Amsterdam Day 1.5

Welcome to Amsterdam!

The uncles and I finally arrived in the warm and sunny city after a confusing layover in cold Reykjavik. It was 30 degrees! Hardly any sleep on the plane but we were pumped to finally make it to Amsterdam. Our lovely hosts, friends of the uncles (because who isn't?) picked us up from Schiphol and drove us to their amazing apartment. The architecture in Amsterdam is interesting in the fact that they built so high as to create ladder-like stairs, but the city has survived on top of a foundation on swamp for this long. As Uncle Walter keeps saying, "the Dutch have been civilized for much longer than we have." But it makes for doors that don't quite fit and slanted buildings.

While out getting our bearings, we discovered that you have to pay attention to five lanes of traffic no matter where you need to cross the street. First there's the sidewalk, then the bike lane, then traffic going in one direction, then the streetcar, then the other lane of traffic, and the opposite bike path, until finally you reach the other sidewalk. It makes it seem chaotic at intersections and anyplace with more than two lanes for cars. Although, biking is the smartest way to get around a city and it disappoints me how slowly the U.S is catching up. Bikes are the way to travel in Amsterdam. People ride by on their way to work drinking coffee, with their child sitting on the front handle bars, or a dog running alongside. If there is a space you could possibly chain a bike to, it has a bike chained to it.

It's pretty amazing. Yesterday we had dinner at an Italian restaraunt around the corner from the apartment. The neighborhood we are staying in is not unlike DuPont and everyone speaks English so I did not feel like I had left the country until we crossed the canal into the old town. Today we went to the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh collection, both of which turned out to be better than the flower market. Since tourism has decreased in the Netherlands, the market has moved to just outside of town, further to go on foot than we were willing following the rijks. I'm not much of a museum person but there were several exhibits that interested me. Especially the art book collection which is a museum in and of itself. Beautiful library to keep such important books in. 

So tomorrow we are renting bikes 😬 to venture our radius further than past walking distances. And then Friday we leave for Stockholm! Hopefully the mouse behind the bookshelf and the clock tower just outside can let me catch up on my jet lag tonight. Until next time!