Sept 21 – Yes, I know we said we were not doing the tourist thing, but we are feeling better today, and Jim found a museum we haven’t visited. So we took the hotel shuttle back to the airport (which is also the train and bus station) and hopped on a train to Amsterdam Centraal.

Yes, there are canals everywhere in Amsterdam, lined with houseboats and water taxis. The Venice of the north.

Our goal is to see Our Lord in the Attic Museum, a Catholic Church built in the upper floors of a house. During the 1600s, all Roman Catholic, Jewish and other houses of worship were confiscated by the ruling Dutch Reformed Protestants. A wealthy Catholic merchant built a church upstairs in his attic so that he, his friends and family could continue to practice their faith. From the outside, it looks like just another house on the street.

The Dutch did not prevent other religions from practicing, they just outlawed the practice in public. The church was used until the mid 1800s, when the Basilica of St. Nicholas was built just down the road. It became a museum in 1883.

The lower floors of the house have been restored to reflect how the merchant’s family lived.

Then up the stairs to the church:

After exploring Our Lord in the Attic, it was just a hop and a skip to see the Basilica of St. Nicholas down the street.

Then we were back on the street. What else could we see?

You may notice that the houses are very narrow – at one point, real estate tax was based on the width of the building, so houses were built narrow and tall :