Amsterdam Arrival

Arrive in Amsterdam on a beautiful sunny day. The day after the biggest party in the Netherlands, Queens Day.

The hotel room wasn't available so I was forced to walk the streets aimlessly for several hours, armed with just my camera. I had a blast walking around seeing the city start to wake up. The first thing I noticed was the central train station (Amsterdam Centraal), an old building that was huge and offered rail travel to almost anywhere In Europe.

After having a look there, I walked down to Dam Square--the town square that sits just behind the royal palace (that, apparently no one lives in--the royal Dutch family lives in The Hague). What a site for an American from Atlanta. A big huge area where they apparently had a concert or something. Later, I find out just how big of a party I missed...

Things I noticed that were interesting to me:

1) Sidewalks were mostly layed stone or bricks. Back home, we just pour concrete everywhere, but here they spend time laying bricks which adds to the character of the city.

2) The smell of pot coming from any of the many "coffee shops" scattered around, and mostly situated on the side streets.

3) Portable urinals were all over the place, with a few really interesting non-portable ones. There was one that was a metal curtain that wrapped around in a 6 figure (not closing off the bottom "o" part of the 6. You walk into it and pee onto a 18 inch stone slab that was laying at angle. Convenient, maybe, but gross, definetely. Also noticed, there weren't many options for women--and not sure the stone slab thing would be that easy to use.

4) McDonald's doesn't serve much breakfast at breakfast. They had an Egg McMuffin and orange juice, but the rest of the lunch menu was available at openning. Many people were eating Big Macs and Frys.

5) The canals were really cool. Almost anywhere you walk downtown you pass a canal. From what I understand Amsterdam made many of these themselves, but the system is so elaborate, you could jump in a boat and manage to get 20-30 miles away to the Airport or other towns south of Amsterdam. In town, they are about 7 feet deep, and I've yet to see any one swiming in them. Guess they aren't that clean.

6) Shopping, so far most of the shops tend to be selling clothing of some sort: leather, t-shirts, dress clothes, etc. There are several Souviner shops, and many restaurants. I walked into a huge department store thinking Helen (my wife) is going to love it. Until I looked at the prices... ouch. I guess I'll stick with C&A (the low-priced clothing store).

The next day, Sunday, I meet up with a co-worker who had been there a few days, and we go snapping photos of the town.