Day one, we arrived in Amsterdam. I find it hard to recall the exact weather, but it was gloomy with the occasional shower of Hollandaise rain.
Immediately, it was a rather unspoken subtle tradition, we took a taxi to our hotel. Marriot. (Not advertising them.) It was roughly 10 in the morning, (would have been 11 in the coutry we left - lovely Wales) we had woken up at about 6 ish and frankly our pathetic weak bodies were exhausted.
Pure trivia: tired in dutch is moe.
So our luggage was casually dropped in all relief and we all found ourselves doing star floats on the beds.
We manages to claw our way our usual 'just laze in the hotel forever and watch CNN News' trance and we pounded the pavements of busy busy touristy touristy Amsterdam.
The first thing that I thought we could perhaps explore was a chess museum. There was a big chessboard in a food court where, I assume, two strangers were having a chess game. Nearby, a large banner with the words 'Max Euwe-Centrum' inscripted hung, dripping and swaying. It was advertising the chess museum, named after an very not well known chess champion.
I an not that much of a chess fan, I know the rules, and likes to give up halfway through the game. But I wanted to visit and experience as much as possible and chess is okay.
After a quick bite of lunch in a Japanese restaurant located amongst many other restaurants. We returned to the black and white banners.
With the dramatic banners, and polited buzz around the public chess game between the stranger and the bearded stranger, it was disappointing not to find a grand entrance to a beautiful chess-inspired architectural building. On the contarary we found an A4 paper politely pointing out that the Chess exhibition (so now it was an exhibition!) could be found in building something on floor something. Wow. Unimpressed.
Our chess exhibition hunting lasted about 5 minutes. The building was a modest office with probably about 6 or 7 floors. It just simply felt wrong walking into an office where people in shirts and tie were walking around with coffee mugs (I always think that if someone is holding a coffee mug, it makes them a cool office worker). There was one of those commnication machine where you press the button of the floor if you want access. So the four of us, blundering in a building where we felt very out of place, pressed the button - "Yes, the chess museum?, come on up, second floor."
So we trailed nervously up the stairs, where a guy, probably used to seeing random tourists in his office, kindly gestured the way to the 'chess museum'
I can't really call it a 'chess museum' without quotation marks any longer.
An elderly guy greeted us, we placed our bags and coats in the lockers and he started the tour without any formal warning. There were a few exhibits of old chess pieces, old rule books, and old photos. But mainly it was all dedicated to Max Euwe. An Amsterdam guy who won the World chess championship years ago. He was detailed in explaning the history of Max Euwe, you could not fault his enthusiasm.
He gave a few sheets of paper, which probably talked about the chess champions, history all in tiny printed words that even in my nervous polite self I could not bring myself to read.
The room was about the size of my living room. Its not a small living room, but its not great. True it was packed with many many chess related stuff. Pictures, certificates, tactic books, chess boards. Our tour guide was very kind and humbling.
In a way, it was not a place that I would endear to visit again but if you have not been there you would gain more than you came with. Its FREE, I should have mentioned at the start. A lot of dedication was put into the exhibits, there's a library with dutch books (I am not mocking it, I am simply suggesting you should learn the language and spend an hour or two reading them) and chess boards which for chess fans - I'm sure its a fine environment to whip out your skills.
Though I was probably extrememly harsh on it, if you don't visit it for the exhibits, visit it for its owners. They're obviously very lovely people who are inspired by Max Euwe. And the chess museum must get very lonely. Perhaps for true chess fans they will appreciated it a lot more than I did.
A plucky bonus is you get free postcards, more than a dozen. A down side is the postcards are mainly of random chess players.
If one day you decide to visit Amsterdam, ignore the slighly negative things I have said, go visit it. And then send me a postcard.
Immediately, it was a rather unspoken subtle tradition, we took a taxi to our hotel. Marriot. (Not advertising them.) It was roughly 10 in the morning, (would have been 11 in the coutry we left - lovely Wales) we had woken up at about 6 ish and frankly our pathetic weak bodies were exhausted.
Pure trivia: tired in dutch is moe.
So our luggage was casually dropped in all relief and we all found ourselves doing star floats on the beds.
We manages to claw our way our usual 'just laze in the hotel forever and watch CNN News' trance and we pounded the pavements of busy busy touristy touristy Amsterdam.
The first thing that I thought we could perhaps explore was a chess museum. There was a big chessboard in a food court where, I assume, two strangers were having a chess game. Nearby, a large banner with the words 'Max Euwe-Centrum' inscripted hung, dripping and swaying. It was advertising the chess museum, named after an very not well known chess champion.
I an not that much of a chess fan, I know the rules, and likes to give up halfway through the game. But I wanted to visit and experience as much as possible and chess is okay.
After a quick bite of lunch in a Japanese restaurant located amongst many other restaurants. We returned to the black and white banners.
With the dramatic banners, and polited buzz around the public chess game between the stranger and the bearded stranger, it was disappointing not to find a grand entrance to a beautiful chess-inspired architectural building. On the contarary we found an A4 paper politely pointing out that the Chess exhibition (so now it was an exhibition!) could be found in building something on floor something. Wow. Unimpressed.
Our chess exhibition hunting lasted about 5 minutes. The building was a modest office with probably about 6 or 7 floors. It just simply felt wrong walking into an office where people in shirts and tie were walking around with coffee mugs (I always think that if someone is holding a coffee mug, it makes them a cool office worker). There was one of those commnication machine where you press the button of the floor if you want access. So the four of us, blundering in a building where we felt very out of place, pressed the button - "Yes, the chess museum?, come on up, second floor."
So we trailed nervously up the stairs, where a guy, probably used to seeing random tourists in his office, kindly gestured the way to the 'chess museum'
I can't really call it a 'chess museum' without quotation marks any longer.
An elderly guy greeted us, we placed our bags and coats in the lockers and he started the tour without any formal warning. There were a few exhibits of old chess pieces, old rule books, and old photos. But mainly it was all dedicated to Max Euwe. An Amsterdam guy who won the World chess championship years ago. He was detailed in explaning the history of Max Euwe, you could not fault his enthusiasm.
He gave a few sheets of paper, which probably talked about the chess champions, history all in tiny printed words that even in my nervous polite self I could not bring myself to read.
The room was about the size of my living room. Its not a small living room, but its not great. True it was packed with many many chess related stuff. Pictures, certificates, tactic books, chess boards. Our tour guide was very kind and humbling.
In a way, it was not a place that I would endear to visit again but if you have not been there you would gain more than you came with. Its FREE, I should have mentioned at the start. A lot of dedication was put into the exhibits, there's a library with dutch books (I am not mocking it, I am simply suggesting you should learn the language and spend an hour or two reading them) and chess boards which for chess fans - I'm sure its a fine environment to whip out your skills.
Though I was probably extrememly harsh on it, if you don't visit it for the exhibits, visit it for its owners. They're obviously very lovely people who are inspired by Max Euwe. And the chess museum must get very lonely. Perhaps for true chess fans they will appreciated it a lot more than I did.
A plucky bonus is you get free postcards, more than a dozen. A down side is the postcards are mainly of random chess players.
If one day you decide to visit Amsterdam, ignore the slighly negative things I have said, go visit it. And then send me a postcard.
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