Amsterdam Day One

The blog has been on hold over the last couple of weeks while we spent time with family and friends, but we are now on the move again!

After landing at Schipol airport we got the train to Amsterdam's Centraal Station and emerged into the city.

The first impressions of Amsterdam are: "Wow, what a lot of people!", "Where are all the cars?", "It's waay quieter than you expect" (did you spot the Dutch spelling there).

There was a mass of people heading over the road, so we tagged along and found ourselves at a gigantic funfair in The Dam. The Dam seems to be "Times Square" in both the good ways and the bad ways, but just like New York, if you take a few turnings you quickly find pretty tree-lined streets. The difference here is that the street is actually a canal, and the "sidewalk" is a narrowish road shared between pedestrians, bikes, scooters, and a very few cars. The wider roads have trams belting down the middle of them. Always give way to a tram - they go very fast, can't steer round you, and have very poor brakes!

We've all seen Amsterdam on the TV and I expected there to be maybe a very small touristy pretty area, but the central bit is all canals and bridges. So as a tourist, with a bit of walking you can get away from most of the other tourists, thus irritating even more of the locals.

Naturally I've been very interested in the bike culture, and I can confirm that there really are thousands of people riding bikes. Fast, slow, posh bikes, old dungers, men, women, kids, all sharing the road with no apparent problem. Having waxed lyrical about the bike/pedestrian culture in New York, London and now Amsterdam I'm wondering whether it's just Auckland that can't manage it.... I'll report from the next cities we visit.

Lunch was a grilled sandwich, washed down with mint tea. The tea was just a big tumbler of boiling water, with a big handful of spearmint in it. Simple, delicious.

We went out later in the afternoon to find some dinner, but it started to rain. So, chips with mayonnaise, under the awning of a shop that seemed to be selling some rather unusual domestic appliances.

The famous "Coffee shops" are dotted around the central city, full of tourists. The locals don't seem to bother with them. Possibly because they've seen what happens if you try to design a public building when you're high: