GC2YJ7P Amsterdam Trad's - Frederik Hendrik (Traditional Cache) in Noord-Holland, Netherlands created by DopamineNL

This cache has been archived.

DopamineNL: Indeed, the cache is gone. Happened before in dec 2011. Alas, the place is not safe anymore.
Also, it's not the most interesting of places, and the dogpoo doesn't help either...

The Travel Tag Florida should be safe in the hands of berg_kids.

GC2YJ7P ▼

A cache by DopamineNL Message this owner

Hidden : 7/13/2011

Difficulty:

Terrain:

Size: Size: small (small)

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Geocache Description:

Welcome to Amsterdam!
City of charming canals, lovely parks and cheap entertainment. And of course: lots of geocaches! Although we are not as endowed as many other European or American cities, we do have our share of interesting caches for visitors from abroad. But beware: the Dutch love their micros, multis and mysteries!

Hence this series of traditionals: always at least a size small or bigger, and always English- friendly. Avoiding the major tourist attractions, they try to show lesser known spots about Amsterdam daily life. As geocaching was originally intended.

For more tourist friendly geocaching: check out my list of Amsterdam caches for (foreign) visitors. A concise selection of interesting and English-accessible caches around town. Including a few (not too long) multi’s and mysteries!

Voor de Hollanders: deze achtergrondinfo is primair voor touristen. Niks zo irritant als op vakantie een cache willen doen en alle beschrijvingen zijn in het zweeds/portugees/etc. Jeweettoch! ;) De meeste bronlinks zijn wel Nederlands, en voor landgenoten die gewoon 's avonds thuis achter de pc kunnen gaan zitten staat daar nog veel meer en uitgebreidere informatie.

Frederik Hendrik

Plantsoen
The Frederik Hendrik Plantsoen (‘public garden’) is the green heart of the surrounding Frederik Hendrik neighbourhood (one of Amsterdam’s many ‘urban islands’), elongated along the Frederik Hendrik straat. That’s a lot of Frederik Hendrik. So who was Frederik Hendrik?

Frederik Hendrik

Frederik Hendrik by Antoon van Dyck

The only true son of our nation’s 'founding father' Willem van Oranje was viceroy ('stadhouder') of the Netherlands (well, varying parts of it anyway) from 1625 until his death in 1647. He spent most of his time fighting the Spanish in the southern parts of the country. Marrying the German (a Dutch royal habit) Amalia brings the name of our future queen into the family (who right now is only seven years old). Despite building many palaces and other ‘royal behaviour’, Frederik Hendrik was still 'only' viceroy (kind of like an inherited presidency), and the Van Oranjes were not yet a ‘true’ royal family. It wasn't until Napoleon's defeat in 1815 that viceroy Willem VI crowned himself king Willem I.
Royal or not, Frederik Hendrik was vey much the head of state and a brilliant military commander at that. His nickname was the “city conqueror”, due to his preference for besieging cities instead of big infantry battles on the field (in which the spanish were superior at the time). He conquered a lot of cities down south, but despite having an entire neighbourhood named after him he doesn’t really seem to have any special connection to Amsterdam.

History
Up until the end of the 19th century Amsterdam essentially wasn’t any bigger than the canal belt and the Jordaan. The characteristic half circular Singelgracht surrounding those neighbourhoods indicated the edge of town!

At the time the city couldn’t build much due to the economic downfall it was in since the beginning of that century. It was an overcrowded, smelly and disease-ridden place. When the Noordzeekanaal (Northsea canal) connected the Amsterdam harbour with the Northsea (again, it had been cut off due to silting of the eastern waterways), new neighbourhoods became essential, and funding was finally available. This resulted in the 1877 plan by city planner Jan Kalff, basically laying an entirely new semicircle around the old city: the so-called 19th century belt. This was the birth of, among others, the Spaarndammer & Staatslieden neighbourhoods, the Vondelpark, the northern part of the Pijp (‘Oude Pijp’), the start of the Weesperzijde and the Oosterpark and Dapperbuurt (the area around the Dappermarkt). Right: the Plan Kalff, 1877.

Neighbourhood
The original Frederik Hendrik Square got its name in 1886, and became a Plantsoen four years later. It holds some sculptures, a small children’s playground and a halfpipe (yet another) near a basketball field. Notable previous residents include Dutch singers Johnny Jordaan and Manke Nelis (both have a statue about a kilometer south, at the Johnny Jordaan plein). And do check out the nice local Iranian restaurant! ;)
Recently, there has been some controversy over a newly planned underground parking garage, stretching east alongside the neighbourhood right underneath the Singelgracht. For the moment the plan still holds.

Abandoned structure?

The 'abandoned' structure indicated in the geocache attributes is a turnloop-tramrails. It was originally used by Tram 12, which had it’s terminus here from 1977 to 1982. Line 12 was subsequently extended to Sloterdijk trainstation and this turnloop became obsolete. Don't fall asleep on it though, as it's still used incidently when there's a detour.

source: Wi ki pedia

The Cache

It might be smelly on a warm day, as it's a dog-area. Don’t worry though, you don’t have to enter the field for the cache. Stay off the grass and just sit on one of the fencing tree-trunks for a minute. Mind the gap!

FTF gets a 'gold' dollar.

Cache dimensions:

Beware: Urban Caching is less about the search, but all about the STEALTH. They are often easy to find, but hard to log unnoticed!
PLEASE TAKE AS MUCH TIME STEALTHING AS YOU WOULD NORMALLY FOR SEARCHING!

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

[en]Orgjrra gur gjb ylvat gerrgehaxf yrsg bs gur 'ragenapr', oruvaq n oevpx. [nl]Ghffra gjrr yvttraqr obbzfgnzzra yvaxf annfg qr 'vatnat', npugre rra (unyir) fgbrcgrtry.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)

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Amsterdam Trad's - Frederik Hendrik Traditional Geocache

This cache has been archived.

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Geocache Description:

Attributes

Inventory

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