Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Well, it had to happen sooner or later. We needed umbrellas at times today. Cold, drizzly and only in the 50s...Brr....Most of our tour was by bus, covered boats and at a restaurant for lunch. After, lunch we had time to wander around and shop on our own and thankfully, the drizzle stopped.

Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands (Holland) and is a city of canals, bike lanes and narrow streets. We were in more danger crossing bike lanes than with cars because we don't usually have to watch for bicyle traffic to cross streets in the US. The bike lanes are along every road in Amsterdam which makes travel by bike rather easy and an excellent way to get around the city. it is also easier to find parking spaces.
As a matter of fact, the city was preparing for a bike race later in the afternoon.

Besides the crummy weather, the city is enduring a garbage strike and was not a pretty sight. However, we saw some amazing architecture, gained a lot of historical information and marveled at the red light district! LOL We traveled the canals for about an hour by boat and our tour guide was very informative.

The ship was docked in Rotterdam and our tour guide also took us through the city on our way to Amsterdam. Rotterdam is much cleaner (no garbage strike) and much more modern because most of it was destroyed in WWII. It also is a city of canals.

The Netherlands and Belgium are both countries on marshy, reclaimed land below sea level. Without the dikes, the countries would be lakes.

Today, we are at sea on our way to Oslo, Norway. The North Sea is calm today and a lovely blue green color.


This cracked us up! :)


Anne Frank House



Houseboats are all around the canals



The diamond capital of the world :)




What is Holland without tulips? :)