Day 1 - September 11, 2024
Today marks a special day – it's not just the beginning of a new adventure, but also my first experience joining a tour as the future owners of TourMagination. As I step onto this path, I find myself filled with both excitement and gratitude at this opportunity.
I have the privilege of travelling alongside a group of 24 on The Anabaptist European Story with Ayold Fanoy as our Tour Leader. We are a diverse group in many respects: multi-generations, all walks of life, mainly from Canada and the US, many of us with a Mennonite heritage connection and interest in experiencing it, which is a common theme that brings our group together.
After washing down a few extra cups of coffee to combat our jet lag we find ourselves headed to the Rijksmuseum as our first stop on today’s agenda. Ayold is on a mission here to get an early start to beat the crowds that will continue to spill through the doorways as the day lengthens but first things first – the rules of the streets in Amsterdam and its massive bicycling culture are drilled into our heads to constantly be on the lookout and in most cases, cyclists have the right of way.
The Rijksmuseum has a massive collection of artwork and it's easy to lose track of time but Ayold patiently navigates us to highlight key artists and paintings from Mennonites that had influence on the Dutch culture. We hear about the Mennonite way of painting, (which remains an open story for us) how Rembrandt had received essential motivations from Mennonites and how other Mennonite artists had Vincent Van Gogh as a related cousin. These stories I had not heard or read about and we are introduced to names I hadn’t associated as Mennonites such as Karel van Mander, the van Ruisdael family of artists, Flinck, van der Heyden, van der Velde, Mauve, and Mesdag.
We discovered that the Mennonites were also creative marketers, and if you wanted to get your church noticed and remembered, name it after the local brewery. The local brewery being “The Lamb” and the Mennonites naming their church “Near the Lamb” - which is precisely where we are headed and presently known as the Singelchurch.
Our lunch awaits us at the Singelchurch where we are greeted with warm hospitality, learn about the church’s incredible 400-year history and see it is still an active place of worship. The church has some incredible wood work throughout the building and the seminary room table has all the names since the early 1900’s of the church’s ministers carved into it! One day I will need to return to hear the acoustics of that beautiful grand piano and organ.
It's time to continue our walking tour and we’re on our way toward Central Station where we are soon to board a boat for a canal tour. But before we do that, we get the visual proof the Dutch have the biggest cycling culture I’ve seen – for it is under the canal that we find the most modern parking garage designed and built specifically for thousands of bikes!
But it’s not a day for bike rentals today and rather we find ourselves resting our tired feet on a peaceful canal tour. It’s from the water that we get to see how Amsterdam designed its entire city around these waterways, initially as a defence mechanism but also around the trade and commerce that spurred the Golden Era of the city where many Mennonites had roles.
I’m easily motivated by food and our final stop finds us enjoying pannenkoeken (pancakes), a Dutch classic. The most difficult choice I needed to make all day, savoury or sweet? I grew up on the sweet crepes and this did not disappoint!
So that’s day one wrapped up and now time to rest and continue to work through that jet lag before we get to do it all over again. There are many friendships forming and so many stories to hear and learn from others.
Until next time,
Richard Bergmann
