Holland – Day 7
Portuguese Synagogue and Market – April 18
With two days left on our trip, we had to decide which day would be better spent in Amsterdam, and which day we would go out on another day long excursion. Because Malka was feeling a bit sick with a sore throat, we all agreed that today would be the best for a low-key touristy day. We only had two plans to accomplish, but because Mom let us sleep in until around 10:00, we only were able to accomplish one of these goals.
Since we were very tired after our excursion last night, Mom was gracious enough to get us 24-hour tram passes so that we 
wouldn’t have to walk a whole mile back to the hotel. It was also raining, so we didn’t want catch a greater cold, either. Because we had these passes, we were able to use them today too instead of walking to all of our destinations. When we finally all woke up and got dressed and ate breakfast – it took a while because Malka and I both kept falling asleep – we made our way to the Portuguese Synagogue, located right across the street from the Jewish Historical Museum. We were unable to visit the Sephardic temple the last time we were in the area because it was one of the important days of Passover, but today it was open!
I enjoyed learning about this synagogue a lot more than the Ashkenazi one across the way. The structure of the building is very interesting and similar to small church courtyards we’ve seen throughout our travels here. We entered through sliding doors, which brought us to a small clearing. The main sanctuary was ahead of us, and surrounding the tall structure stood a circular enclosure with what seemed like offices and other rooms for Jewish rituals and the like. The main sanctuary of “Esnoga” is large and filled with chandeliers. The place is not hooked up to any electricity, and so remains as it has been for over 300 years. The set up is traditional Sephardic, with the pulpit in the center, surrounded by pews on three sides. The audio guide used different words to describe things that I am familiar with in my Jewish tradition. For example, instead of calling the structure that holds the Torah an “ark,”, the guide called it a “Hechal.” The bimah or the pulpit, was instead called a “tebah.” The pronunciation of chazan and chupa used an “sh” sound rather than the guttural “h” sound that I’m used to.
We spent quite a lot of time at the synagogue, something that surprised me. Malka was extremely bored and tired and wanted to get out of there, but we had to visit all of the different rooms! The circular building surrounding the sanctuary turned out to house more rooms that we could explore. We saw a small chapel, the room where the “board of trustees” (in their words, the “mahamad”) would meet, the mikveh, the permanent succah or hut for the holiday of Succot, and various other small rooms. I really enjoyed the time we spent there.
Our next stop was Waterlooplein, an outdoor market just across the street from the synagogue. We actually bought stuff today! Malka and I finally got our Amsterdam shirts, and we also got some T-shirts for the guys back home. The guy who sold us our clothes also threw in three clog keychains for free! Another reason we decided today would be the better day to stay in Amsterdam was because of the weather. Indeed, it began to drizzle while we walked through the market. Because of this, we made our way into some of the shops on the street in order to stay dry. One of these stores was called Kilo Shop. We went in because the window said vintage, and we just can’t seem to get enough of these thrift shops! At first, my mom thought the merchandise was crazy expensive, but then we realized that the prices shown (25, 35, and 60 euro) were PER KILO! Almost the entire collection of clothing was priced by weight. Each item is tagged with a unique inventory name as well as a colored marker – yellow, green, orange, or red. Depending on the color, the piece of clothing would be more money or less money per kilo. And guess what! Both Malka and I got clothing! I was a bit disappointed at first because I couldn’t find anything that would fit me, but then I found an amazingly cute peasant crop top. My mom then found me a retro ’80s cropped blazer that looks “hella” cute on me! SUCCESS!
Lunch time! The place we went to was so reasonably priced. I got my first Philly Cheese Steak, though I removed a lot of the 
toppings, so I’m not sure if it still counts. Mom said that my sandwich would be quite small, but it actually was pretty substantial and definitely filling! We wanted to finish the market after eating, and then still have time to go visit Nieuw Kerk. Well, we failed at that. By the time we finished the market and returned to the hotel to drop off our bags, we would only have around 45 minutes before Nieuw Kerk’s closing. Because we know what it is like to be rushed through a museum – Nieuw Kerk has a photography exhibit – we decided we’d make sure to get there before we take our last day trip to Zaanse Schans tomorrow.
For the rest of the day, we really didn’t do much else. I got my Holland flag to add to my collection, and the other two got some chocolate. We walked through a shopping district we hadn’t visited before, just to get some fresh air. For dinner, we ate at New York Pizza – though I swear, it tastes more like Dominos or Papa Johns. I even got in a nap! It was a relaxed day, pretty much, and I think we needed it!
