Mokum (מקום) is the Yiddish word for “place” or “safe haven”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mokum
In common usage in Amsterdam; Mokum, is the nickname for the city, not unlike calling New York City ‘the Big Apple’. How did this come to be, that a European City would freely adopt a Yiddish word as its nickname?
During the Netherland’s journey to the constitutional monarchy under which they are now governed, they created a country open to different religions and practices. When the Inquisition raged in Spain, the Netherlands became “Mokum”, a safe place Jews could turn to; and they did. They felt safe in the Dutch city of Amsterdam and began to make their lives there as did fellow freedom seekers from around the world.
The Netherlands has grown a culture of individual freedoms which has resulted in it being Mokum for those looking for marijuana, or prostitution, or alternative lifestyles. Individual freedoms are allowed and where necessary, regulated; there is no smoking of marijuana on the streets and the red-light district workers benefit from physical protection and excellent healthcare, even as they are displayed in the red-curtained windows on the streets. Combined with the arts and culture and canals, these attitudes and regulations have created a city like no other in the world. http://www.goodtosee.com/amsterdam-the-city-of-freedom/
We had to go there. London to Amsterdam is four hours by train; through the east of England, through the Chunnel, and up the west of France and Belgium. It is a beautiful trip. While the Eurostar train took us to Amsterdam Centraal, we immediately started this adventure by taking the ‘sprinter’ to the airport, where we picked up the 858 bus to Keukenhof Gardens. https://keukenhof.nl/en/ The bus stops in front of the Gardens, from which we walked to our hotel, past rows and rows of blooming tulips and hyacinths. We arrived in this small town of Lisse on Friday afternoon so we would be able to take in the Gardens on Saturday morning and be ready for the passing of the Flower Parade through town in the afternoon. https://www.holland.com/global/tourism/plan-your-holiday/events/flower-parade.htm
Pictures available online of individual floats covered in all types of flowers would make you think that the Flower Parade is made mostly of these types of entries – not so; there are many beautiful floats that are completely covered with flowers designed in fabulous shapes and sizes, there are also tractors with flowers attached to the hood, and cars with flowers on the hoods and busses with flowers on the side, in addition to marching bands and some (unknown to us) dignitaries waving from the backs of trucks. It was beautiful and corny all at the same time. And, it was a party. We lucked into a table at an outdoor restaurant where we ate lunch and listened to the American music blaring from the pop-up DJ across the street. And, it hailed on us, just before the parade, which has a 25-mile route which takes 12 hours, made it to our section. An event to remember.
Not that our trip to the Keukenhof Gardens earlier in the morning was not an event to remember too. There is no visual gap in the Gardens displayed in online photos and the actual Gardens; they are beyond my ability to describe, if anything, it was more impressive in person. The Keukenhof Gardens are open three months a year. Every year the flower beds are replanted with millions of bulbs and flowers. The park itself is surrounded by canals, has old trees, water features, pavilions for more flowers, a windmill and even a maze which you must navigate to get to one of the best lookout points of the Gardens. A million visitors a year enter Keukenhof during those three months; many of them on the day of the parade like we did, holy cow did it get crowded as the day went on. But we were done by then. Not that we couldn’t have spent even more time – but we became ‘museumed up’; like when you have seen so much fabulous art, read so many captions, walked so many pokey miles, it’s just time to go. So off we went to wait for the parade.
By the end of the parade, we were done. Most of the town was done too, with the shops closing and the street fair packing up. Going back to the hotel, we decided to give our feet a break by having dinner in the hotel restaurant. A surprisingly good meal and good wine too. Lisse has the best bread. The next day we started out for the flower fields nearby as Andy hoped to take a great picture of the gold-tinged red tulips in bloom there. The resulting picture is more ‘interesting’ than beautiful because while we were at the parade the tractors had come though and ‘topped’ the field; all the blooms were laying in the rows, not standing on the stems. As we learned at our subsequent stop at The Black Tulip Museum in town, (https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/black-tulip-museum ) the growing flowers have the actual petals chopped to force the plant to make the best bulbs. The bulbs are what will be sold, not the blooming stems. Time to go to Amsterdam.
We re-traced our steps back to Amsterdam and found our hotel there. Ah, yes, now I remember reading about the ‘coffeeshops’. Coffeeshops, as opposed to Coffee Shops, are where it is legal to buy and smoke marijuana; you can smell them, oh yes you can, and you can recognize them by the groups of college students hanging around outside trying to decide if they should go in. In many cases there is also a bakery or store nearby with sweet treats to satisfy the newly hungry customers cravings. We chose instead an outdoor café next to the canal; beer for Andy, Aperol spritz for me and nachos, this is the Amsterdam life for us.
