Wednesday 23rd October 20204 (day 40)
We returned to the city centre on the tram, having booked timed entry to the Royal Palace. After catching the wrong tram, we managed to arrive more-or-less just a little late.
The palace is used to host Royal occasions including visits by foreign heads of state and banquets, etc. but you do get to see quite a lot of the building. It was originally the Amsterdam town hall, but was converted into a palace by Louis Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon, after France occupied the Netherlands. Louis became King Louis I, in 1806.
The central hall is huge, and very high. The statue of Hercules carrying the world on his shoulders on the end wall, measures 6 metres high.
The marble sculptures were the work of one man, Artus Quellinus, claimed to be the best artist in marble that Holland has ever had.
Each of the 4 corners of the central hall, has two Roman gods on the wall above the doorways. Here are Mars and Venus:
Other rooms we saw, were on a much more comfortable scale. Some are used for accommodation when visiting royalty of heads of state visit.
There are also some beautiful objects to be seen, including this gilded clock:
When crowds gather to see the Royal family in Dam Square, they appear on the balcony which is seen below, from the inside:
Leaving the palace, we crossed Dam Square. We saw an acrobatic entertainer, a protest regarding the genocide in Palestine and Death (straight from the pages of a Terry Pratchett novel).
We wandered around past the war memorial and into the red-light area, where we saw a decorated bicycle:
Then we saw another:
Even the cuddly toys were a bit weird …and that bike saddle!
Moving on, the strangeness continued. The Japanese Store was interesting:
Being Amsterdam, there is much on sale regarding drugs and their use:
Amsterdam has a permanent flea market, which has a mixture of stalls, some selling new goods and others which have much in common with the French Brocantes or British car boot sales:
Alison said her legs were getting tired, so I offered to buy her a new pair:
Lastly, we visited the Jewish Holocaust memorial, which was very moving. It bears the name age and date of birth of over 100,000 people from all over Holland, mostly Jewish, who were murdered by the Nazis. It is huge, and there is a brick for each person in its many different walls.
Included, of course, is Annelies Frank, who kept a diary of her family’s struggle to stay hidden in Amsterdam. Other members of her family can also be found.
That is all for today. TTFN. See you later.
"See-u-Later" 
It’s incredibly thought provoking when you see the numbers of those in Holland alone who were murdered by Nazis 😦
On a lighter note though, there are some interesting bikes and soft toys over there hahaha!
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