"Amsterdam in the Spring" Amsterdam by tvor

We're back from our first trip to Amsterdam. Will it be our only visit? time will tell. Our introduction to the city wasn't overly impressive, as it was a Sunday night and the weekend's worth of rubbish was littered everywhere but we didn't notice it as much the rest of the time we were there so the city workers did a pretty good job cleaning up.

So the itinerary for the visit went like this:
Fly to Amsterdam from Manchester, UK on May 3. Staying in the Tulip Inn Amsterdam on Nieuwezijds voorburgwal 50, a short walk from the train station and not far from Dam Square. Decided on this hotel from a workmate who stayed there last year.

Taken from the canal cruist boat

We didn't see as many museums or churches as we thought we might but we did walk a lot and take a canal cruise the evening we arrived.
We went to the Rijkesmusem which was top of our list, saw the floating flower market, which was more touristy and full of souvenirs than expected.
We had coffee in a cafe overlooking Rembrandtplein, with a curled up cat for company.
We enjoyed the solitude of the Begijnhof aside from the walking tour group that was there as well.
We checked out Dam square, were unimpressed by the tackiness of Damrak, the "main drag", loved the canals and gabled roofs.
We scoured the flea market at Waterlooplein and were disappointed that Rembrandthuis was closed getting ready for a new exhibit.
We didn't get the time to go in any of the churches and didn't have the time or energy to get to the Tulip museum or the Bags and Purses museum. I would have enjoyed them, I'm pretty sure.
We didn't bother with the Red Light district but found that the hotel was on the fringes of one anyway!
We ate pancakes!

Canals and bicycles. Standard Amsterdam!

We also took a day trip outside the city to the Arnhem Open Air Folk Museum to meet up with VT member Pieter_jan_v That will be written up in an Arnhem page soon!

We were only in Amsterdam a few days, really just enough to get a taste of it. It was never our intent to partake of the coffeeshops that have extensive pot menus. We figured we wanted to remember our trip, not be in a fog! ;) We weren't all that interested in the Red Light district though might have had a look if we'd had more time. As it was, there were a few red-lit windows right around the corner from the hotel so we caught a glimpse anyway! For me, Amsterdam was canals, architecture and museums even though we didn't get to as many as we wanted. It's a very historic city and very pretty in parts. It has it's very touristy and tacky bits as well.

The transportation system is pretty good, the food was always good, English was spoken everywhere and most restaurants had English menus. For all the words that are similar to English in the Dutch language, it's odd that a lot of the food words can be very different! Makes menus a bit of a challenge sometimes! Who would have thought a word like "slagroom" means cream!

It might be nice to go back and spend more time, not worrying about having to get to another destination or trying to fit everything in over such a short time.

• Pros:great museums, very walkable, good tram system
• Cons:expensive, mad bike riders,
• In a nutshell:More to Amsterdam than dope and sex!