The next day was our thirty-fifth anniversary. In an unintentional combination of timing, this was the day we had a walking tour of Jewish Amsterdam followed by a visit to the Anne Frank house. A cosmic reminder to take the bitter with the sweet, Amen. The tour was ‘ok’, the guide was not great; but we learned about the February Strike, where non-Jews rose up against the Germans in protest of their pogroms. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_strike , we saw the Broken Mirrors monument which is to remind us all that the sky broke over Auschwitz and will never again be whole https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitzmonument_(Amsterdam), and ‘stumbling blocks’ (metal cobblestones placed in front of the houses where Jewish families once lived engraved with their names and dates) that are meant to catch your foot, and have you look down and recognize the tragedy of the holocaust which stands before you. https://www.npr.org/2012/05/31/153943491/stumbling-upon-miniature-memorials-to-nazi-victims The Anne Frank house was just what I expected. It is the best possible presentation of a 1930’s business, with an annexed hiding place, there might be. With original wallpaper and photos it is as wrenching as it should be. Eight people in total hid there for two years, until they were discovered and put on the last train to the death camps. Seven of them dying within weeks of the Allies liberation, only Otto Frank living to tell the tale. https://www.annefrank.org/en/ There was no Mokum to be found; not in Amsterdam, not in the Netherlands, not in the world, during the Nazi era.
On to sweeter events. Next day. We noted all the different types of canal tours available and decided on a smaller boat restored from the 1930’s. So much of central Amsterdam is on the canals, it is really the only way to get a sense of the city and harbor. In a true day of sightseeing, we went to the Flower Market which lines the canal, to the Blue café at the top of a shopping mall with 360-degree views and to the NEMO science museum whose whole roof is a slanted viewing area of the city. https://www.nemosciencemuseum.nl/en/
On our last full day, it was back to the museums. We started at the Van Gogh Museum, and a special exhibit on David Hockney in tribute to Van Gogh. The Hockney was amazing. Generally, I am not a fan and his earlier work really made no sense to me; but this work, which is based on Hockney’s return to England, reflecting on his love of Van Gogh, their joint love of nature, was very much worth seeing. The rest of the museum is, as the names suggests, is devoted to Van Gogh. This is my type of art arrangement, where I can see the early work, the influences, and the master work in chronological order. Van Gogh painted for eight years and was considered a failure – he is gone, but the work lives on. (See Hockney above 😊) https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en
From there we went to the MOCA, Museum of Contemporary Art, whose main exhibit is the unauthorized “Banksy, Laugh Now”. https://mocomuseum.com/?gclid=CjwKCAjwtYXmBRAOEiwAYsyl3MQVbtM0B13vsM83OVpJnXDKKpAHuV9SIvMcd3MGWlWd82pXEF2w5hoCVmEQAvD_BwE We have appreciated Banksy since Aj introduced us to him through the movie, Exit Through the Giftshop. https://youtu.be/oHJBdDSTbLw This is all I can say. We loved it. If you are not familiar with Banksy and his art, please follow this link: http://banksy.co.uk/
We finished our last full day by going to the Ziggo Arena where Michelle Obama was speaking as part of her book tour. Michelle Obama is a rock star, entering the arena to rock music and flashing lights. In the book her mother is quoted as saying: “these kids are not unique, the South Side is full of kids just like them”; and that may be true, but this ability to work her hardest, to think problems through thoroughly, to stand up every day and do her best – is inspiring. In the face of racism that we would all hope is the product of a bygone time, Michelle has raised her kids to be strong and independent, supported her husband’s goals to change the world, and maintained a personal path of work and contribution – all the while being ridiculed in the press, being targeted with hate speech in person. She is a ‘first’ in so many ways and wears it so well. In the talk she emphasized that she is who she is, there is no persona to keep up in public, and she believes that is why her memoir is becoming (pun intended) the best-selling memoir of all time. The evening was exciting and motivating. It was fun and funny in ways I don’t suspect Mrs. Obama intended, such as when she used a reference to “Danger, Will Robinson” and few members of the audience understood. But, the core message of becoming, that life is a journey, that growing and doing your best is important – everyone got that. https://becomingmichelleobama.com/
We wrapped up our week in the Netherlands the next day; a little more walking, another meal at an outside café, one last whiff of the Coffeeshops. Back on the train, back through the countryside, back to thinking about what a great adventure we are on and how Mokum is a value we can take with us as we continue to become our working, learning, exploring, and growing best selves.