Amsterdam

It’s probably not fair to judge Amsterdam based on our first impression of her. It’s just our luck that when we arrived at Amsterdam on Friday, the rubbish collectors have been on strike for nearly a week. The weekend we were there also happened to be a long weekend, and hence it was really crowded everywhere. The bad weather during our first two days at Amsterdam did not help either.

However on Monday, our last day at Amsterdam, the rubbish was cleared off the street (assuming that the rubbish collectors have got what they wanted), the tourists have returned home, and the sky was blue, Amsterdam quickly becomes one of our favourite cities that we have visited so far.

Amsterdam is a very interesting place. There are many things about Amsterdam that fascinates us. For example, the coffee houses (not to be mistaken for cafes) where people go to smoke special herbs. There are shops that sell starter kits to grow the special herbs at home. There is the red light district with its window prostitutes. And the strangest thing of all is there is an old church located right in the middle of the red light district. And then there are the canal boats that people still live in. We managed to catch a glimpse inside some of these boats, and they are actually very well furnished, like a modern apartment.

Of course, we did the usual touristy thing by visiting the Anne Frank Huis, the Van Gogh Museum and the Diamond Museum. We also took a day tour to visit the windmills at Zaanse Schans. We also visited the villages of Edam, Volendam, Marken and fishermen’s villages along the former Zuiderzee.