Amsterdam

Its 3:22 pm EST on Monday July 24^th. I am sitting on a train bound for Paris’s Nord station from Amsterdam. Amsterdam is a stunning town. Why didn’t every city designer include canals in their layouts?

Naturally, when you are on holiday you see the good parts of the city, that being said, I would still strongly consider living there. The first and foremost reason for this is… no, not that, but the predominant form of transportation; bicycles. Let’s start with the fact that Amsterdam is a pretty teeny little city. The first day I was there I walked for 12 hours and covered the vast majority of town. This enables bicycles to be a valid method of transport. Secondly, the place is so old. It’s obvious the notion of automobiles never entered the minds of those who built the place. The cars that are there look like they were designed for Amsterdam and Amsterdam alone. I certainly couldn’t make practical use of one. Finally, and this is the best part, to me, the people I saw on bikes, and that’s the vast majority, just seemed smarter, classier, sexier, fitter, than the rest of the lot. I know this is merely my impression as a bike can really only truly help one with the latter of those attributes.

These are my impressions BEFORE I rented one! Once I was on a bike, I felt that I was part of an elevated class of people. Pedestrians are to serfs as cyclist are to lords. On foot I would have never interrupted a cyclist to ask for directions. When on a bike, you become the equal of others on bikes and it becomes its own social club. “Hi, my names Michael (not Mike, mind you) and I’m cool, I’m hot, I’m happening and a good part of the reason is I use a bicycle to get around.”

Let’s shift this topic slightly and look to the canals themselves. The canal belt as it’s called is lined with old converted barges turned into stylish living quarters. I didn’t get the full story, but the Dutch allowed people to live on boats in the canals and actually ran utilities to them. Others came illegally and have no such luxuries. The end result is a community within a community. I also gazed at countless runabouts, mostly outboard motored containing groups of friends strolling along on a summer’s day. If I thought being a cyclist elevated my class…

Then there’s the town itself. The old churches, Oude Kirk, Newe Kirk, and others were all spectacular specimens of ancient architecture. The quaint little canal bridges, most that lit up at night illuminating the still waters below were a pleasure to gaze at and photograph. Combined with the random steeples which would peek out from atop the tree lined streets and row houses made for an amateur photographer’s dream.

Finally there was the art. Van Gogh, Rembrandt, and a slew of others whose works amazed me for 2 solid days. I thankfully learned how to operate in a museum. Rule #1: ALWAYS get the audio tour, especially for me for I was alone. The wealth of information I learned as a result of the audio tour more than paid for itself. (4 euros tacked onto the ten euro entrance fee) Rule #2: patience! When I got into the Van Gough museum I became annoyed with how crowded it was and felt that I wasn’t going to get my money’s worth. But a quarter of the way into my 5 hour tour, I learned how to maneuver around people, how avoiding eye contact actually improves flow of people around you (shame on me), and how to assess each gallery as I entered it and get a feel for the room before delving into the works. This allowed me to pick a less crowded part of that gallery and get a general idea of how much time I was going to spend in each one.

The train just passed through Brussels on the way to Paris. Amsterdam was a fantastic choice to start this trip with its smaller stature and compressed itineraries. I will definitely take the lessons learned to Paris, and onto Rome!