Embarking on a New Journey

 November 1 - 2, 2024

My first glimpses of Amsterdam were on two hours of sleep out of a nine hour flight.  I felt very clever for having even found my hotel ride, as he wasn't wearing what I was told he would be, or standing where he was supposed to be. Still, he gave me a nice twenty-minute tour, pointing out the sights as we went along. The black Mercedes limo was a nice perk, though very tempting to nap in.  

Dropping my bags at the hotel, and armed with a paper map, I set out to see what I could see.  Old buildings of interesting architecture stand cheek by jowl, lining the cobbled streets.  Bicycles whiz by on all sides, sharing the roads with street cars, street sweepers, autos and delivery vans.  Many of the streets are narrow and dark.  

And of course, the canals.  Like a giant blue spider web, the canals form rings around the city center.  Some are lined with house boats, others with tour boats.

Having had a very small, and very sweet breakfast on the plane, I asked at the woman at the front desk for suggestions on where to get a good sit-down breakfast.  She suggested Cafe de Jaron, but when I got there, I found it didn't open until 10:00.  I decided to explore a bit more while I waited for them to open.  I ended up at the flower market.  There were at least a dozen large flower and bulb shops lining a canal.  With glass backs to catch the light, their open fronts face a narrow street.  

Each shop is filled wall-to-wall with fresh cut flowers and bulbs, ranging from common to exotic.  Bins of loose bulbs are accompanied by paper sacks to fill, or there are many pre-selected combos.  All can be shipped of course.  To round out the shopping experience, they also carry an endless variety of souvenirs.  Trinkets of blue Delft, wooden shoes, and bicycle fridge magnets. 

Across from the flower market I found my breakfast.  At Amarylles I had a nice window seat, and a tasty open-face omelet.  Coffee was not the perpetually-refilled mug from back home.  When my server asked what size of coffee I wanted, I didn't realize that they just had an espresso machine.  I ended up with two cups, at around $5 each.  

Just outside the window from where I was sitting were a few scattered tables.  A few feet beyond them were the flower shops.  I assumed this street was just for pedestrians as it was so busy and narrow, so was surprised to see vehicles crowding through, nearly bumping the kneecaps of the diners seated there.

It is said that there are more bicycles than people in Amsterdam.  According to Wikipedia, there are nearly a million people in the city proper, roughly 1 1/2 million in the urban area, and 2 1/2 in the metropolitan area.  That's a lot of bicycles.  They were parked everywhere.  And ridden everywhere.  On the streets with traffic, on their own lanes, and on sidewalks.  Not yet understanding their traffic signs, I've learned to watch constantly for them, and listen for the "ding, ding" of their bell.

Founded in the year 1275, Amsterdam is a city chocked full of history.  My visit here isn't long enough to delve into it, but a couple of old things I spotted were a Neo-Gothic style catholic church, built in 1881, a statue of a girl in a shawl, situated just across the canal from it, and a clock tower.

Munttoren, aka, the "Mint Tower" is located on a very busy plaza where the Amstel River and Singel Canal meet.  Constructed towards the end of the 15th century, it was once a part of the city gates.  It came about its unique moniker when during a conflict with England and France, the Dutch needed a place to quickly make money.  So it was turned temporarily into a mint. 

Built with an elaborate eight-sided top piece, and four clock faces, the tower has an impressive array of bells with exterior hammers instead of clappers.  It chimes every 15 minutes, and on Saturday afternoons there is a live bell concert.  I happened to be walking nearby and heard it, but didn't think to record it.

Stroopwafels are a sweet confection found all over the city.  We can buy the plain ones at import stores back home, and even in Costco.  But here they are freshly made, and anything but plain.  

Warm and sticky-looking, I was quite tempted by the hazelnut one, but I was still too full from breakfast to indulge.

Another interesting, and quirky shop, that I found several of on my walks, was the rubber duck shop. I can't imagine the market for these being too high, but they sure had a big selection.  Below is just a fraction of them.

 My hotel, The Radisson Blu, is located in the downtown, in a couple of ancient buildings.  Like the one in Bergen, they've done a lot of retrofitting to make a nice hotel out of unusual spaces.  My room on the third floor was in the same building as check-in, but around several hallways.  Half of the hotel rooms were across the street, joined by a tunnel that was accessed by going down the main elevator.  While I didn't have to go across the street, my room was nonetheless, quite odd.  The bathroom was right by the entry, and then a flight of four steps took me up to the bed area.  My big fear was tumbling down them during the night, so I left the bathroom light on.  With a uniquely opening window, I could look down into the alley and across the way.   

A door leading into the building across the alley was elaborately adorned.

I found the city to be very lively on this Saturday evening when I went out to find some supper.  The streets were packed with pedestrians, bicycles, trams, buses, and personal vehicles.  There are few crosswalks and only the very busiest have signals.  So people just push across the streets when they see a break, or force the traffic to stop.  I simply waited until I saw others crossing, then joined them in the middle for safety. 

The rosy glow of evening did nothing to mask the cloying cigarette and pot smoke that hangs over the throngs of people, but it did make for pretty pictures.

On my daytime walk I had spotted a couple of Indian restaurants, so for supper I checked out several, finally settling on Singh, a small, but very nice one.  My paneer butter masala was a bit spicier than it typically would be, but very tasty.  One thing I've discovered is that you can't get free water with your meals.  You have to buy it.  When I requested water this morning, I specified a glass of water.  I got a bottle (that leaked all over the table) and a glass.  Tonight I did the same, and got a glass one-liter bottle, plus and empty glass.  Then, when the server cleared my dishes, she tossed the cap, so I couldn't even take it with me.

 

I used my phone gps to navigate back to my hotel on the dark streets.  With so many people, I didn't feel unsafe, but after turning around so many times, I wouldn't have been able to get back without a guide.