Advertisement
Published: March 27th 2011
Edit Blog Post
After a well deserved sleep in we may stay here for another day as Pam still has work to do. We awoke to a foggy morning and quite cold after yesterdays 19 degrees and heard a woodpecker in the trees, couldn’t find see him though. A quick decision was made and we decided to head for Amsterdam to see the sights that famous city has to offer, We first headed to our campground called Camping Zeeburg, well if you didn’t have a GPS it would be hard to find, we wound down this little lane between old boats and little hovels to a little oasis bounded by the river on one side and a canal on the other. Typical of this trip the place was under renovation so the facilities were a little sub standard but when completed will be fantastic, reasonably priced worth staying at for its location to transport and the city. We headed across the bridge to find the train in to Amsterdam and after some discussion with a train driver we were assured we were on the right train and were advised to stop in Dam square, the center of Amsterdam. Well really this was our first
big European city and it really blew us all away, I am sure we stood on the footpath with our jaws dropped wide open at the sight of all the people and the fantastic scene that unfolded. If you think London is busy this is way way busier and in a different sort of way. The vast differences in race and culture walking the same streets is a little scary and it was with some trepidation we set off.. The Palace on the southern side of Dam square was, surprise surprise under renovation and not much to look at, across the square was a large monument again under renovation. We thought about hitting the red light district but with Bree in tow decided instead on the ah cafes in the back streets. I have to tell you that all of the stories about Amsterdam you have heard and thought yeah well maybe are in fact true, and many cafes you walk past have the smells of dope wafting out, we didn’t stop for coffee in any of those. We did however walk many streets and along a number of the canals for 4-5 hours before heading back to the camp
ground. The other thing to note is that pushbikes appear to Have the right of way all around and you have much more chance of being hit by a bike than a train, you would have to be a lunatic to drive a car in the city and balls of steel to ride a bike. Everyone rides a bike from businessmen in suits to pretty young girls that in good old NZ would not be caught on a bike, they are also crazy and would run you down as quick as look at you. We found the stop for our train and were in hysterics at the crazy way this street operated, let me draw you a picture with no b….s…t involved, a cobbled street maybe a total of 15 meters wide comprising of a footpath 2m wide, then a tram line say 3m wide then a center strip with the tram stop and shelter say 1.2.5 m wide, one lane for cars say 3 wide then a 1m wide lane for pushbikes then a final 2m wide footpath on the other side. It is 5.15, finish up time for workers and then add all the cars, taxis horse and
carts and pushbikes and scooters. I tell you how they don’t have thousands of deaths is beyond me, you have pushbikes going in BOTH directions on this narrow 1m wide lane, scooters going there as well and swerving in and out of the cars and bikes, add in the car lane and then the train and foot traffic it was hilarious. Got some video and will try and add it if we can. To close today off we got the tram back and slept like logs after a great meal cooked by yours truly.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.338s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 20; qc: 82; dbt: 0.0993s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb