Amsterdam

Perhaps if I had visited a coffee shop in Amsterdam, I would be inspired to have a more creative title for this post. We learned rather quickly that you go to a cafe for coffee. You go to a coffee shop for pot. There are a hell of a lot of tourists walking through the touristy and red light districts of Amsterdam who seem to have spent too much time in coffee shops, and too little time drinking coffee.

There really is only one word to describe Amsterdam: bikes.

As soon as we walked out of the train station, we saw bike parking.

When we looked across the street, and along the canal, we saw more bike parking.

Zoom in - behind all that fencing are tons and tons and tons of bikes.

When we walked throughout the city, there were bikes whizzing by at every moment, on little paths adjacent to the sidewalks, in protected and unprotected bike lanes, and on all other streets. We were in Amsterdam for three nights, and had an apartment in a quiet, mostly residential area about a 10-minute train ride from the Amsterdam Centraal train station. Out there, we saw people commuting and transporting their kids (often multiple kids) - - all by cruiser bike. I believe that I saw two bike helmets in all of Amsterdam, and don't recall seeing any spandex.

Dan and I remarked the first day that we didn't know how it worked, but some how, it worked. When we went on our bike tour of Amsterdam (which, hands down, was my favorite part of visiting Amsterdam), we learned how. In short (?), all kids are required to learn how to ride and learn the rules of the road. All drivers (who learned to bike as children) are required, to pass their licensing exam, to know the rules of the road and certain safe driving measures. At all unmarked intersections, any person, bike, or car yields to the right, unless there are painted triangles on the street pointing at you, in which event you yield to all cross traffic. Everyone stops for a pedestrian in zebra-stripe crosswalks. These were measures that were implemented in the 1970s after a ton of cycling deaths in the late 1960s. How novel. How civilized.

The hipster bike dude-led tour was excellent for other reasons, too. We learned a lot about architecture, history, geography, etc. For example, we learned about Amsterdam arising from development along the Amstel River, it being situated below sea level and concerns about climate change.

We learned about plans to put car parking ramps under the canals.

We learned about how super old buildings, like this now-restaurant on the canal, were warehouses into which cargo was loaded through the central doors. We learned about the visible wall anchors, the still-active pulleys for moving furniture in and out, and the decrease of window height as you look up, making buildings look taller than they are.

We learned about these weird, green, only semi-private spiral urinals on the streets. 

We did a lot of other things in Amsterdam, including seeking out beer on Dan's bucket list, visiting a lovely little brewery powered by a windmill, finding out that the Dutch suggest heating Stroopwafels (the European equivalent to those delicious Honey Stinger things sold in the U.S.) over a mug (great idea!), and, on a very somber note, toured the Anne Frank house, which felt very relevant given recent discourse in the U.S. and internationally.

The building with the dark doors
to the right of the one with
the red awnings is the Anne Frank house.

It was a brief, but lovely, visit. I think it would be interesting to visit other parts of the Netherlands, to see how they compare.