Amsterdam is the city of canals, coffee shops, beautiful sights, and of course, a very open red light district (no, there are no pictures here!). We shipped the motorcycles out of and into Amsterdam in May and September, respectively, 2000. We visited again in May of 2001. It is a fun city, alive with people and things to do. As Jim said, “I’m too old for this town. It would be great if I were in my 20’s or 30’s.” Well, we are way beyond our 20’s and 30’s, but we loved the city anyway. At right is a view of the main port entry into Amsterdam.

As we were staying out by the Airport, we took the train (the station is conveniently located in the Airport) into town for sightseeing. If is definitely a colorful city. And we assumed that the kids must have been out of school since they were everywhere - and there were lots of them! There were also lots of tourists as well as locals. A very busy city and we were glad we didn’t try to bring the bikes in. This is definitely a city for walking and bicycling. A car or bike would be more trouble than it was worth - you would have to travel slowly to avoid the hundreds of pedestrians (which probably becomes thousands in the summer - this was our visit in May!), bicycles, and trams. And parking of course would be another nightmare - though once again, it appears that motorcycles can park just about anywhere they fit. Bicycles abound and we have never seen as many bikes in any one place. Where bikes are parked, there are thousand of them, as the picture at the left shows.

We visited the Anne Frank house - its still amazing that 8 people lived in that small space for over 2 years! But that probably added 2 years to their lives as only Otto (the father) survived the camps once they were betrayed and deported. 

We bought a day ticket so we could ride the trams around town. Right in front of the main train station is where the trams take off and there is a helpful tourist office right there as well. We also had a visitors’ guide from the hotel that was quite helpful as it highlights the sights, a map of the town, as well as a transit map. The guide suggested some restaurant gardens that we looked for since the weather was nice. There is a series of them along Reguliersdwarsstaat between Konigsplien and Vijelstraat (one block off the Bloemenmarkt). We finally found them but none seemed to be open for lunch - we supposed we were ahead of the true tourist season.

We stopped in a small shop to buy a Christmas ornament (a small pair of Dutch clogs). While in there, Jim found a great set of salt & pepper shakers he wanted to buy for Verna’s mom, just for the reaction. They were delft style, but shaped as penises! Not this trip.

We took a canal ride as Jim was really itching to do this (when you’re in Amsterdam, you should take a canal ride). It was an hours ride around the canals and give a totally different view of the city. Jim especially enjoyed his nap in the sun. At right is a view of some houseboats people are living in, as well as the apartment buildings behind.

We stopped at a Turkish hotel for dinner. Fried clams in garlic sauce - yum! And lamb chops in a spicy sauce that was tasty but not overpowering. The lamb was very flavorful although it was a bit tough. It is amazing the variety of food one can find here - Argentinean, Turkish, Greek, Italian, Chinese, Indochinese, Spanish, Mexican, etc. You definitely won’t go hungry here as they have something for everyone. Of course, McDonnell’s and Burger King have their clientele, as well as Pizza Hut and Dominos.

The next day we headed back to the restaurants with the garden terraces to try our luck for dinner, but only two were open.. The Mexican place was jumping and had a 2 hour wait, which we could easily believe. We went to the other, a nice fish restaurant, but we were evidently not their type of clientele - the place had only 2 diners in it and we were told they were fully booked! Hmmm. So we headed down the street to an Argentinean place and had a huge plate of ribs (2 racks). They were good, but according to Jim, “not Tony Roma’s.”

So we had to check out the red-light district where the ladies display themselves in in windows along the street, which seems a lot more civilized than walking around a cold city at night in next-to-nothing. It was late afternoon so there were many empty windows, but there were a few out displaying their wares. In the same area (Oudezijds Achter-burgwal if you are looking for it on a map). The area of the city is surprisingly upscale and not at all sleazy as one might expect. Of course there are the accompanying sex shops, but we view them as a bit entertaining (they do display some rather interesting apparatus!)

Amsterdam, as with all of Holland, has tolerated the use of marijuana - the health minister decided that the crime around selling drugs was a greater threat than the health problem caused to the drug user. They decriminalized it and cannabis became tolerated - but not technically legalized - by the government. Coffee shops opened that provided and/or allowed the use of marijuana. In 1996 the first licenses were given out. Today there 294 in Amsterdam, about 1/4 of the total in the Netherlands.

Other countries such as France and America criticize this approach (according to a local rag). US drug-czar Barry McCaffery came to Holland earlier this year and declared the progressive drug policy “an unmitigated disaster,” citing higher crime in Holland. The view from Holland is that there is no more violent place in the western world than America. Go figure.

You can get marijuana in any coffee shop. A bag typically costs f25 (about $11 US at this time) - not that we bought any - this was reported in the paper. Generally each coffee shop has a wide menu to choose from. The better the stuff, the smaller the bag. Any place that calls itself a “coffee shop” is saying 3 things: 1) I have pot and hash for you to buy, 2) For the price of a coffee or beer, you may sit here & smoke your own as well, and 3) You may also smoke on my outdoor terrace, even in front of the police. Not bad for those so inclined. The aroma around the place certainly bears out their view. For us, we headed to Hagan Daz and Ben & Jerry’s!

One of the signs we noticed on the main canal in town was this one of Wall Drug in South Dakota. Neither of us has ever been to Wall Drug (Verna had never heard of it), but since we were going to be heading that way on our way back to California, we thought we better put it on our itinerary. After all, it was only 4,502 miles away.

Walking around town, one notices that most of the buildings have a definite lean to them (they lean out over the street as shown in the picture to the right). This is not an optical illusion, but was actually done on purpose. Because space is a premium, the stairways in Dutch buildings tend to be narrow and steep - not conducive to carrying furniture from floor to floor! So each of the buildings has a beam sticking out toward the street at the top, with a big hook. They then hang a pulley off the hook, and pull the furniture up the outside of the building. The buildings were made with the lean outward so that when the furniture was pulled up, it wouldn’t scrape against the front of the house!

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