Amsterdam

We arrived into Amsterdam at 730 pm and only had a 5 min walk to our hostel. Our first impressions were like so…

“Whoa”

“Watch out”

“Wow that was close”

“Whoa”

The city was filled with bikers. Bikes probably outnumbered cars 10:1. The site was shocking at first. There was car lanes and bike lanes. Somehow everyone knew how to correctly maneuver their way. We were tossed and turned around a bit. A bit hectic, but there was a soothing feeling to know they were “going green.” Beyond the bikes, the canals immediately jumped out at us.

There was just as much water as roads. Boat houses lined every inch of the canals. Boat tours were motoring up and down. The streets had a youthful vibe. A special city, unique from every other city, laid upon us.

We checked into our hostel, and set out to roam. We walked up and down the canals, admiring the houses and local cafés. We got lost a bit and soon asked for directions to find a supermarket. We had dinner on a bench and listened to local guitarist jam on his guitar. The night ended with us walking around a bit.

When we woke up the following morning, we went to rent bikes (thanks to Jim and Dale – Amanda’s uncle and aunt). We wanted to get a true Amsterdam culture. Plus Steven’s feet have huge quarter sized blisters on the balls of his feet. Kind of weird place, but it is what it is. Once we were on our bikes, we took off. We covered 5 times as much ground as we would walking. It was a great great feeling. Efficiency! We wanted to rent bikes in Paris, but the traffic was too crazy for us. In Amsterdam, we felt it was safe and apart of the culture. It took time to adapt to the flow. Soon enough, we were in the grove.  We roamed around for the first few hours. We got some food from our supermarket and roamed around some more. There wasn’t any tall business buildings, only houses, shops, and a few old churches.

 

 

Netherlands are known for the flowers. We stopped by the flower market to take a look at what they had to offer. Amanda was amazed at all the picture perfect tulips. Shown here are the bulbs.

There was a cheese place right nearby and had some amazing samplers. We tried a few and were both pretty impressed. Amanda loved their outfits.

 

We continued on and made our way to some museums south of the city. We spotted for a few pictures from the outside and continued on. The great museums in London and Paris were enough.

Next we found a HUGE park. Bikers, sunbathers, and kids playing packed it up. Even on a Wednesday afternoon in May, people were out and about. We biked around, took some pictures and moved on.

 

Next we headed to a pretty cool brewery that is housed in one of the Amsterdam windmills. We got a 5 beer sampler. It wasn’t as good as the Belgian breweries, but refreshing.

 

Following the brewery, we roamed around some more and got some dinner at the grocery store for our overnight trip to Berlin.

 Before we returned the bikes, we got their famous fries with mayonnaise. We’ve heard its their thang. Then, we took our bikes back, and headed to the central train station.

Amsterdam was such a delight. We were impressed at how much we liked it. Simply biking around the city was a complete joy. We were able to experience Amsterdam the way the locals do (thanks again Jim and Dale). The canals and boat houses added so much character to the vibrant city. Overall, a great city. Sad we had to leave it so fast… but off Germany to learn some history.