Amsterdam

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We drove into The Netherlands from Belgium, and after seeing beautiful countryside and many windmills, we arrived at our hotel, a couple of minutes outside of Amsterdam. It was to late to adventure into the city, but we went to a nearby restaurant and very much enjoyed our first taste of this new country's food.

The next morning we left to take a train into the city centre, and one of the first things we noticed was the abundance of bicycles. There are bicycles everywhere and also separate roads for the bikes. Very efficient, but this makes driving vehicles a bit more challenging.

We walked from the train station to the meeting point for a walking tour of Amsterdam. Our young guide knew a lot about the founding and development of the city, of historical figures, and various things achieved by the populace. Something that we found particularly interesting were the houses, many were slanted, either forwards, this was generally by design, or leaning to the left or right, a consequence being build on what used to be a bog. It also seemed that in the down town area there was a canal on every street, in some areas even, there were boats in the canals which served as very nice, but expensive residences. Also on our journey we passed through the Red Light District. We learned that when searching for coffee, "coffee shops" are not the places to visit, as that is not one of their primary products, and they are instead better known for the sale of mind altering natural products 😉 A recurring theme throughout the tour was that of acceptance of various cultures, religions, and lifestyles. These ideals are represented by the statue of the philosopher Spinoza (from the mid 1600's), who was a revolutionary thinker in his time. It was interesting to learn the history of Amsterdam, and we were looking forward to visiting family in the north of Holland the next day.

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