Three Fishermen Song

January 2nd

Our flights home were uneventful.

Here is the song in its entirety as we sang it.  I am now aware that there are other verses, that we apparently skipped.  I am not sure if I have forgotten these verses in favor of skipping to the entertaining bit, or if my mom didn't know them or also just wanted to skip to the entertaining part.  I have included the lost verses in italics.  I am also now aware that there are a few different versions of this song, so you may have sung something similar.

For a long time this song is the only thing I knew about/in relation to Amsterdam.  Most of the time we would start laughing long before we got to the "dam" part of "Am-ster, Am-ster, dam dam dam."

The Three Fishermen Song

Once there were three fish-e-rmen.

Once there were three fish-e-rmen.

Fisher, fisher, men men men.

Fisher, fisher, men men men.

Once there were three fish-er-men.

The first one's name was Ab-ra-ham.

The first one's name was Ab-ra-ham.

Ab-ra, Ab-ra, ham ham ham.

Ab-ra, Ab-ra, ham ham ham.

The first one's name was Ab-ra-ham.

The second one's name was I-I-saac.

The second one's name was I-I-saac.

I-I, I-I, saac saac saac.

I-I, I-I, saac saac saac.

The second one's name was I-I-saac.

The third one's name was Jay-ay-cob.

The third one's name was Jay-ay-cob.

Jay-ay, Jay-ay, cob cob cob.

Jay-ay, Jay-ay, cob cob cob.

The third one's name was Jay-ay-cob.

They all went off to Jer-ri-cho.

They all went off to Jer-ri-cho.

Jer-ri, Jer-ri, cho cho cho.

Jer-ri, Jer-ri, cho cho cho.

They all went off to Jer-ri-cho.

They should have gone to Am-ster-dam.

They should have gone to Am-ster-dam.

Am-ster, Am-ster, shh shh shh.

Am-ster, Am-ster, shh shh shh.

They should have gone to Am-ster-dam.

We must not say that naugh-ty word.

We must not say that naugh-ty word.

Naugh-ty, naugh-ty, word word word.

Naugh-ty, naugh-ty, word word word.

We must not say that naugh-ty word.

We're going to say it an-y way.

We're going to say it an-y way.

An-y, an-y, way way way.

An-y, an-y, way way way.

We're going to say it an-y way.

They should have gone to Am-ster-dam.

They should have gone to Am-ster-dam.

Am-ster, Am-ster, dam dam dam.

Am-ster, Am-ster, dam dam dam.

They should have gone to Am-ster-dam.

Amsterdam: Day 6 - They should have gone to Amsterdam...

January 1st

Welcome to 2015!  The Future is NOW! The future in Back to the Future II is nigh!  Anyway....

We wandered off to Ons' Lieve Heer op Solder, Our Lord in the Attic.  It is the oldest museum in Amsterdam, or so they say.  The Catholic church is hidden in a 17th century home and was a hidden church during the Reformation.  The church was made by combining three 17th century homes, one facing the canal and two behind it that faced the alleyway.  Jan Hartman was a merchant who purchased the properties and built the church over the course of several years.

These are the stairs that led up to the secret church.  There was access from the alleyway on the street.  The museum has put down thin wood toppers to protect the original stairs from wearing away.

Looking at the pews to the altar.

Looking down from the galleries (left) and looking up to the galleries (right).

The nearby rooftops (left). A representation of 17th century priest robes (right).

The priest's quarters.  The bed is built into the wall.  A priest would have lived on the premises.

The outside of the canal facing residence.  Up there behind those windows is a church.  Who knew?

This concludes the Our Lord in the Attic portion of our adventure.

Wandering -

We wandered around a bit before heading back to our hotel for the night.  We debated trying to go to the Anne Frank house, but the line was ridiculous and I didn't want to stand in the cold.  So we just walked around instead.

CANAL!

Fun street decorations.

I end our Amsterdam trip with two stereotypical Dutch things, a windmill (the same as #3) and some traditional Dutch clothing with wooden clogs.

To conclude our song, the last verse:

They should have gone to Am-ster-dam.
They should have gone to Am-ster-dam.
Am-ster, Am-ster, dam dam dam.
Am-ster, Am-ster, dam dam dam.
They should have gone to Am-ster-dam.

Amsterdam: Day 5 - They all went off to Jericho...

December 31st

New Year's Eve!  And we have hours to kill.  We started off by going to Brouwerij't IJ which is a brewery and windmill.  We planned on getting lunch there, but it didn't open until two, so we wandered off to a museum down the road.  I took a few photos first.

