When I was 25 years old, I decided to celebrate my birthday by going to Prague for a few days. It was such a fun treat that this year I thought it was time for another such treat. I've got some friends who live in the Netherlands, and since I've never been...why not head there?
Lanola asked me a few days before I went if I was excited. She figured: new place, another country, something different; surely I would be looking forward to the trip. I responded that I was looking forward to the train ride (I love riding the high-speed trains in Europe), and to seeing my friends, but as for the Netherlands, I wasn't super excited. I've been around Europe enough now that I sort of feel like everything new-to-me looks like something I've already seen.
And I'd heard all sorts of bad things about Amsterdam. Its red-light district is something the city is most well-known for. Drugs are legal there and can be smoked right in the cafes. It rains nearly all the time. Well, those three things make it a city that I just really didn't want to visit. I figured, even if I didn't see any of those things, it would be filled with irritating (to me) people who enjoy those sorts of things (sex and drugs, not rain).
Well, I owe Amsterdam an apology. It was completely not what I expected in almost any way! The red-light district is contained in one small area and does not spill out of there into the rest of the city. I never saw (in Amsterdam anyway) any sex-related anything. I never saw any drugs whatsoever. All the irritating (to me) people were nowhere to be found (by me). I only encountered extremely pleasant Dutch people.
The weather was incredible. And I mean INCREDIBLE. (It seems all of Europe is talking this week about how amazing the weather was this past weekend. I've heard from people all over, and well...it was pretty much the perfect weekend. Sunshine, low 70's, and the leaves on trees being an array of gorgeous colors.) I spent all of Saturday just wandering around Amsterdam taking pictures. I feel like all the pictures look the same: water, boats, bicycles, and pretty buildings.
The one expectation that Amsterdam did sort of meet for me was that it did look like somewhere I'd already been: Venice. Some call it the Venice of the North. I had no idea, however, that it would look like Venice--I only found out later that some call it that. I was so surprised by all the canals running all the way through the city, and how every single street was on the water. And since I loved Venice, I don't mind that another city looked like it!
I was also incredibly surprised by all the bicyclists! I knew that Dutch love to ride bikes, but I thought it would be equivalent to how the Parisians ride their bikes. Um, the Dutch love bikes like how fish love water. I have never in all my life seen so many bikes and people on them. It was amazing. A cool result of the bikes is that the city is so peacefully QUIET. While there are cars, people just don't drive them much, and when they do, they can't go fast due to (a) the narrow one-way streets lining the canals and (b) all the bicyclists everywhere who rule the road. So no traffic noise. That made this chickadee happy.
The city is also remarkably clean! I thought Paris was a clean city, but compared to Amsterdam...not so much. It seemed there was no trash anywhere! The buildings were clean. (Is that a result of all the rain or the lower amounts of traffic--no car exhaust dirtying up the buildings? I don't know, maybe both or something else entirely.) So clean and quiet and quaint...adds up for a great city, in my opinion.
I didn't get a chance to do much touristy stuff. On Saturday, it was so beautiful, and I thought I would still have Sunday to be a tourist, so I just wandered around enjoying the streets and the water. I did got to the Rijks Musuem, which is the Dutch art museum. I saw alot of Rembrandt, and two amazing dollhouses. (Click the word 'dollhouses' to go to the website and see them!) I had planned on Sunday to go to the Anne Frank House and the Van Gogh Museum, but Sunday had a different plan for me.
My friends live in a quaint little Dutch village about 15 minutes (by train) from Amsterdam. When I got up Sunday morning, they asked if I would like to take a walk through their village to see it. When I hear village, I think "small town that consists of one main street, one church, and a local market." I had no idea that their little village would be so cute! It was bigger than what I'd expected, and so quiet and peaceful. I decided to spend the rest of the day there. (After all, I do live in a major European city, which means I can go see city stuff any day I want. I cannot go sit in a village and stare at windmills across a canal for hours on end whenever I want.) So I didn't go back to Amsterdam--except to catch my train home. I guess I'll have to return again to see Anne Frank and Corrie Ten Boom's houses, and go to the Van Gogh Museum, and ride a bike, and see what Amsterdam looks like on a normal day--in the rain.
I had a mini-adventure on the way home, which I'll write about soon. Until then, stay tuned to the photoblog for pictures from the Netherlands.
1 comment:
Sounds like it was wonderful.
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