For the first full day of the Sons of the Desert convention, Thursday, July 10, we basically spent the entire day in Amsterdam again. Not that touring the city wasn’t enjoyable, but it certainly didn’t feel much like a real convention, given that we were away from the hotel for almost the entire day. That morning I had another one of those huge, filling, and delicious European breakfast buffets in the hotel restaurant and then quickly caught one of four buses transporting the convention delegates to Amsterdam.
Originally the first tour was going to be of the Royal Palace in Amsterdam, but since it was closed for renovation, the convention organizers substituted a tour of the Theater Tuschinski. It wasn’t really much of a tour so to speak, but a lecture on the history of the theater given by our guide. He explained how Abraham Tuschinski opened the lavish theater in 1921 as a place where the common man could enjoy the luxurious surroundings of the immaculate theater. Many American movie stars of the 1930’s would visit the theater while touring Europe as part of studio promotional tours. Tuschinski’s theaters were taken over by the Nazis during the war, and he was transported to Auschwitz where he was killed.
The majestic Theater Tuschinski
Jimmy, me, Kris, Big Jimmy, and David excited as all-get-out
As we left the theater, David, Jimmy, and I took a walk down the street to a little deli called Kwekkeboom where David treated me to a kroket (croquette). This was comprised of meat and mashed potatoes encased in fried breadcrumbs and it was quite tasty. David had received this recommendation from one of his friends who had lived in the area. I also grabbed a couple of magnets and an Amsterdam t-shirt for Ashleigh at a nearby shop.
Me and David enjoying our kroket delicacies
From there we walked to a nearby canal where we boarded a boat that would take us on a 90-minute cruise through the Amsterdam canals. The boat was crowded by the time we boarded so I sat with the elder Wileys while David and Jimmy were forced to stand outside. Fortunately they were under covering for the most part when it began to rain again.
Downtown Amsterdam: this could be a record album cover
On the boat in the Amsterdam canals
Since the weather was crummy, it wasn’t all that enjoyable to look at the bleak sights around us, although I was amused by the house that was only one meter wide and three stories tall. The husband and wife who own it naturally had to sleep on separate floors. Near the end of the tour, our boat passed under a bridge and slammed into the side nearly sending Jimmy and David over the railing of the boat.
Our final destination was the d’Vijff Vlieghen (Five Flies) restaurant and we departed the boat nearby. There were multiple levels to the facility and it seemed that we were eating in a small room in the attic (although there were even more rooms above us). We had to pass through a narrow flight of stairs to get to our spot. Admittedly it was a cozy area that was only occupied with a couple of tables. There was a lone Son named Derek at the second table so we asked him to join us. He certainly got an earful of our group’s ascerbic tongues and inappropriate humor! The gourmet meal was top-notch as we had mustard soup and grilled chicken in a fowl butter sauce. Although we didn’t see it, fellow Son Steve Wichrowski somehow managed to catch himself on fire at the restaurant. More on that later…
Gary Cohen, me, John Duff, David, Dick Bann, Kris, Jimmy, and Jimmy in the Five Flies
Me and Dick ready to enter the Anne Frank house
By this time it was 3:30pm and we had four hours ahead of us in Amsterdam on our own. The first item on our agenda was to visit the Anne Frank house. Jimmy had already purchased our tickets online, so we didn’t have to wait outside in the rain in the long line to get into the museum. I really had no idea what to expect inside the house.
My conclusion was that the Anne Frank is absolutely the saddest place I have ever been. For a full hour, I silently toured the house and museum without so much as uttering one joke about anything – which in this crowd is unprecedented for me. Naturally all casualties of the war, and particularly those who perished in concentration camps, evoke a sense of sadness and sympathy. This place however really managed to put a human being, and an adorable young girl at that, at the heart of the tragedy.
This was the house in which Anne Frank and her family set up a small area in the rear annex of the house and silently hid from the Nazis for a duration of two years. It was during this time that Anne wrote her famous diary. The family was betrayed and transported to concentration camps after their discovery and Anned died seven months later. Anne’s father Otto was the only one of the family to survive and after the war returned to this house to find Anne’s hidden diary, which went on to be published as The Diary of a Young Girl.
