EU trip - Day 11 - Amsterdam

Note: I've placed more pictures in the Amsterdam folder in my Picasaweb.

Here's a map that shows the route that I followed; the map is courtesy of city-discover.com. The red is the canal cruise's route and the green one is my own.

I know that the canal cruise is a tourist trap but I have to admit that it is a nice way to see the city. I actually wanted to do the Seine boat cruise in Paris as well, but it rained the last evening I was there.  I opted for the Holland International company because it was located outside Amsterdam Centraal, hence just a short walk from the hotel.

The departure point

Amsterdam Centraal is the building in the background

On boat the canal cruise boat

Here are some of the highlights, in points form if you don't mind:

- The water in the canals is freshwater due to the locks

- Amsterdam got its name from the Amstel dam, which is a dam on the river Amstel. There's also a replica of the Amsterdam cargo ship that belonged to the Dutch East India Company. The ship replica is next to NEMO Science Center.

NEMO Science Center is a ship-shaped building by the Amsterdam cargo ship

- The biggest floating Chinese restaurant in Amsterdam that's similar to those in Hong Kong

The floating Chinese restaurant is on the right

- Montelbaanstoren tower

Montelbaanstoren

- Muzeiktheater (Opera House)

Opera House

- Magere Brug (Skinny Bridge)

Magere Brug

Skinny Bridge

- 7 consecutive canal bridges can be sighted from this spot. Unfortunately, my camera failed to capture them nicely

Seven Bridges (if you can see them clearly)

- "Twin Sisters" - 2 identical buildings together

Twin Sisters

- Westerkerk (Western Church) is a Protestant church, which has the Austrian's Imperial Crown at the top of the spire.

Westerkerk

- Anne Frank Huis (house)

People queuing up to enter the museum

Anne Frank House is to the right of the door with red awning

- Miscellaneous pictures

Inside the boat

House boat

House boat

The cruise lasted an hour and it got us back in front of Amsterdam Centraal. I decided to backtrack and visit some of the places that were pointed out during the boat cruise for closer inspection.

Walking by the Dam Square on the way to Anne Frank's House; the Royal Palace (left) and National Museum (right)

The closest is Anne Frank's house. A long line has already formed outside by the time I reached there, so I didn't bother to queue up.

Westerkerk

Westerkerk, with the Imperial Crown of Austria at the top of its spire

A houseboat, with Westerker in the backdrop

On the way to Magere Brug, I made a quick pitstop at Museumplein to buy some souvenirs at the museumshop. Yesterday, the museum closed at 5:30. So did the museum shops. They should have at least open the stores a little longer as people were exiting the museum.

I bet nobody had taken a picture of the sign from the back :)  'Gigih betul' that girl

A canal cruise boat from the Blue Boat company

Heineken Brewery - had to give this a miss :(, I mean :D

Skinny Bridge

Magere Brug

From the Skinny Bridge, I set my next target which is the De Gooyer Windmill; one of the nearest surviving windmills in Amsterdam. Hey, I'm in Netherlands. Of course I want to see a windmill. The real one.. not so much the red one (read: Moulin Rouge). Haha. True to what I've read before the trip, the windmill is placed in top of a brewery.

How they hoist things up to the top floors

I came across this nice little park on the way to De Gooyer Windmill

The windmill

De Gooyer Windmill on top of a brewery

One more before I returned to the city

With De Gooyer crossed off, I walked back towards the city centre.  Before reaching Amsterdam Centraal, I dropped by NEMO to capture a few more pictures of the Amsterdam.

About to reach NEMO Science Center

The Amsterdam.  You could also see the Chinese restaurant at the background

The Amsterdam

NEMO Science Center

By 3pm I've already seen most of the city, at least those I set to do. My search for souvenirs continued so I found myself back at the Dam Square and Bloemenmarket.

I love the fact Amsterdam has dedicated bike paths

Tulips, tulips! @Bloemenmarkt

Pretty flowers

Walking towards Munttoren (Mint Tower)

Munttoren

I walked back to RLD to see if things would be in daylight. Again, I don't have any pictures to share. Sorry people :)

I got back to the street that I was on last night. I could tell from the number of ducks and swans in the canal (again, what's up with that?). I happened to see some sort of bargaining going on too. I saw one girl putting up all 5 fingers in one hand, but the guy was only counting to three. She insisted that it was "5", depicted by the fingers that she showed. Don't tell me that's in Euros. Haha.

I thought RLD was just those streets along that one single canal. Boy, was I wrong. If it was just that stretch, they wouldn't be calling it a district, right?  I turned several corners to get back to the Dam. And there were the girls, windows after windows. At one corner, the streets got narrower (the path is about the width of 2 guys), the girls were almost literally in your face. Terkejut dibuatnya :)

Sometimes the windows-cum-door were open when they were negotiating or airing out the room (or it seems like it), you could see how tiny the rooms were. At least they have a toilet and indoor plumbing. Hehe. Some girls looked scary - all tanned and bronzed, as if they belonged more in Madam Tussaud's.

Other than the glass windows, you could find dedicated museums, peep shows, coffeeshops, DVD shops and what not. There were also restaurants that serve Chinese, Indian, Indonesian, kebab... pretty much everything. Very interesting indeed. I prefer a visit at night because the lighting somewhat added life to the atmosphere and scene ;)

Amsterdam may not have a lot of famous and huge landmarks compared to Paris and Rome. Nonetheless, I still find it a city worth visiting. I did appreciate the buildings along the canals, but after walking for a couple of days, they tend to be very repetitive - 4-5 storeys high, 3 windows wide. If I had more time and arrived much later... say in April, I would make the trip to visit the flower farms. Have I mentioned to you that I love tulips? :D

Common sights in Amsterdam

Make way!

Buildings by the canal

Drawbridge

Another design for a drawbridge

As for the language... if I only managed to flip a few pages of my French phrasebook, I fared worse with my Dutch phrasebook. Unlike in Italy or France, where all of the English programs (except BBC or CNN) are dubbed in the local language, Netherlands is like Malaysia - the English shows are maintained in English and there is the subtitles placed at the bottom of the screen. I'd say the locals are happy to converse with you in English. But I'm sure if you made the effort to speak in theirs, they would really appreciate it.

All in all, I was quite happy that I had decided to make a stop at Amsterdam.  Of course, if I had more time, Luxembourg and Bruges would also be in my list.   Oh well.  Next time then.

... Edinburgh is next, all!