Greetings from Amsterdam!
(Click the map to enlarge.)
We arrived yesterday. It’s so easy to love this city! The architecture, art, landscape, and overall carefree and liberal sense of the place makes it so easy to be here. The city’s structure is built in concentric circles with a network of curving canals and streets branching out from one another. The buildings are almost all brick with some painted black or white. The streets are small and evenly divided in space for cars, bikes and pedestrians. However, the priority clearly falls on the bikes. There are bikes everywhere! At Centraal Station, the main train station, there are huge bike parking areas where locals leave their bikes as they catch their daily train to wherever it is they’re going. Most people in the city do not own a car as there is very limited parking and it’s quite difficult to drive within the city. The pace of traffic is frantic! My God, I think I saw my life flash before my eyes during the cab ride from the train station. Between the small but fast moving cars, racing bicycles and wandering pedestrians it’s fascinating to watch the flow. It amazes me that there aren’t more accidents, but the locals seem to have a great system, even though there are no stop signs or street lights. Seriously! Not on the small streets anyway. Everyone seems to understand who has the right of way and how to maneuver the streets.
In our brief 1 ½ days here, we’ve discovered that the people, while polite and accommodating, aren’t as welcoming, friendly and warm as the British. We almost get a sense that they’re tired of the tourists but put up with us because we bring money into the economy. Who knows. Perhaps it’s just the state of mind here. At any rate, it’s an interesting and different experience. I remember feeling this way the last time Jeff and I were here in 2006. However, the people here are beautiful! Many are tourists, but mostly from other European countries. So you see lots of tall, beautiful, blondes with great bone structure. That doesn’t suck.
We’re staying at the Ambassade Hotel near the heart of the city in the Canal District. It’s a beautiful hotel located between two major canals and was built by combining 10 canal homes that are approximately 300 years old each. The exterior is beautiful, the location is excellent and the interior is quite luxurious. However, our room is tiny. And it doesn’t help that it’s stuffed with a queen bed, twin bed, 6 suitcases and 3 people. Nice and cozy!
And now, some pictures to share with you. This is our hotel, the Ambassade. The hotel consists of several of these surrounding buildings even though they look individual. It’s a really nice touch and a great way to preserve the historic sense of the street.
Here’s Jason & Merilee people watching on the street as we sit and enjoy a beer. Speaking of beer, they have a great system. Outside the bars they have a big beer sign (which are beautiful). That sign tells you what type of beer they specialize in. And I'm not talking about Bud or Coors here. They also typically have a blonde or a dark beer, but they have a "house" beer of choice. We're working our way through these delicious beers, one bar at a time.
The streets in Amsterdam range from busy and bustling in the central “Dam Square” area, to the quiet little side streets between the buildings. Here’s a typical example of a street along one of the canals… See what I mean? Beautiful!
A nice canal view…
Here’s an example of the beautiful architecture in the city. I have no idea what building this is, but there are wonderful structures like this everywhere.
Speaking of architecture, notice how the two white buildings in the back right look like they’re leaning into the street? They ARE! Many of the building façades are askew and lean to the left, right or outward. We saw one building under reconstruction where they had demolished all of the interior of the structure, but were preserving the façade. I imagine that’s how they’re able to salvage these beautiful brick fronts, by securing them to stronger structures. I love that they save these beautiful buildings and don’t simply tear them down to rebuild.
We arrived yesterday. It’s so easy to love this city! The architecture, art, landscape, and overall carefree and liberal sense of the place makes it so easy to be here. The city’s structure is built in concentric circles with a network of curving canals and streets branching out from one another. The buildings are almost all brick with some painted black or white. The streets are small and evenly divided in space for cars, bikes and pedestrians. However, the priority clearly falls on the bikes. There are bikes everywhere! At Centraal Station, the main train station, there are huge bike parking areas where locals leave their bikes as they catch their daily train to wherever it is they’re going. Most people in the city do not own a car as there is very limited parking and it’s quite difficult to drive within the city. The pace of traffic is frantic! My God, I think I saw my life flash before my eyes during the cab ride from the train station. Between the small but fast moving cars, racing bicycles and wandering pedestrians it’s fascinating to watch the flow. It amazes me that there aren’t more accidents, but the locals seem to have a great system, even though there are no stop signs or street lights. Seriously! Not on the small streets anyway. Everyone seems to understand who has the right of way and how to maneuver the streets.
In our brief 1 ½ days here, we’ve discovered that the people, while polite and accommodating, aren’t as welcoming, friendly and warm as the British. We almost get a sense that they’re tired of the tourists but put up with us because we bring money into the economy. Who knows. Perhaps it’s just the state of mind here. At any rate, it’s an interesting and different experience. I remember feeling this way the last time Jeff and I were here in 2006. However, the people here are beautiful! Many are tourists, but mostly from other European countries. So you see lots of tall, beautiful, blondes with great bone structure. That doesn’t suck.
We’re staying at the Ambassade Hotel near the heart of the city in the Canal District. It’s a beautiful hotel located between two major canals and was built by combining 10 canal homes that are approximately 300 years old each. The exterior is beautiful, the location is excellent and the interior is quite luxurious. However, our room is tiny. And it doesn’t help that it’s stuffed with a queen bed, twin bed, 6 suitcases and 3 people. Nice and cozy!
And now, some pictures to share with you. This is our hotel, the Ambassade. The hotel consists of several of these surrounding buildings even though they look individual. It’s a really nice touch and a great way to preserve the historic sense of the street.
Here’s Jason & Merilee people watching on the street as we sit and enjoy a beer. Speaking of beer, they have a great system. Outside the bars they have a big beer sign (which are beautiful). That sign tells you what type of beer they specialize in. And I'm not talking about Bud or Coors here. They also typically have a blonde or a dark beer, but they have a "house" beer of choice. We're working our way through these delicious beers, one bar at a time.
The streets in Amsterdam range from busy and bustling in the central “Dam Square” area, to the quiet little side streets between the buildings. Here’s a typical example of a street along one of the canals… See what I mean? Beautiful!
A nice canal view…
Here’s an example of the beautiful architecture in the city. I have no idea what building this is, but there are wonderful structures like this everywhere.
Speaking of architecture, notice how the two white buildings in the back right look like they’re leaning into the street? They ARE! Many of the building façades are askew and lean to the left, right or outward. We saw one building under reconstruction where they had demolished all of the interior of the structure, but were preserving the façade. I imagine that’s how they’re able to salvage these beautiful brick fronts, by securing them to stronger structures. I love that they save these beautiful buildings and don’t simply tear them down to rebuild.
Did I mention all of the bikes? It’s so cool and these guys move fast!
Me hanging out on a bridge. Notice the beautiful weeping tree behind me. In London the majority of the trees were Sycamore. Here most are Ash with a few of these weeping trees (though I don’t know what type) along the canals.
Yesterday and today have consisted mostly of wandering around aimlessly through these beautiful streets and just soaking in the city. Of course, every now and then we have to stop at a little café to have a coffee or a beer in order to keep up our strength. The food is quite interesting. They put fried eggs on their hamburgers and puree much of their meats. The flavors have a strong Indonesian influence. We’re having a great time just taking it all in. Tomorrow we’re planning on seeing some museums and maybe take a boat ride through the canals. Until then…
No comments:
Post a Comment