Amsterdam Part 3

Previously in Amsterdam Part 2, I visited several historical sites that witnessed the Dutch Republic becoming a global super power in the 1600's. After gaining independence from the Spanish (after the Eighty Years War), and turning Protestant, the Dutch sailed the world, and rivalled the Portuguese and Spanish. Most notably, the Dutch took Melaka (Malacca) and modern Indonesia, thus stamping their name on global trade. Check it out at:

https://weesertan.blogspot.com/2020/11/amsterdam-part-2.html 

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Ajax Amsterdam is a famous football club in Europe. They are best known for producing football talents (who are unfortunately sold to big clubs). It is definitely not very desirable being a feeder club, but I suppose the balance sheet would always be super healthy. We read about the glory days and famous names such as Johan Cruyff, Marco van Basten, Frank Rijkaard passing through their ranks, and they have won a few European Cups. 

Since I started watching football (in 2000), former Ajax players that I keenly watched were Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Kluivert, Ryan Babel, Nwankwo Kanu, Jari Litmanen, Wesley Sneijder, Edwin Van Der Sar, Clarence Seedorf, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Luiz Suarez, Christian Eriksen and the list goes on. 

Any football fan can confirm that world football is a better place because of all these graduates from Ajax. Barcelona's playing style is still influenced by Johan Cruyff, their coach in the 70's. 

The question is, how are you able to spot and nurture world class talents, consistently for a century?

To learn more, on my 3rd full day in Amsterdam, I got up the city train to Bijmer Amsterdam Arena. 

55,0000-person capacity stadium (you could see the weather wasn't great)

I paid 16 euros for the stadium tour at noon. 

We were firstly introduced the away team dressing room, which was uninspiring and dull. 

Interestingly, there are only 10 shower rooms, which means one of the away players would need to share the same shower.... or wait for his turn. Not very hospitable, and definitely not my cup of tea. 

Meanwhile, the home team dressing room was sparkling and modern. It has 12 shower rooms!

Amsterdam Part 2

Previously in Amsterdam Part 1 (https://weesertan.blogspot.com/2020/11/amsterdam-part-1.html#more) I travelled from Eindhoven to Amsterdam after a student competition, and joined a local walking tour. 

First impression was actually quote positive

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To know more about the Netherlands, we need to learn some history, and about the father of the nation - William of Orange. Also known as Prince William 1 and William the Silent, William of Orange led the 8-year war revolution against the Spanish king in the 1500's. 

Before we start to wonder why is there a colour or fruit in his name, let me clear your queries. We do know that the Dutch football team also wear orange jersey.

Actually, there is a place call County of Orange, or Principality of Orange in Southern France. Wikipedia gives a good account of this place: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Orange 

The the prince has his roots from there

Prince William of Orange did not like how Protestants were prosecuted by the Spanish King, and felt that the Dutch states should fight for freedom, against the Spanish colonizers

Since then, orange colour became a symbol for Protestantism, and Dutch heritage, Shades of orange can be found in the flags of the Netherlands, Republic of Ireland, New York City and etc. Prince William of Orange declared independence in 1581, denouncing the Spanish crown, and formed the Dutch Republic, a union of states in the Netherlands. It also kicked-started the Dutch Golden Age for the next 100 years, where the Dutch Republic was the world's no.1 superpower.  

The Dutch sailed the world spreading art, culture and science. Military might saw them arriving in South East Asia, and defeated the Portuguese to take Malacca (modern day Melaka in Malaysia) in 1641. The Dutch Square (Red House) still stands in Melaka today, as one of the most famous tourist attraction. The Dutch is the longest colonial power that ruled Melaka - 183 years, until 1825. However, they preferred Batavia (modern day Jakarta, Indonesia) to Melaka, and had a land swap with the British. 

Amsterdam Part 1

In September 2017, I was in Holland and Belgium, and spent a few hours in the French city of Lille. The 2-week travel around Flanders territory was actually an interesting experience.  

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It was one of my last 'assignments' as a student at Glasgow University. I was part of the university team that competed in SensUs Competition at Technical University of Eindhoven, the Netherlands. We were tasked to build a biosensor to detect heart attack. It took 6 months to prepare. 

Amsterdam Schiphol, one of the busiest in Europe, was an hours flight from Glasgow. From Amsterdam, we took a 1.5-hour train ride to the city of Eindhoven. 

Nowadays, I wonder if our technology could do something to assist the fight against COVID-19

 

Technical University of Eindhoven (TuE) campus was green and really pleasant. 

Introduction by the organizers

In the Netherlands, there are 2 types of universities - Technical, and non-technical

Rome - The eternal city

We were touring central Italy's Renaissance city of Florence in: 

https://weesertan.blogspot.com/2020/09/florence-where-leonardo-da-vinci-was.html. 

The next and final stop in Italy saw us traveled down south to Rome - The eternal city. 

Football fans will know the club AS Roma, and legendary captain Francesco Totti. 

Rome is the capital of Italy, and according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome, was the 11th most visited country in the world, and 3rd most visited in the European Union. No trip to Italy could be completed without Rome on the itinerary. 

As the saying goes, Rome was not built in a day. It was founded in 753BC by King Romulus (Roman Kingdom). Then, Rome became a Republic, and then an empire. In Malaysia, we studied about Rome in Form 4 history text book - Emperors like Julius and Augustus Caesar. It was one of the 4 great world civilizations, along with Greek, Chinese and Indian civilizations.  

"Marcus Agrippa, the son of Lucius, three times consul, built this." (2000 years ago)

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We took the Italo train from Florence to Rome, and reached our AirBnb around 5.30pm on 14th December 2018. Stayed at 30 Via Pavia, a spacious and comfortable place by Andrea. We allocated 4 days (3 nights) in Rome. 

Being a 2700 year-old city, Rome is a fantastic city to walk in. Every corner on the street seems to have important landmarks and attractions.

Walking tours would normally start at the Spanish Steps, the iconic 135 steps that connects the Spanish Plaza to a church on top of the Pincio Hill. 

The Spanish Steps (left) and Trevi Fountain (right)

Walking tours would normally start at the Spanish Steps. The walking tour we joined was the biggest I have seen - 45 participants! As predicted, the stories, historical facts and myths went on and on. 

The Roman Forums were a place of political debates, speeches and intellectual sparring. 

The Roman Forum

The most famous ruins of course, is the Colosseum. Built in 75 AD, it is still the biggest 'stadium' in the world, and still standing! 

I felt that there were too many sites to cover (slowly), and decided to just walk around the perimeter and marvel at this engineering marvel 

In hindsight, maybe we should have entered, but as the saying goes "有遗憾，才会回来" (Leave it for next time)