 jss1018's Amsterdam Travelogues | | | | Title [Click to view] | Travel Year | Pictures | | Our Christmas week in Amsterdam | December, 2004 |  7 | | Amsterdam, later trips | December, 2006 | 1 |
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| Page Views: 998 Last Visit to Amsterdam: December, 2004 | Our Christmas week in Amsterdam by jss1018 - last update: Mar 3, 2007 |
First full day there | Krasnapolsky hotel at night, Dam Square |
After arriving jet-lagged and sleep-deprived around lunchtime on a Saturday, I can't say either of us slept that well the first night. A combination of strange surroundings (and in EUROPE no less), voices in the streets until the wee hours (part of the fun, actually), and lingering exhaustion from the trip over. But once up and showered, excitement took over again. We hit the Dam Square area again for more pictures and sight-seeing, with a better perspective after some real sleep, and took some time to just walk a bit in different directions. As you can read elsewhere, Amsterdam is a walking and tram city. Don't even think about renting a car if going. Although they are present in the main city areas, it's mostly locals, and competing for space on tiny, winding streets with pedestrians, bicycles, trams, buses, delivery trucks. It's a circus of activity. Plus there are precious few areas to park a vehicle.
BEFORE you ever hit the streets on foot, the rules seem to be: Bicycles are everywhere and have the right of way over EVERYTHING ELSE. Forget people casually pedaling around and taking in the sights, these folks are serious about getting to their destinations. They WILL NOT stop for you or get out of your way, but rather expect you as a pedestrian to do so for them. They may stop for a red light at a crosswalk, but will just as likely not. The locals use bikes as a main form of transportation, and they're everywhere. I had to laugh the first time I saw a woman who appeared to have seen the better side of sixty with a cigarette dangling from her mouth and pedaling furiously along. Cold and rain doesn't seem to faze them. Same with the cars, they drive like a bat and may or may not yield for you when crossing a street with a green walk light. Anywhere you see tram tracks, take special care when walking and crossing a street. These are not the toodle-along trolleys as in some U.S. cities, but get up to what I would estimate as at least 40 miles per hour between stops and intersections on some of the longer, straighter sections of track, and are so quiet (electric power) they will sneak up on you without your realizing it. They don't seem to ring their bells very often, either, and can be downright scary until you adjust. They pretty much keep plowing ahead when in areas with lots of pedestrians, also. We quickly learned to look everywhere for anything when walking in intersections and the busier areas. If you want to stop and gaze about, step near a doorway or otherwise out of the flow of people. Same as with the bikes, these people aren't fooling around about getting where they're going on foot, and with their very tall average height have a killer walking stride. After awhile I got over the humiliation of having people 20 years my senior zipping past me when my legs felt like noodles. Lest this all sound unappealing, you do adjust to it fairly quickly, and applies mainly to the busier areas such as near Dam Square. You can stroll on the less crowded streets.
The trams were a bit intimidating at first, but we got used to them fairly quickly. Word of advice: If standing up on one, hold onto something! These rascals take off and stop quicker than you would expect, and make fairly sharp turns and shifts on the winding streets. Protocol seemed to be enter the tram at the front where the driver is located, exit at the middle or rear at a designated stop. Note that some have green buttons you must press at the exit doors at a stop before they will open. We missed a stop before realizing this, and they don't linger very long if no one indicates needing to get off. Instead of trying to deal with the somewhat confusing regular ride tickets, we bought 72-hour Amsterdam Passes. More on that below. |
|  | I smell something burning! One of the main attractions for some Amsterdam visitors is the coffeeshop scene and the Dutch tolerance of "soft drugs" (I would imagine not all Dutch people are supporters of this). For those of you reading about Amsterdam for the first time, yes, Virginia, marijuana and hashish are sold and smoked legally here in the government licensed and controlled coffeeshops. Gadzooks! What a horrible system to allow this, and to not throw these scoundrels in jail, eh? The Dutch have adopted what some would consider a very enlightened policy separating soft drugs from the hard stuff, and it seems to work fine and be generally tolerated by most. I'm sure for some visitors this is viewed as horrendous, but just remember that other peoples and countries different from your own are just that, different, and may have views on this and other matters very unlike where you're from. The Dutch are famous for their live-and-let-live tolerance, although I've read that this might be changing in the future as far as the coffeeshops are concerned.
If anyone were to have a preconceived notion of people walking about everywhere smoking pot, and I had a couple of people actually ask me that after hearing of our trip, the answer is of course not. Same as not seeing people walking about everywhere swilling from a bottle of liquor or toting a can of beer when there are bars around. I saw no one doing so in public, and honestly am not sure how the laws apply to that. As to the coffeeshops themselves, you probably would not realize that's what they were (unless you wandered into one looking for a cup of java, LOL), and it seemed to be no big thing. If you picture a bunch of stoners lurching around everywhere, that's the opposite of what we experienced.
