Visit the photo set 2014: Portugese Synagoge, Amsterdam on Flickr.
Robin and I decided to take this past weekend and treat it as if we were tourists in Amsterdam. There are certainly many places in the city that we have not yet fully explored. One of those is the Portugese Synagoge near the Waterlooplein. I either cycle or ride the tram past it every day to work and yet had never been inside.
Entering the building is a bit like entering a time machine; the magnificent building interior is pretty much unchanged since it was built in 1675: there is no electricity or heating in the building. During the day, the many large windows on three sides of the building provide plenty of light; at night, hundreds of candles are used to illuminate the building. The floor is wood and covered with a light coating of sand, again just it has been since 1675.
What attracted me the most was the small details: the patterns of the bricks, the hardware for the doors, the mirror in the board room.
