We took the night train there but we took the lowest cost option: seats, which were already at 120 euros! We were too late for the special deals. :( They leaned back quite a bit though, so I was able to sleep, say better than on an overnight plane trip. Most people were pretty quiet, but we got lucky and had one old man that practically coughed himself to death.
When we saw this building behind Dini, we were saying, "Wow! That's beautiful! I wonder what it is! Maybe city hall, or a museum?"
Turned out...it was a mall. But oh, what a beautiful mall it was!
We took a guided tour of the city through Mike's Bike Tours. The people in our group were pretty cool. The girl in green and her husband in brown were from Ottawa, Canada, who JP and I actually met up with when we visited Canada last year. The other four guys were Australians, who were doing a European vacation tour for several weeks.
Here is one of the many canals of Amsterdam. Many people call these boats Home and this guy even has a lawn!
This is the only, or one of the few windmills left in the city. Windmills use to be torn down after they did their job (pumping out water to reclaim land to live and farm on) but within the last 50 years, the country started to preserve them as national monument type things. Half the country used to be under water (long long time ago) so you can imagine how many windmills had to have been built.
Part of our tour was riding a boat through the canals. This was also the Sunday of SAIL, a huge sailboat convention. It was also a day of, everyone in Amsterdam who owned a boat, was using it too. This made for boat traffic jams, and spectators on bridges watching the crazy big boats (like us) pushing their way between small boats and barely squeezing through the space under bridges.
There's an explanation to the skinny houses. Amsterdam used to tax on the width of your house! So, rich people lived in the wider houses. Oh yeah, and the rule with bikes is, make sure your lock is more expensive than the bike! No joke.The Netherlands has a strong agricultural economy. They have some of the most fertile lands in the world. (The reclaimed land that was under water for so long was nitrogen-rich.)
Tulips in every color for you.
Another type of flower that I don't know.
Those bug eating plants
Lots of cactiI like to buy magnet souvenirs (instead of postcards, shirts, or spoons) and Amsterdam had the best selection of magnets I'd ever seen.
I almost bought a clog shoe plush slipper (on the right). They looked really comfortable. People on farms wore (and some still do) wooden shoes when they're working outside in the mud and dirt.
But what else is Amsterdam famous for...marajuana of course. Items for sale in the picture: "Cannabis Lollys", "Canna Biscuits", "Cannabis Pastilles", "Hemp Cnusper Chocolate", "Cannabis Tea", and Cannabis seeds, in case you're allowed to grow them in your backyard.Interesting things I saw....
Instructional picture on how to operate the cross walk signal
A public toilette for men. No, there's no urinal there.
We believe this guy was stealing a bike. He was sawing the bike lock for at least 20 minutes (counting from when we arrived at the bus stop across the street). Then he rode off with two bikes (kinda suspicious...)
Dini in front of the train station.
A church.
See the trash piled on the sidewalk there? The trash picker uppers were on strike! So there were huge piles of trash everywhere. It didn't smell, thank goodness, since the weather wasn't very warm, but our tour guide mentioned there was a garbage strike one time during the summer and the heat made the trash smell really bad. The doctors were even giving health hazard warnings.I'd have to say, this was one of my favorite places to visit in Europe. I highly recommend it and make sure you take the tour! Our tour guide Shawn was so cool. Make sure you get him!
