Amsterdamsters, 2: Damrak to Dam Square

Continuing a day in The City...

Centraal Station, the late 19th century Neo-Gothic brick monstrosity that 
is the hub of all ground transportation here; somehwat reminiscent of the 
Embarcadero...somewhat

Walking south on the Damrak, the main drag, toward Dam square/piazza/whatever;
it's not the Rambla nor the Champs de Elysee, but, like them, you know where you've
landed

Former stock exchange; I don't know where they invented capitalism, but it was
probably perfected here

Royal Palace on the Dam; we'll tour shortly

New church (only 600 years old)

National monument on Dam square

Inside the New Church; it was Protestanized in the 1500s and
thus the pulpit became the main feature, not the altar, the relics,
etc.

Catholic vestige

Moving right along, we are now in the great hall of the Royal
Palace on the Dam; much explanation is in order: we purchased
two Netherlands museum passes, which entitle us to repeated 
visits to some 400 Netherlands museums over the next year...
and thus we will be visiting quite a few museums in Netherlands
that are new to us and probably to anyone we may ever have
known...

Closer up of Atlas, holding up the world in the Royal Palace's
great hall...more explanation...the Royal Palace was originally
the city hall of what was becoming, in the mid-17th century,
the richest city in Europe; Amsterdam had rebelled against
its Spanish/Hapsburg over-lords, and established itself as a
somewhat democratic republic; this is the hall of the people,
as it were

The marble floors of which display mid-17th century maps of the world...which
Amsterdam was busily colonizing...the significance of this shot is the eastern
coast of Australia, minus Tasmania and New Zealand, which the Dutch explorer
Abel Tasman later "discovered"

The city hall became a royal hall in 1808, after Napoleon saw 
the place and thought, well, suitably upgraded and augmented, 
it might provide a nice palace for his brother, Louis Napoleon, 
whom he had installed as king of the Netherlands; a Napoleonic 
fixer-upper; progress is not always linear, right?

Anyhow, Netherlands has remained a monarchy, a constitutional and symbolic one
(maybe it's good for tourism?), and thus the decor of the Royal Palace has remained,
um, royal; this is the former bankruptcy court, whose most famous defendant was
perhaps the Netherlands' most famous citizen: Rembrandt

And this is the former city council chambers, the decor of which, you, sister Carole,
may find helpfully instructive