Notes on Amsterdam

The first thing I noticed about Brugge and Amsterdam is that bicycles are a major mode of transportation in both cities (The picture to the right shows a bicycle path near the train station in Amsterdam).

I've been told this is true in much of Europe. A friend who has relatives in Holland said that his aunt told him she was getting old because she bicycles for only an hour a day. That's more than many North Americans will bicycle in a week.

But there are so many bicycles in Amsterdam that Amsterdam has bicycle parking lots. The photo to the left shows bikes parked near one of the canals near the My Home hostel I stayed at on Haarlemmerstraat.



This photo to the right shows one of the first things you see when you come out of the Amsterdam train station -- a two-story bicycle parking lot right on one of the canals.
Bicycles are parked everywhere, though, and almost every street has a bicycle path. There are so many bicycles darting everywhere that you have to watch carefully or you could get slammed by one.


The picture to the left is of the Royal Palace of Amsterdam, which was built in the 17th century as the new city hall.

I passed it on my way to the tattoo shop where I got my bat'leth henna designs over my collar bones.

Amsterdam is riddled with canals, and you can buy a fare on a barge that tours the city by canal. The photo below of some of the barges was taken near the train station, where they await tourists as soon as they hit town.

The second thing you notice is the amount of smoking going on. Amsterdam, particularly, is a smokers' city. I'm not just referring to the pot being smoked in cafes, either -- there is a mind-bobbling number of people smoking tobacco, and not pre-rolled cigarettes, either -- almost every where I went people were rolling cigarettes from tobacco so fresh they had to keep lighting their cigarettes to keep them from going out.

And apparently the pot smokers roll their marijuana up with tobacco, too.

Another interesting thing about Amsterdam is that staircases are very narrow and steep. Windows are large, though, and most buildings are topped by a big hook that is used to raise large furniture up so it can be brought into the house through a window. Mara told me the houses and staircases are so narrow because homeowners were taxed according to the size of their lot, so they made them as narrow in order to pay the lowest tax possible. The hooks were pointed out to me the first evening I was in Amsterdam and I intended to take a picture of them the next day during daylight, but I forgot.