Travel to Europe seems to take no time at all. You finish your day in the US, go to sleep on a plane, and when you wake up the next morning you’re there. So, when our flight landed in Schipol Airport at 7:35 AM, we were ready to start the day in Amsterdam.
Brief aside:
Is it possible to think of Amsterdam without thinking of canals? I can’t do it, so please pardon me while I provide a few facts and show a map. The city is made up of about 90 islands with more than sixty-two miles of canals and 1,500 bridges. The three main canals, Herengracht (Gentlemen’s Canal), Prinsengracht (Prince’s Canal) and Keizersgracht (Emperor’s Canal), were dug in the 17th century during the Dutch Golden Age. As can be seen in the map below, they form concentric waterways around the city with other canals radiating outward.
Now back to our regularly scheduled blog post.
After getting cash at an airport ATM, catching a train into town, and taking a streetcar to the closest stop, we made our way to the Hotel Keizershof, situated at Keizersgracht 618. The red “x” marks its location on the map.
Our room was on the fourth floor of the hotel (American translation: fifth floor). It was a walk-up, and what a walk-up it was. We climbed sixty twisting, turning, spiral steps to finally reach our room — the “John Wayne” room! (I wonder if they gave us that room because were were Americans?) We were on the top floor with a nice view of the back yard and patio where breakfast would be served. After dropping off our luggage, we found a sidewalk cafe for some refreshment.
We had no specific plans for the day, so we decided to roam around and get some first impressions of the city. Here are some of those impressions.
Tulip season in the Netherlands is in late March. It was well past that time during our visit, but many of the shops we walked past sold tulip bulbs along with iris bulbs and a wide array of other bulbs and plants. If your thumb isn’t green, you could always purchase wooden tulips. We bought a couple and they still look as fresh as ever. If you’d like a little thrill while going through customs on your return flight, you could even buy a starter set of cannabis seeds.
(Click on any photo to enlarge, then use arrows to scroll through the images.)
As noted earlier, Amsterdam = Canals. The city is often called the “Venice of the North.” They are everywhere. Some are narrow, some are wide, and some are, well, really wide! Many of the canals are lined with boats, small ones for transportation and large permanently-docked ones for residences. The houseboats often have gardens and furniture on deck and you might see residents tending to their plants.
In the evening we often saw families and friends out for a relaxing ride around town. Some of the boats, of course, carry tourists armed with cameras! Cars parked along the canals sit very close to the edge with a rather small metal pipe as a barrier. I wonder if an occasional inebriated driver might pull in too fast and end up with a free car wash.
Another item impossible to miss is the ubiquitous bicycle! They’re ridden everywhere by everyone, young and old, men in suits, women in dresses, couples out on dates, families with kids. The wider streets have bike lanes next to the sidewalks. On narrower streets, motorists, cyclists and pedestrians just made do. The only challenge seemed to be that, when not being ridden, they had to be parked somewhere. So, they’re parked everywhere!
After a long walk we decided to stop for dinner. Much to our surprise it was already after 9 PM, so some places were already closed. Amsterdam sits at a latitude of 52.35 degrees north. Most of the western US-Canadian border is at 49 degrees north so, in mid-June the sun hung around quite a while here. Heading back to the hotel, we passed some night-blooming tulips and enjoyed the city lights as twilight descended over Amsterdam.