Blogs from Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands, Europe - page 158

Ahh…the Netherlands. Ok, so all I saw was one city, but I stayed three nights and explored it thoroughly by foot. I was surprised by Amsterdam, but in a good way. Its reputation precedes it and the one that I had heard, I now feel gives people a poor impression of the city. The only preconception I had of Amsterdam was that of its reputation with the Red Light District and drugs. I found that the Red Light District isn’t the only thing that Amsterdam has to offer, it’s just the only thing that people in my generation talk about after visiting there. I think that if I had spent a week there, I wouldn’t have found myself being bored at any given time. I arrived in Amsterdam around noon without any housing reservations, and as ... read more

After missing my flight to Berlin from JFK airport and talking with Delta representatives for over two hours, I was rerouted to Amsterdam then to Berlin. So too was Philip, a traveler from Germany, rerouted to Amsterdam. In fact, Delta in their competence gave both Philip and myself a single ticket to be used for the both of us. First out of necessity then out of friendship, we passed a six hour layover in Amsterdam by visiting many of its fine cafes.... read more

Hi Everyone, Well Amsterdam was amazing. The city seemed so much more alive than Paris (especially at night) and most everyone spoke English which helped out a lot. We arrived to Amsterdam on Wednesday and checked into our hostel. We had a bit of a problem finding a hostel and the only one we could find didn't have the best of reviews (kind of compared it to a Frat. House). It was a little sketchy at first but once we met more of the people who shared our room it ended up great. We actually met one girl, Catherine, who we hung out with the entire time in Amsterdam. One the first day we headed to the Van Gogh Musuem (sorry couldn't get any pictures here Amy) and it was remarkable. I'm not a huge art ... read more

We spent the day touring around Amsterdam along with taking a canal tour. We eyed prostitutes in the windows and smelled hash coming out of various bars during our stroll down the red light district. Overall our impression of Amsterdam is that it is a melting pot of many countries. It's historic houses on the canals are pretty exceptional. We are also impressed by the number of bicycles used. We heard that the Netherlands has more bicycles per capita than all other countries besides China.... read more

We left on the 6th using a charter flight with AirTransAt from Toronto to Amsterdam. We had middle seats and were packed in like sardines. I know that Scott and I are not the slimmest but the seat size and leg room is made for children. I wonder what will cause the airline industry to reverse the trend of ever decreasing seat size??? We arrived in Amsterdam the morning of the 7th to a city that was in the middle of a large IT conference. We paid too much for a hotel room still in the city, but all hostels and moderate hotels were booked. We could not check in for a few hours so we took in the Rijksmuseum. This museum houses art from the 17th century when the Dutch merchants grew very wealthy. The ... read more