Amsterdam

This weekend Emilie and I headed to Amsterdam, marking my first visit to the Dutch capital (and the Netherlands, for that matter).

There were a number of highlights over the two days, with perhaps my favorite simply being the time we spent walking along the canals. It was nice taking in the scenery given all the interesting buildings and tree-lined streets.

While most of the buildings stood out for their architecture, the ones that seemed to have concave faces that literally leaned out over the street really caught my attention. The building on the right in the picture below is a good example.

Another highlight was our visits to the Rijks and the Van Gogh museums. The Rijks is full of paintings by various Dutch masters and the Van Gogh museum, well, is basically a lot of Van Goghs.  My favorite painting of the two visits was Rembrandt's massive De Nachtwacht ("The Night Watch"), below, which was housed in its own room at the Rijks.

The most moving experience of weekend was definitely a visit to the Anne Frank House, which faces the canal in the photo below (it's just left of the large tower). After reading The Diary of Anne Frank years ago in high school, it was interesting to tour the building described in the book. Needless to say, it's hard to imagine what it was like "living" there for over two years while the consequence of being discovered was almost certain death.

For a nice mix of relaxation and sightseeing, we decided to take a canal tour on one of the many tourist boats. It lasted about an hour and was a great way to get a different persepective of the city. We were fortunate to have a good captain who was able to add a lot to the tour through his commentary. He really seemed to like his job and I think this made a big difference.

During the canal tour we passed under / by countless bridges. And at one point the captain stopped the boat so that we could take a picture of the bridges below -- a set of seven in a row that cross the same canal. I'm not sure if we were really able to see all seven from the boat, but Emilie and I walked by them after the tour and confirmed that there were indeed seven.

As for the other more memorable elements of the city, it's hard to overlook the omnipresent "coffeeshops" and general pot / mushroom / etc. dispenseries. Given the decades-long failure of America's "war" on drugs, you have to wonder whether Amsterdam's model (or at least something in that direction) would be a more effective solution. It's hard to imagine that it could do much worse.

The city's "Red Light District" is also worth mentioning. "Window shopping" takes on a whole new meaning in this area. As such, we had to be a bit careful with our photo-taking. One minute you're passing a church like the one in the photo below and the next you're literally turning a corner and are face to face with a naked woman staring at you through the (door-sized) window to her "studio".

Perhaps the most common sight in the city is the bicycle. They're literally everywhere and as a tourist you have to be careful to not accidentally stray into a bike lane while admiring the city. I think Amsterdam may compete with Copenhagen for Europe's most bike-friendly city (at least among those that I've visited). Supposedly, there are enough bikes in the city to account for 80% of the population. There's even a bike-specific, multi-level parking structure next to the train station (it looks like it's for cars...).

Though not as numerous as bikes, the roughly 700 houseboats permanently moored in the inner canals of Amsterdam also catch your attention. As the number of mooring permits is fixed, houseboats are very expensive -- particularly given that they typically have all the conveniences of a modern home (plumbing, electricity, central heating, cable, wifi). Apparently there are even some houseboat hotels, which would make for an interesting stay in the city.