Although some of the items in the house were reproductions, such as the wall hangings from smuggled movie magazines that Anne had put up – and also the diary itself – (the originals were elsewhere for preservation), they were so well reproduced that if you didn’t know better, you’d think they were the originals. Also on hand was the Oscar that was won by Shelley Winters for her portrayal of Patronella Van Daan, a refugee who helped hide the Frank family, in The Diary of Anne Frank movie. She promised Otto Frank that if she won, she would donated it to the museum. I know everyone in our party was very moved by what they had seen in the Anne Frank house.
No photos were allowed inside the house and museum, but I conned Janet into snapping just this one with Shelley Winters’ Oscar. She got yelled at.
Solemn outside the house
Full-view of the house
We still had about two and a half hours to continue to explore Amsterdam before our buses left to go back to our hotel. We really had no agenda on what else to do in Amsterdam, so we just bascially walked around the city. It only took us about an hour before we had run into a nice and debaucherous street filled with the famous Amsterdam coffee shops, head shops, and some red-lighted windows. This actually took me by surprise because we were not in the official ‘Red Light District’ at the time we stumbled upon these. I was walking along minding my own business when I suddenlty noticed a red neon light as we were walking along the sidewalk…and wouldn’t you know it, a scantily clad woman appeared right before my eyes without warning. I didn’t even consider visiting any of these locations, but I was mildly curious as to what a brownie might taste like in the coffeshops. But I never had one. No one else was adventurous enough to go into one with me.
One of the colorful Amsterdam head shops
David and a hooker
So instead we found a safer place where they only served ice cream. I had a nice tiramasu and rum raisin double scoop cone. We then wondered over to the nearby Dam Square where the Royal Palace that we were originally going to tour was located. I grabbed a couple photos outside the palace and around the square. David searched the shops for wooden shoes.
With the Netherlands National Monument in Dam Square
At the Royal Palace
Amsterdam pigeons were unlike any I had ever seen before. You’d have to practically kick them to get them to move.
At this point we began to head back toward the train station and the location of the buses. We stopped in a McDonalds to use the restroom but when I saw that someone was collecting 50 cents outside the men’s room, I decided to hold it. David used it anyway and then found out that we really didn’t have to pay, it was only a ‘suggested’ amount. God, Europe is different.
As we neared our buses, I finally located the Sexmuseum. The Duffs had ventured into Amsterdam before the convention had begun and had showed me the picture that they had taken of this. I had been dying to find it and get a photo with it, even if passing on the temptation to actually go inside.
Finally…the Sexmuseum
We got back to the hotel at about 8:30. As I was walking back to the room, I ran into Stan Laurel’s great-granddaughter Cassidy (also Lois’ granddaughter). She had just arrived that afternoon and it was great to see that she had safely arrived. We chatted for a few minutes and then I headed back to the room to rest for a bit.
At about 10pm that night, A.J. Marriot gave an interesting lecture and power point presentation entitled the Life and Times of Stan Laurel. At about two hours long, the lecture managed to hold the crowd in rapt attention as A.J. (who authored the book Laurel and Hardy: The British Tours) followed the life and career of Stan Laurel from his childhood to his retirement. It would have just been a bit nicer if it hadn’t ended at midnight.
On the way back to our rooms, David discovered that you could make phone calls back to the states rather cheaply in the hotel lobby – relative to how much we had guessed it might cost – so he called his family and I called home to talk to Jackie for a few minutes. It cost just a couple of euros. Obviously, it was late by the time we turned in. Breakfast would be calling for us early again.
A late night phone call to Jackie
The convention will continue…
Did you take a picture of the house that’s “only one meter wide and three stories tall”? I’d like to see it. One meter is barely longer than three feet. Whoever lived / lives in that house must be very very skinny!
Bill
September 21st, 2008
I didn’t get a great photo of it, but it’s the house in the middle seen below. I think I’d go stir crazy.
Brad
September 22nd, 2008
I tend to be claustrophobic at times, so I’d definitely NOT ever be found in that house!
Bill
September 22nd, 2008