Adventure in Amsterdam

It was pretty cheap to fly from London to Amsterdam, so that is what I did. One of the first things I did was rent a bike (Susan + bikes = guaranteed adventure). I can hardly ride a bike, though I think my bike riding experience in Barcelona helped me out here. Regardless, in Amsterdam, everyone rides a bike - old people, young people, professionals, tourists, etc. So of course I had to rent a bike (I also didn't feel like walking everywhere.) My plan was to rent a bike and go to the Van Gogh Museum (theoretically takes 15 minutes). My journey to the Van Gogh Museum ended up taking an hour. I rented a bike and was on my way (so far so good). I didn't have a map, but I knew the general direction (that usually works for me). As I was riding towards the general direction, I knew that I had to turn at some point. However, riding next to cars (bikes and cars are on the road together) made it difficult for me to turn, since I can barely turn when I'm on my own. After many "I probably should have turned here but next time!" moments, I was no longer in the tourist part of Amsterdam (all the English signs were gone). Finally I got off my bicycle and asked an old lady who didn't speak English. When I said "Van Gogh", she looked shocked, laughed, then gave directions with hand signals. Pedaling according to those obscure hand signals, I finally found the Rijksmuseum (it's the biggest museum in Amsterdam)! From that point, it wasn't too difficult to find the Van Gogh Museum and I proceeded to continue my Amsterdam adventure.

Finally! After 1 hour of aimless bike riding in Amsterdam, I reach the Van Gogh Museum. Not quite there though - after 1.5 hours in line, I enter the Van Gogh Museum. Once again, there were a good number of Spaniards everywhere I went. I actually had to speak Spanish to two ladies to explain to them that I wasn't cutting the line (two lines merged into one at some point). The ladies looked surprised, commented on my Castellano, smiled, then left me alone without any death glares that the Spaniards are good at.


Amsterdam (at least tourist Amsterdam, which in concentrated in an area with canals) is really pretty. I like how the buildings along the canals are different from each other. Some of these buildings used to be mansions for the wealthy Dutch merchants back in the day, and I guess they didn't believe in copying your neighbors.


In the Jordaan district (where the Anne Frank museum is). It's pretty (the canals, small streets, and buildings work well together) and pretty expensive to live.


Bloemenmarkt! It's the only floating flower market in the world (the stalls float in the canal). It was tulip season, which meant lots of real and fake tulips.


Canal Cruise - apparently, Amsterdam has more canals than Venice. The cruise itself wasn't that amazing, but riding the canals in Amsterdam was great :)


Amsterdam isn't as vast as London, but it's still pretty big, especially on foot. There were some shockers - for example, "coffee" shops really were "places to smoke weed". My hostel, unfortunately, smelled like weed the whole time I was there. Also, I was not expecting the Red Light District to be the way it was. (I'm not really sure what I was expecting.) It was shocking to see the women in the windows, but it wasn't as crude as it could have been.

I really like Amsterdam and the people, and I wish I could have stayed for more than 2 days. I think I enjoyed it because it was beautiful, and it wasn't overwhelming. Just walking/biking around was great. Amsterdam has always been a wealthy city for centuries, so the architecture is not only pretty but unique (the buildings were all different from each other. Not like the housing scheme in Irvine, California). The city is doable in two days, but it deserves a lot more time. I will return though!

Susan