Amsterdam: Culture With A Common Touch

Europe and art go together.

We imagine grand masters, grand concerts, grand architecture. We want to experience the culture, but we are human, too. Grand can be intimidating, unintelligible, (boring).

The solution? Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is not a city of snobs. Far from it. This is a city where executives strap on skates when the canals freeze. It is a city whose people celebrate the queen’s birthday (April 30) by throwing a monumental outdoor tag sale. Although the canals and the stately houses along them in central Amsterdam were built for gentrified Dutch merchants in the 1600s, today’s Amsterdam is an easygoing mix of weaving bicycles and speeding trams, carillon chimes and thumping pile-drivers, sacred museums next to condom shops.

Seventeenth-century scale makes the city seem small and accessible. The people, warm, direct and English competent - prove that theory correct. Here, art and regular people have a down-to-earth relationship.

To see the city and find the art, walking is the best choice. On foot you are free to dip into alleys, stop at cozy cafes and linger outside shop windows. Bikes are too fast; canal boats are fun, but limited; cars impossible.

This is a city of details and contrasts: a world-class metropolis with a small, energetic feel. Guided by the concentric circles of the major canals, the spires of churches or a walking map from the Board of Tourism, you soon find your way back and forth to the markets and museums you planned to see, and the herring stands and house boats you didn’t know existed.

Along Oudezijds Voorburgwal Canal (whose northern end includes the “red light” district), within a few blocks you see university students, preschool children dressed as bakers in their school window, businessmen passing in and out of the stately Grand Hotel, a sex shop known as El Diablo, and the hidden Catholic church, Our Lord in the Attic.

Named the Amstelkring Museum, this little gem speaks volumes about Amsterdam’s religious history, tolerant population and practical people. It combines art and daily living in a very Dutch way.

Catholicism was banned in 1578 and the city’s Catholic churches taken over by Protestants. In the 1600s, a wealthy merchant used the intricate architecture of the canal houses to build a secret Catholic church. He rebuilt three contingent houses to include living quarters for his family and a priest, and a large church on the third floor.

Only the family’s rooms were accessible from the street. The chapels and sanctuary of the church were secreted behind hidden passages. People entered on a side street while Amsterdammers looked the other way on Sunday mornings. Today, the church and living quarters are preserved as they were in the 17th century. Mass is still celebrated on Christmas Eve.

From Oudezijds Voorburgwal Canal, a short walk takes you past the market at Waterlooplein to Rembrandt’s home on Jodenbreestraat. In the small Rembrandthuis Museum you get a close look at Rembrandt’s etchings.

He had a fascination with the grand, religious subjects, and with common people … printers and ratcatchers. The work of his assistant, Jan van Vliet, was to etch copies of Rembrandt’s work in order to advertise them for sale - a worldly concern. The mix of art and artist’s daily life recurs throughout the museum.

Across Waterlooplein, on the Amstel River, the National Ballet performs in the striking and comfortable new Muziektheater. Its annual production of Prokoviev’s Cinderella mixes classical ballet and classical slapstick. This is not a performance for snobs!

The scene-stealers are the two evil stepsisters who aren’t stepsisters at all, but male dancers in drag. They tromp about, trip and pout in the most outlandish way while Cinderella and her prince dance a more well-mannered style.

Do the dancers mind? Artistic director Wayne Eagling says, “I can’t get them out of their skirts.” Do audiences mind? They love it. The show entices first-time ballet-goers to the theater, along with seasoned fans.

Walkers may want to hop a tram or canal boat to get from Central Amsterdam to the Museum District. The grand and famous Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum and the Stedelijk (Modern Art) Museum conveniently line up along Museumstraat (Museum Street) on the Museumplien (Museum Square). At the end of this impressive group is the Concertgebouw (Concert Hall).

The Concertgebouw, famous for its orchestra and acoustics, offers free concerts on Wednesday afternoons. Locals take their lunch hours with world-famous musicians.

The hall has seats in every possible space, including along the walls and next to the organ. The idea seems to be music for everyone, from the queen who slips quietly into her seat above Mahler’s name painted on the balcony to the student who can’t afford a ticket but can take a tram over for a Wednesday afternoon recital.

Afterward, walk across the street to the Bodega Keyser for a cozy meal in a cafe where a large table (leestafel) is set aside should you want to read.

Amsterdams music isn’t limited to concert halls. On the street, organ grinders and street musicians entertain. The Pulitzer Hotel, created from 24 canal houses, sponsors a floating concert on the Prinsengracht canal in August in front of the hotel. There are jazz and Dixieland clubs. The Holland Festival celebrates the arts throughout the summer.

Somehow it fits - a city that seems more practical than aristocratic, more approachable than impressive, would prize as its finest architecture not palaces or skyscrapers, but houses … canal houses rich with ornate details, skinny houses, historic houses. Everywhere you walk, look up. Notice the gables. Step inside doorways.

Women still live in the Begijnhof, a tranquil, beautiful for-women-only enclave in the center of the city on the Spui. They are the latest in a line of women living here since the Crusades (1346), when women moved in together for support while their men went to war.

At the Anne Frank House on the Prinsengracht, the architecture of the canal houses lent itself to the secret rooms that protected the Frank family during the Holocaust. Bits of daily life, Mr. Frank’s map of the Allied invasion of Europe, Anne’s collection of movie-star photos and the ladder to Peter’s attic are powerful reminders of the past. Today’s children are invited to write their thoughts in the thick book by the exit.

Indeed, everywhere you walk in Amsterdam, the art, architecture and music of the past blends seamlessly with the lives of today’s people … people who happen to be skaters, vendors, artists or plumbers.

Whoever they are, Amsterdam’s people and art combine in a potent mixture. The result is lively and memorable - like finding a precious antique at a tag sale, or skating on a clear day in a scene that could have been painted by a 17th-century master.