As far as the Red Light District goes and its legalized prostitution, Dam Square is actually a stone's throw from the edge of it. We were in the area when we visited the Old Church, and I honestly would not have known it without already having done research and planning beforehand and learning of the different city areas. Lest you form judgments on this also, the same thing occurs daily in every major U.S. city, with the only difference in it being illegal versus legal, with U.S. houses of ill repute being cutely described as "massage parlors" or the like. Similar to the coffeeshop thing, it's not like there are hookers cruising about everywhere on the streets, but rather ordinary citizens going about their business along with, of course, the guys looking for that sort of thing by visiting the establishments. As to safety in the area, I've read that Amsterdam employs a lot of plain-clothes police officers, are very serious about people breaking their laws, and have created one of the safest cities in the world. At no time while walking anywhere did we feel threatened or frightened, but we were not out at late hours walking down deserted alleyways, either. Use common sense and general street safety and you should have no problems in any of the city areas. |
Our week in general For lots more details about where we stayed, restaurants, museums and places we visited, local customs, and other good stuff, see our individual pages on each topic.
Overall, our good planning for the trip paid off quite nicely. We took pretty much everything we needed and had more than enough clothing, considering the washer/dryer we had in our apartment. And even though my wife had scoffed at the idea of doing laundry before the trip when we saw that our unit had these facilities, she was sweet enough to do some while we were there. We actually both agreed that getting into some of these chores made it feel all the more like we lived there instead of just staying in a hotel, and it was nice to return home without bags full of dirty clothes, except for a few things. In hindsight, and with the laundry facilities right in the apartment, we would have packed less clothes and had more luggage space for souvenirs. We did draw the line at cooking in the apartment, though, buying only ready-to-eat munchies like cheese, crackers, pastries, wine, and other goodies at a local supermarket.
If you should decide to stay in one of the Krasnapolsky apartments like we did, we would suggest as one of your first things to do walking to the Albert Heijn supermarket and grabbing some necessities and food/drink goodies. It's only one block from Dam Square. Facing the Royal Palace, with Madame Tussauds on your left, walk down the street passing in front of the entrance to Tussauds and you'll see the supermarket behind the Royal Palace, across the street. This was an experience in itself the first time, buying stuff in a European grocery store. Prices are comparable to U.S. ones, but don't forget to mentally adjust to the Euro-Dollar conversion rate depending on what it is at the time, or for your particular country's money, to understand what you would be paying if in U.S. dollars or other currency.
One more block walking in the same direction is the beautiful Magna Plaza shopping "mall", although it's difficult to call it that considering the beauty of the building, both inside and out. Looks like a museum.
Highlights of our trip (again, listed in more detail on individual pages for each subject) were the Rijksmuseum, Maritime Museum, a canal boat tour, the Anne Frank House museum, the Leidseplein area, Vondel Park, the coffeeshops, riding the trams (including missing a stop on one and taking a LONG ride, LOL), and walking, walking, walking. Including not really getting lost, but walking in the wrong direction more than once when looking for something.
We can't say enough about how great a time we had, and I would tell anyone fit enough to do a lot of walking to go as soon as you can, it's that good. For the elderly, or those with mobility problems, that I don't know about. We did see more than a few people in wheelchairs while there, but a lot of places looked difficult for access that way. And I would say this in all seriousness, if you're not used to doing a LOT of walking, condition yourself to it by doing some prior to your trip. There were days when if I had been at home I would surely have been laying around recuperating from tired, sore legs. You might not realize how little you walk in the average U.S. town or city where driving everywhere is the norm, and I would imagine that applies to some other countries as well.
Amsterdam - what an unbelievable place. We can't wait to go back! Would love to hear from you if you visit. | | | Magna Plaza shopping mall, near Dam Square |
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| Tram tracks near the Rijksmuseum |
| | The Amsterdam Pass card For 51 Euros per person, we got a 72-hour Amsterdam Pass electronic card that comes with an info booklet and tram ticket (each person needs his or her own), and allowed unlimited tram travel for 72 hours from the time of first use, and free or discounted admission to the main museums and attractions, including a free canal boat tour at a specific tour company location not too far from the Rijksmuseum. A great deal if doing those things. We couldn't seem to find a location near Dam Square for purchasing these, although there may be one. We walked up to Central Station, straight up the Damrak (street) from the square, and purchased at the main tourist info office, the white building across and to the left from the Central Station structure. If you buy these, note that the tram ticket is a separate card from the electronic pass card for museums, etc., and there's also an info booklet that lists the free and discounted attractions. I'd suggest taking all three with you when out and about. Some attractions use the pass card for admittance, some use a page from the info booklet.
