Amsterdam

Ahh, Amsterdam, the land where practically everything is legal, all the girls sound like Ingrid (our friend, who is Dutch), and you’re statistically more likely to get run over by something than anywhere else in the world. Well, I’m sure that such a statistic doesn’t actually exist, however while we were there we saw a lot of close calls. Take, for example, this lady who was crossing at a little intersection that Jason affectionately called “Carnage Corner”; note how blissfully unaware she is of the tram speeding towards her, from her left.

Look out!

It may not look too serious, but remember that this tram was absolutely cruising along, and old Betsy here on the bicycle – child in tow, as you’ll notice – didn’t give even a cursory glance to her left. Suffice to say she got a wee bit of a fright when the tram tooted at her!

Overall though, I really love how the city promotes bicycles so much, and it’s even better that so many people use the old treadly as their primary means of transport. A little worrying though, when people aren’t giving it their full attention – driving whilst talking on your mobile is bad enough, but riding amongst traffic and trams whilst texting is taking it to a whole new level!

Are you crazy woman?!

Even more interesting are the things that people will transport by bike – it would seem as though anything is fair game. We saw people carrying guitars, surfboards, skiis, and of course children – but probably the most interesting of all would have to be crutches. Go figure!

We decided to partake in this bike riding ritual, grabbing ourselves a Mac Bike each, and riding it through the city, out into the countryside, past windmills and flowers, and around all the cycling tracks we could find in Vondelpark. It really is the best way of seeing the city!

Kristy and Susan showing off their moves

Jason the daredevil

Given that Amsterdam is built around canals, the other best way to see the city is by a canal tour, which we promptly did on our first day. We were very lucky to get a boat that was practically empty, which meant we could hop from seat to seat to get the best vantage point for photos.

Cruising the canals

Amsterdam doesn’t seem to understand the concept of the “public bathroom”. Sure, at the airport, you have countless bathrooms at your disposal, however once you hit the city, don’t bank on relieving yourself without also relieving your pocket of a few coins! I guess they really take the phrase, “to spend a penny”, rather literally – but with inflation, a penny no longer gets you very far; the typical fee was 50 Euro cent. The Magna Plaza shopping centre, just off De Dam, held the title for “cheapest bathroom in Amsterdam” for a while (excluding the hotel, of course); their entry fee of only 40 Euro cent was somewhat of a welcome relief.

Cheap toilets: only ¢0.40!

However, they were outdone in the closing moments of our trip by the unfortunately named department store, V&D – only 25 Euro cent! They also had a sneaky tactic of putting the bathrooms at the very back of the very top floor, so as you were making a hurried dash to the lavs, you couldn’t help but think, “busting… busting… ohh, that shirt would look nice with these jeans!”.

Last time we were in Amsterdam, we didn’t find anywhere that served us bad coffee. Our sample size was significantly larger this time, and once again we weren’t really disappointed anywhere. The only thing that comes close to a bad coffee experience was the little cafe that we chose for our Sunday morning shot; the espresso itself was rather tasty, but the latte had rather too much milk.

But still, no real complaints; the extended time that we sat there finishing off our warm coffee flavoured milk somehow gave rise to me one-upping Susan’s favourite saying of “Yeah no”, into: “Yeah no, maybe”. I’m fairly certain that it won’t catch on though, especially in the face of “Yah ni”, which is the Dutch equivalent of “Yeah no”, and altogether has a much nicer ring to it.

Loving the espresso

Amsterdam is such a wonderful city escape; the sort of place you could go to time after time and always find something new, even if you just do the same things over and over. I just love that it’s so different from London; I’d happily go back there anytime.