We woke today to the sound of rain on the roof but thankfully by the time we set out this morning it had pretty much cleared and held off for most of the day with only a few showers later in the afternoon and evening.

Our first stop today was at the Museum Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder or the Museum of Our Lord in the Attic. Mum and dad had visited this secret church in an attic when we were here with them 5 years ago and we had meant to visit but hadn’t got around to it. However Charlotte and Nick encouraged us to visit when we caught up with them on Saturday so we decided to put it first on the list for today’s adventures.

Formally known as Het Hart, Our Lord in the attic was built in the 17th century by a wealthy merchant Jan Hartman and remained as a parish church for over 200 years. Jan was wealthy enough to also purchase 2 adjacent properties in the adjoining alley and created the church by merging the attics of the 3 properties between 1661 and 1663.

These secret churches came about due to the Protestant Reformation. Since 1572 the Netherlands was a country that believed in the freedom of conscious and right for people to believe whatever they wanted which was quite radical during this period of time. However people couldn’t practice their religion openly and Catholics were forced to worship at home, hence the secret churches.

When the Protestant authorities found out that this church existed they took a pragmatic approach to ‘look the other way’ and tolerate the church, besides Jan Hartman was a successful merchant and made a lot of money for the city and the church was not visible from the street. This tolerance is described by the term gedogen referring to not enforcing certain laws. Whilst this approach was seen as heresy by the Catholic Church prior to the Reformation it has guided The Dutch to be tolerant of others since the 16th century and can be seen today in their approach to sex and marijuana.

Our next stop was the Sofitel Grand Hotel where Charlotte works. It was great to meet Charlotte again and we thoroughly enjoyed the tour of this magnificent building.

In 1411 the building begun life as two convents with St Catherine’s Convent in the southern part and St Cecilia’s Convent in the northern part of the property. In 1578 after the Reformation, Protestantism became the offical religion of the Netherlands and the convents were confiscated as city property. As a result St Cecilia’s Convent was turned into a lodging house called ‘Pricen en Groot Heeren’, later renamed to Princenhof where esteemed guests of city officials stayed while in the city.

In the 17th century a part of St Catherine’s Convent was bequeathed to the Admiralty of Amsterdam. In 1647 the Princehof was transformed into City Hall and served as the seat of Amsterdams government for several years.

In 1655 the Admiralty took ownership of the entire property and built a structure between the two convents, the facade of the new building is now the entrance of The Grand.

The French occupation of the Netherlands commenced in 1806. Napoleon made his brother Louis the King of Holland and in 1808 Louis decided to make the new city hall on Dam Square his Royal Palace forcing the city officials back to the Princenhof. The Royal Palace became the residence of the country’s ruler and Princehof remained city hall for the next 180 years.

When the Netherlands was occupied by the Nazis during WWII they abolished the city council and appointed their own German officials and occupied the building during this time.

In 1992 the building was transformed into the Sofitel Legend The Grand Amsterdam hotel, and today at €350 plus a night the only chance we have of staying there is to win lotto!

Our tour also included the opportunity to take in two murals that are considered invaluable art treasures. The first was a mural by Chris Lebeau in the marriage chamber which has a wonderful story behind it. It is painted in the art nouveau style. The second was by Karel Appel, in a vastly different style but with an equally important story to tell.

Our tour concluded with a cup of tea and a chance to wish Charlotte all the best for the busy day that she had in front of her.

We then wandered over to De Poezenboot which is a canal boat that has been a sanctuary for cats and other animals since 1966. We visited the boat last time we were here and thought we’d book in again and visit the cats. It’s a popular place for cat lovers and you only get to book a 15 minute interval at a time before the next group are ushered in. We recognised a few cats from last time and it was good to meet them again.

As we were close by Jordaan we decided to meander through our favourite neighbourhood again as it’s just so beautiful and charming.

Our next adventure took us to the De Pijp neighbourhood and the Albert Cuyp Market. We had never wandered over to this part of Amsterdam before. While I loved the neighbourhood I didn’t think much of the markets although we did get to suss out some fish and vegetable stalls to see what was on offer and were impressed by the size of the pomegranates. We enjoyed a stroopwafel but didn’t find the poffertjes stall.

Then it was a tram back to Leidlesplein and then another back to the Centraal Station where we wandered around some more, the crowds were much smaller today so it was easier to get around. We ended up enjoying a drink overlooking Dam Square and the Palace.

We did also manage to slip in a bit of shopping. Since arriving I’ve been a bit worried that my clothes just don’t cut it for the cold here despite having many layers and being the warmest clothing I own. Anyway I spied a jacket this morning that looked particularly toasty and was thinking about purchasing it all day. It’s a bit of an extravagance due to the price tag but it was discounted by €30 so definitely a bargain or sorts right? Anyway, I’m now the proud owner of new jacket which will hopefully ward off the cold during our next adventures in Iceland.

For tea we enjoyed some Italian and of course I had to sample the calzone which was very nice.

Another day of learning more of the history of this great city and wandering through some of its beautiful neighbourhoods. We clocked up over 20,000 steps again and now enjoying putting our sore feet up for a rest.

Tot zeins