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Amsterdam

Amsterdam on line hotel booking

Amsterdam tour-Far from the madding crowd (part 3)
The Beguinage 


Kroller Muller Museum

 

Back to Amsterdam far from crowd contents

Amsterdam and Jews

Restaurants recommendation
Did you mark the Historisch museum in your notebook, for your friends to visit? Good!
Let's move on to the BEGIJNENSTEEG where you will find a "brown café" called "De Engelse Reet". At the corner of the Gedempte Begijnensloot notice the shop of the Italian barber Figaro Pasquale, calling himself the barber of hair and soul. Eve if you don't need a haircut, give it a visit, drink a cup of coffee and at once, you are in for a chat. Because Pasquale is a philosopher who invented slogans like "less ideology and more ideals and who defends the fact that his trade (barber) should return to its former honour, the good work performed by skilled hands. O yes, ladies!! Be prepared for a possible marriage proposal. Last time I visited him he was still looking for female around 55, who knows about cooking and .....is prepared to wait until 20.00 hours before he gets home. That's were it goes wrong with Dutch women. They are programmed to dine at 18.00 and that's not at all the time for Pasquale. Candidates can inform on the spot. He is a lovely man, good income, quiet existence assured. 

Beguinage houses

Now of to the BEGIJNHOF, the quite part of the city. Stately, high houses surround a square of chestnut trees. All houses have been restored a few years ago and one of them: "HET HOUTEN HUYS" is the oldest of Amsterdam, built in 1420. 
But you cannot compare the Dutch Beguinage wit the Belgian ones like you see in Bruges. This one started in 1346 when a Coppe van der Lane, offered a piece of property to the beguines who build a small garden. After the Catholic religion was abolished during the Religion wars, the beguines were allowed to continue living there. One of the characteristics of Amsterdam's tolerance, even if some affirm that the beguines had long arms and a lot of protectors in the government.

Houten Huys

In the interior courtyard lies a brown, split stone. If I didn't mention it to you, you would have passed it without even throw a glimpse on it. It is the tomb of Cornelia Arents, a beguine who died in 1654. Her family had fled to the Protestant religion but when her coffin was displayed in the church, the "good believers" took her away and put her in the gutter. After a few incidents and -discussions, she was finally buried in that gutter. 
It is still heavenly quite in the Beguinage. The houses are occupied by older ladies and female students. In the vaulted passage leading to the beguinage there are still inscriptions indicating what used to be forbidden: dogs and .....boys. There is still an English church for the Protestants and the Begijnhofchapel, originally a small shelter. 
If you pass now the portal to the SPUI, you will land in a total different world. The "Esprit Café", the book market on Friday and "het Lieverdje", the image of an Amsterdam street child scoundrel. Trams ride and bell, cars horn and people wandering around in a very busy atmosphere. See also the "Atheneum Boekhandel, "world famous for its large assortment in literature and weekly magazines in the dependence.