"Amsterdam, The Netherlands" a Amsterdam Travel Page by penumbra

The Dutch have a different perspective regarding travel. For me, Amsterdam was 40 minutes away by train from The Hague and I’d travel up there just for something to do. For the Dutch it was a much bigger production. They’d phone their family to arrange a place to stay and wouldn’t think of going unless it was for at least the weekend.

I occurred to me coming out of the central station once, that a lot of crazies are attracted to Amsterdam. Then after a moment of reflection, I thought, this was probably true of most of the European capitals. Probably capitals and well known cities everywhere. To be sure, the middle of Amsterdam is incredibly tourist oriented, but as you start to cross the canals on your way out of the centrum, the number of tourists decreases and Dutch culture begins to assert itself.