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Thursday, September 2, 2010

Fun in Funky Amsterdam

I love Amsterdam.  It reminds me of the atmosphere found in Granada...narrow streets with even narrower alley ways and cafes and shops all over the place.  But Amsterdam definitely has a character of it's own with charming canals, bikes everywhere, resident cats and dogs at most bars and shops, extremely steep, narrow stairs and very liberal laws. 

It was completely walkable, which I really enjoy.  You really get to know a city better when you walk it.  You run into so many unexpected sights that you would have missed if you were taking public transportation directly to a monument or museum. 

We thought about renting bikes for a day, but after seeing 2 bike wrecks we opted out.  The bikes have their own lane, like a bike highway and go really fast.  They have little bells for a reason...you may remember to look out for the trains and buses in their lane, and the cars in their lane, but sometimes the sidewalk and the bike lanes seem as one and you nearly get ran over!

Our hostel was much nicer than Paris, thankfully!  We had a room shared with 3 other people.  One couple was from Canada and very friendly. I've been so surprised how similar the Canadian accent is to the American accent.   We had plenty of the day left after checking in, so we went exploring around the city...
 

3 comments:

Alyssa Henry said...

It looks like ya'll are having soooo much fun! I am EXTREMELY jealous that I am not there too! All of the pictures are beautiful and I can't wait to hear even more stories when you guys come back! I love and miss both of ya'll soooo much!

Unknown said...

Your narratives are so good - I feel like I can see what you describe - absolutely LOVE the blog and the pictures are great - can't wait to see more and see you in person. Glad ya'll are having such a good time - hope you're relaxing a little too -
Love and miss you! Penny

Uncle Neff said...

Hey, looks like you are having a great time. Keep up the great insights. Uncle Neff