I sure am going to miss speaking French. But Collin and I have completed our trip in Paris and have moved on to the next pond. And pond is actually the perfect word to describe our new destination: Amsterdam--which has more canals than Venice! I had no idea what to expect of Amsterdam. I imagined being dropped into the redlight district (which I thought would be dark, seedy,and dangerous) feeling frightened and out of my element.
I can't tell you yet if it is dirty, scary, and dark because Collin and I haven't ventured there yet. But I can tell you that Amsterdam as a whole is a whimsical and beautiful sight to behold.
As we approached, the city limits just looked like farm country (beautiful pastures that I was under the impression would soon turn in to dark caves of sin that lined the city streets). But once we entered the city, I was amazed. It is just beautiful. The canals were bordered by a row of boats on each side--old boats, quaint boats, slow boats that only seemed to move one at a time in the most picturesque fashion down the center of the canals.
Another, perhaps more surprising thing about Amsterdam is that it is like Eugene when it comes to bikes--tenfold.
There are a million bikes in this city. A million!
There are more people cycling than walking down the streets. Huge bike racks consume at least half of some blocks, and bikers have the right of way.
After walking about a mile and a half to our hotel from the Busabout drop-off point, Collin and I quickly dropped our bags in our room and set out to find ourselves some bikes.
Collin is a genious about getting around almost every city, and even he couldn't save us from wandering around what we thought were the right streets for about 45 minutes before we forfeit our search for some wheels and found our way to a busy square for dinner.
The streets in Amsterdam follow the canals, and the canals surround the city center in a series of rings, so you can imagine the navigational difficulty of circular streets that all have names like Stadhouderskade and Nieuwesijds Voorburgwal.
After not-so-good food, we asked for a bus map of Amsterdam so that we could find our way across the city. In Paris and London, we just rode public transportation to get a good look at the greatest number of sights in the least amount of time, so we thought we would do the same for Amsterdam.
But this city seems to be a little too preoccupied to create a cohesive plan for public transportation, so we ended up just walking back.
Along the way we saw all of the run-of-the-mill Amsterdam shops: adult shops, "coffee shops," high-end fashion shops, bike repair shops, and various others that were unrecognizable because they had already closed by 7 p.m.
This city has been pretty affordable so far. Cheap dinner and cheap accommodations. We are hoping to go on as many bike tours as we can over the course of our trip, starting tomorrow here in the city and the next day out into the country. We decided that it is best to shell out a little cash so that we have an idea of what we are photographing, so keep your eye out for some gorgeous photos in our next blog!
I can't tell you yet if it is dirty, scary, and dark because Collin and I haven't ventured there yet. But I can tell you that Amsterdam as a whole is a whimsical and beautiful sight to behold.
As we approached, the city limits just looked like farm country (beautiful pastures that I was under the impression would soon turn in to dark caves of sin that lined the city streets). But once we entered the city, I was amazed. It is just beautiful. The canals were bordered by a row of boats on each side--old boats, quaint boats, slow boats that only seemed to move one at a time in the most picturesque fashion down the center of the canals.
Another, perhaps more surprising thing about Amsterdam is that it is like Eugene when it comes to bikes--tenfold.
There are a million bikes in this city. A million!
There are more people cycling than walking down the streets. Huge bike racks consume at least half of some blocks, and bikers have the right of way.
After walking about a mile and a half to our hotel from the Busabout drop-off point, Collin and I quickly dropped our bags in our room and set out to find ourselves some bikes.
Collin is a genious about getting around almost every city, and even he couldn't save us from wandering around what we thought were the right streets for about 45 minutes before we forfeit our search for some wheels and found our way to a busy square for dinner.
The streets in Amsterdam follow the canals, and the canals surround the city center in a series of rings, so you can imagine the navigational difficulty of circular streets that all have names like Stadhouderskade and Nieuwesijds Voorburgwal.
After not-so-good food, we asked for a bus map of Amsterdam so that we could find our way across the city. In Paris and London, we just rode public transportation to get a good look at the greatest number of sights in the least amount of time, so we thought we would do the same for Amsterdam.
But this city seems to be a little too preoccupied to create a cohesive plan for public transportation, so we ended up just walking back.
Along the way we saw all of the run-of-the-mill Amsterdam shops: adult shops, "coffee shops," high-end fashion shops, bike repair shops, and various others that were unrecognizable because they had already closed by 7 p.m.
This city has been pretty affordable so far. Cheap dinner and cheap accommodations. We are hoping to go on as many bike tours as we can over the course of our trip, starting tomorrow here in the city and the next day out into the country. We decided that it is best to shell out a little cash so that we have an idea of what we are photographing, so keep your eye out for some gorgeous photos in our next blog!
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