After one hour of class on Friday, I took the train to Amsterdam to visit Ben Thomas, a Hendrix student who I went to Poland with in May. I arrived around 3:30 and after finding Ben, we trekked to his apartment in Diemen, a quiet suburb south of the city. We settled for a bit, went grocery shopping, then went back to the city, so I could get my first tour of Amsterdam by night. I was shocked at how beautiful the city is. My only perceived image was the Red Light District - grimy and big city lights. The city, however, is quite charming, and with the canals it almost sparkles. The Red Light District looks like the rest of the city - narrow cobblestone streets, leaning buildings - except there are scantly-clad women in the windows at night.
On Saturday morning, Ben had a bit of reading to do, so I ventured to the city on my own. Ben had provided an excellent crash course on navigating a few landmarks, so in addition to a city map, I was ready to go. Ben and I were to meet later in the afternoon at Dam Square, but other than that I had no plans. So I set an alarm and walked. The city is even more beautiful during the day. Canals weave throughout the city and are lined with elegant townhouses and crossed with stone bridges. Boats of every variety are docked, including some pretty awesome house boats.
At 2pm, I met Ben to go the Rijksmuseum, the Museum of Netherlands Art and History. The museum is very well designed with an excellent audio-tour. There was also a great exhibit on Rembrandt. There is construction, so the museum will be even bigger and better in a few years! After the museum, we walked the Vondelpark, one of (if not) the biggest parks in the city. It was great to walk, take in some sun, and people watch.
On Sunday, I spent a bit of the morning trying to plan out my route for the day. I wanted to hit a few markets and young neighborhoods, so once again I left Ben to read and hit the city. As I wandered I got a bit sidetracked, but when I eventually got to where I wanted to be, I discovered that everything was closed. It's Sunday, what was I thinking. I found many nice benches along the canals to people watch and boat watch, and thoroughly enjoyed wandering the narrow streets, discovering back alleys with stunning architecture.
Everyone rides bikes in Amsterdam. There are bike lanes on every street and special bike stoplights. Navigating traffic in Amsterdam was a bit more difficult, because not only do you have to watch for cars, you have to watch for bikes, too, because unlike cars, they do not stop at pedestrian walks. And they have awesome bikes! Like this one:
That, my friends, is a basket built into the bike. In this basket you can haul groceries, dogs, children, anything! And they make bigger ones with two front wheels, intended to carry up to four children. And no one wears helmets. Crazy!
That pretty much sums up my Amsterdam adventures. I was super lucky and had amazing weather - not a drop of rain the entire time! The city center is very, very touristy, but once you get out a bit, everything is quite lovely.
