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PoloLine Travel

Lovely Amsterdam

A charming look at the Venice of the North

By Alejandra Ocampos
Photos by Ana Clara Cozzi

Holland is a region in the western part of The Netherlands, and it's used to refer to the whole of the Netherlands, which is the official name. It consists of two Dutch provinces: North Holland and South Holland. Due to the historic importance, the country has been named Holland as a tradition.

The Netherlands are located in the Northwest of Europe, and its borders are the North Sea, to the North and West; Belgium, to the South; and Germany, to the East. The country capital is Amsterdam, but the seat of government is La Hague.

Amsterdam is a lovely city, a place known for tolerance and very open minded people. It is known as the Venice of the north, due to the large number of canals - 165 - 90 islands and 1500 bridges in the city, that was settled as a small fishing village in the XII Century. The earliest use of the name Amsterdam comes from a certificate from October 27 1275. Amsterdam was granted city rights around 1300, and in the XIV Century flourished because of trade with other cities in the Netherlands and Germany.

In the XVI Century, the Dutch rebelled against Philip II of Spain due to new taxes and religious persecution of Protestants by the Spanish Inquisition. This caused the Eighty Years War,  which led to Dutch independence. The Dutch became known for the religious tolerance and the refugee for jews from Portugal and Spain, protestants from Amberes, and huguenots from France who were persecuted due to their beliefs.

The XVII Century is considered Amsterdam's Golden Age, and became the wealthiest city in the world. Ships sailed from Amsterdam to the Baltic Sea, North America and Africa, and other places such as present-day Indonesia, India, Sri-Lanka and Brazil, forming forming the basis of a worldwide trading network.The prosperity of the city declined during the XVIII and early XIX centuries; the wars with England and France, took their toll on Amsterdam. During the Napoleonic Wars, Amsterdam's significance reached its lowest point. Holland was absorbed into the French Empire; but it marked the establishment of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in 1815. A second Golden Age came in the latest years of the XIX Century, New museums, a train station, and the Concertgebouw were built, as the Industrial Revolution reached the city. 

The Netherlands remained neutral during the First World War (1914-1918); however, its population suffered hunger  

The Second World War (1939-1945) was a total nightmare for the Netherlands. Germany invaded the country in 1940 and took control of the country. Inmediatly, they started a cruel persecution of jews. More than 100,000 Dutch jews were imprisoned and sent to concentration camps. Perhaps the symbol of the persecution is the young Anne Frank, the girl who lived with her family and the Van Pels family in a hidden room of her father's office building. That's where she wrote her worldwide famous diary. The Franks and the Van Pels were betrayed, arrested and sent to the Bergen Belsen concentration camp in 1944, where she finally died from typhus, in 1945, when whe was only 15 years old and a few days before the war was over.

t the end of the Second World War, communication with the rest of the country broke down, and food and fuel became scarce. Many citizens traveled to the countryside to forage. Dogs, cats, raw sugar beets and tulip bulbs (cooked to a pulp) were consumed to stay alive. Most of the trees in Amsterdam were cut down for fuel, and all the wood was taken from the apartments of deported Jews.

After the horrors of the war, Amsterdam was rebuilt, and today is a city with intense industrial activity, and full of tourism. 

The rich history of Amsterdam features some very important artists, such as Rembrandt, whose former house in the XVII Century, is a museum, as well as Vincent Van Gogh. The Van Gogh Museum contains the largest collection of the artist's paintings. 

Anna Frank's house, which is also a museum today, is another of the most visited places of Amsterdam, as well as the Hortus Botanicus, founded inn 1600, and one of the earliest botanic gardens of the world, that features exotic species. Another place to visit is the famous concert hall, the Concertgegouw, that held its first concert in 1888.

Amsterdam is a sports city, of course. The Amsterdam Arena is the home of the Ajax FC, founded in 1900, the club that brought one of the best football players of all time, Johan Cruyff. The Netherlands football was featured for the first time in the World Cup, in Germany, in 1974, with a fantastic team that presented the total football, an influential tactical theory in which any outfield player can take over the role of any other player in a team, pioneered by Ajax and led by Cruyff and the National Team's coach, Rinus Mitchel. Johan Cruyff was the star of the team, that shocked the world when they reached the final, which they lost to the Germans, by a narrow 1-2.

The city has a lot of buildings, churches, squares (dams) and bridges, to see and be seen. And one event definetly not to miss is the Queen's Day, on April 30, a huge popular party. People go to streets to celebrate wearing orange outfits, the official color of the Royal Family (Orange), currently led by Queen Beatrix, and sometimes by her eldest son, Willem Alexander, married to Argentine-born Maxima Zorreguieta, who is one of the most beloved princesses in Europe and, as they say, the most popular member of the Royal Family...

So here you are, give a look at the photos, PoloLine Travel invites you to a magical mystery tour around Amsterdam....