatting and watching the various peopled boats go by.