"Hamster Jam!" a Amsterdam Travel Page by johngayton

When I was a kid I used to play with Lego, Meccano and the odd jigsaw puzzle. So imagine if you took a big box, emptied your Lego and Meccano pieces into it, add a few jigsaws, shook it all about, emptied it into a shallow-filled bathtub along with a bucketful or two of sand and tried to build something - you would end up with Amsterdam!

As a working city it is modern and functional, as a tourist city it has history, culture and architecture in barrow-loads, as a playground there are toys and games galore. It really does have something for EVERYone!

For me, every holiday is a "busman's holiday" - I actually cook for my living...........hotels, restaurants, pubs, i've owned them, managed them or more recently just worked in them. I go on holiday, what do I do?

I stay in hotels, eat in restaurants and drink in pubs! Well I suppose I could waste my time lounging about on a beach somewhere, but that's not me.

Here in Amsterdam I was very impressed by the range and quality of food on offer - from big thick chunks of pizza with chilli or garlic sauce at 4 am - up to a la carte dining and with plenty of interesting post-colonial diversions. My personal favourite is the restaurant at the Hotel Amsterdam with its modern interpretations of Dutch classics such as Stampots.

Hotels here, especially at the cheaper end of the market, can be somewhat capricious - don't set your sights too high regarding spaciousness especially - but hey, do you want to be in Amsterdam and live in your hotel room?

And as to bars............ there's one on every corner and usually several in-between (no matter how short the street!)

You must take at least one canal cruise - I personally took several,
the canal bus is a reasonably good introduction. You get to see the city from the place that was its reason for existing. Architecturally, keep looking up, there is an amazing variety of finishes to the houses and other buildings.

The Heineken brewery museum is worth a visit, even if only to find out about the "smiling e" and of course to sample the product :)