THIRD windmill sighting!  

They have an ostrich as their mascot, or at least that's what they put on the side of the building.

Up close and personal with Windmill #3.

I don't know what this statue is (left) but I think it belongs in Aaahh!!! Real Monsters. Dan under the sailor art (right).

Het Scheepvaartmuseum - 

This is the ceiling of the central courtyard of the Het Scheepvaartmuseum.  I think it is neat. 

The Het Scheepvaartmuseum is the National Maritime Museum.  It is housed in a formal naval storehouse.   It contains many artifacts related to shipping and sailing.

Scale models of all different types of boats.

The Navigation room.  It was pretty.  All sorts of brass doodads. 

To the left are pieces off of the Adolf Hertog van Nassau, a frigate from the late 1800's. The right are various rudder and helm decorations from various ships.

Various figureheads (left). A replica of the 18th century ship Amsterdam, which sailed between the Netherlands and the East Indies - the actual ship, not this replica (right).

Below decks on the Amsterdam.  Canons ready to fire! 

Dan says the hammocks are more comfortable than the submarine bunks.

Some proof that I was on the Amsterdam.   It turns out I was in one of the heads (bathrooms for you non-seafaring folk).

A view of the Science Center NEMO.
We had seen it in passing before, but I couldn't figure out what it was before.
It's a ship!

I'm a FANCY captain at the helm!

The cargo hold.   You can see a little mouse in both photos.  This is Rinus, you could follow him around the ship to learn about it. Dan demonstrating pulleys.

The bow (left) and the stern (right) of the Amsterdam.

Ceiling of the courtyard again.

This concludes the Het Scheepvaartmuseum portion of our adventure.

We wandered off back to the Brouwerij't IJ to get beer and lunch.  Turns out the have very little seating and don't really do food.  They have snacks.  So we got beer, and snacks, and sat outside.  It was very cold.  At least the beer didn't get warm.

Science Center NEMO -

We got to the NEMO a little late so we didn't have much time to get through it.

A view of Amsterdam from the NEMO.

Dan playing with static electricity.

The Rube-Goldberg demonstration set up.

Types of eggs!......including candle and Kinder....

Looking down through the floors above the Rube-Goldberg demonstration.   We were able to watch it run.  It was fairly entertaining.  Unfortunately the museum closed promptly at 17:00 and we didn't get through all of it.  I was sad to leave because I was not done with the science.

This concludes the NEMO portion of our adventure.

Wandering -

Boats!  And a view of the Het Scheepvaartmuseum.

The Amsterdam has an "i amsterdam" sign in front of it.

Canals and downtown.

More canal and downtown.

We luckily found a restaurant that could squeeze us in without reservations.  This was lucky for a few reasons.  We were inside, warm, had beer, and had a place to sit and kill time.

Shenanigans Begin -

In Amsterdam they start setting of fireworks, firecrackers, whizzbangs, and whatever else makes a show or a loud BANG as soon as they wake up in the morning.  Apparently these items are illegal to sell in the Netherlands, so everyone goes over the boarder to buy their noise makers.  

People will set off whatever they have acquired randomly and anywhere.  This guy was in the middle of a crowded alleyway and he had a 10 ft long firecracker rope with a big noise maker at the end.  He just lit it.  People were covered in debris and I'm sure a few received minor burns.

The streets were packed.

OOOOOoooooOOOOOOO.  The Red Light District.  

All the red lit windows had women, we saw no men, displaying their "wares."

This guy didn't have any fireworks, but he did have a road flare.  He was very proud of his road flare.

We were sitting on a cement flower sculpture table thing off to the side of the Nieuwmarkt Square.  Another American couple claimed some space at our flower table thing.  We spent the rest of the time chatting and waiting with them.  They were quite delightful.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Then began the trip home.  We booked it to the train station so that we could get a ticket and get on a train back to Schipol.  This turns out to be most peoples' plan.  I felt like I was in a zombie movie.  We were very calm and drunk zombies, but there were hordes of people pushing into the train station.

A view of the train station platform.  People literally packed in as much as they possibly could.  I think it took us 3ish hours to get back to our hotel.  Dan was asleep/passed out for most of it.

To end the night, the fifth verse of our song:

They all went off to Jer-ri-cho.
They all went off to Jer-ri-cho.
Jer-ri, Jer-ri, cho cho cho.
Jer-ri, Jer-ri, cho cho cho.
They all went off to Jer-ri-cho.