You would also need to plan some of your further journeys by tram during the 72-hour period for the tram ticket, of course, which starts the first time you use it. Just have the tram driver stamp it and then all you need to do is show it every time you hop on one after that. |
Maps and navigation - Ha! I really thought I had this nailed before the reality of our walking here and there in this city. Had spent quite a bit of time before the trip finding maps on the Internet of Amsterdam streets, attractions such as the museums, and tram lines. It turned out to be a bit more complicated that that, but was part of the learning experience.
As you can readily see from any good city map, the overall city layout is the Central Station area that's the main hub for trains, trams, and buses, and is located at the Northeast corner of the city. (All directions listed here are using Dam Square as the central point.) From there, the Damrak street runs in a SSW direction down to Dam Square. There are four ring canals running more or less three-quarters of the way around the central part of the city, basically encompassing it from the Central Station side, with the Amstel River at the SSE side. When walking from Dam Square, each canal would be a couple of blocks or so. We ended up walking a LOT further than we normally would back home, but it usually didn't feel as far (sort of, LOL) due to everything along the way being do darned interesting.
There are several areas of the city, with Dam Square being in the "new" part, the Old Church and on into the Red Light District east of the Dam being the "old" part. There's the Jordaan area, west of the Dam, that we saw the least of, from what I've read a pretty and quiet residential district. The museum area (not all are here, of course) where the Rijksmuseum is located is Southwest of Dam Square, with Vondel Park located there also. You can read in various places that most any major visitor attractions are within walking distance, and while this is true you may find it a fairly long hike to some. For us, it often was an odd combination of feeling like a very long walk somewhere while still enjoying the adventure of it so much; a little hard to describe.
The thing that any map can't quite prepare you for is the fact of the winding streets, with very few long, straight sections, and the many side-streets and narrow little alleyways connecting them. Also, the fact that most restaurants, shops, etc., are extremely narrow when facing them from the street, but are much larger inside than you might expect due to how far back they often run. You walk by dozens of different businesses or houses in a very short distance.
Another VERY important point to note is that on each side of the ring canals is a street, with the same name on both sides, and the same name as the canal. "Gracht" is the Dutch word for canal, so the street name "Prinsengracht" denotes a canal street, a handy thing to know. The kicker is that the building address numbers may be very different from one side of the canal to the other, and got us walking a long way in the wrong direction a time or two when looking for something. From being used to the odd numbered addresses on one street side and evens on the other in U.S. cities, this was also the case here. What was very different was that they did not seem to correspond from one side to the other. What might be the "100" block on one side of a canal was the "500" block on the other. Picture the numbering starting from opposite directions and this will make sense. | | |
| Flower market near Dam Square |
| | Guidebooks and trams, oh my! After checking out a lot of Amsterdam guidebooks before our trip, we settled on one named "Eyewitness Travel Guides - Amsterdam", with others in this series available for other major tourist cities. We think it was an excellent choice, and highly recommend it. One of the very few we found with not only excellent descriptions and details of many aspects of Amsterdam history, what to do and where to go, restaurants, maps, and all the usual stuff, but also chock full of beautiful photographs. A joy to read, and very useful.
One of the trickiest things we found in understanding at first when we arrived were the tram routes. Looks oh so simple on the route maps, but after waiting for a particular number tram for close to thirty minutes at the main Dam Square tram stops, we realized the one we needed was at a stop on the BACK side of the square, behind the Royal Palace. Duh! We also discovered that if you miss your stop on some routes, which we did of course, it was a long, long way back around. This particular one (the number-2 line, I think?) went OUT OF THE MAIN CITY AREA to heaven knows where, and STOPPED ALTOGETHER. The driver said nothing, but indicated to the few passengers left to get off as he gathered up his belongings, got off himself, and walked away into a building. I'm laughing while writing this, but we were freaking out at the time (silently, of course) and standing around the stop with other people, a few of which also looked bewildered and concerned. We made a guess that it was time for a driver change, hoping that was the case and also wondering how we'd get back "home", and sure enough after a few minutes he came back out with a new driver who took over while he rode back in also. Okay, okay, I can hear you laughing at us out there, and we deserve it, dumb American tourists! The moral of the story is that some of the lines DO loop around in the main city area on a fairly short route, but not all do.
Another thing that seems so simple now but had us scratching our heads for awhile was that when looking at a map area for Dam Square, keep in mind that the square INCLUDES the Royal Palace building. Streets indicated as branching off the square on the North side are BEHIND the palace. You'll realize that after walking around the square about three times without finding the street you're after, LOL.
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The Dutch language We started getting used to hearing the Dutch language spoken after a few days, with much of it sounding similar to me from some exposure to German in the past. The one language sound used that's difficult for me, and I would imagine a lot of others used to English, is the "achkt" sound used in a lot of words. Nothing in English comes close to it, and it's one of those things, much like rolling the "R's" in some languages, that tends to sound forced and unnatural when attempting it for the first times, but so natural when spoken by a Dutch person. We stuck with learning a few basics, such as the Dutch words for yes, no, thank you, etc., and as I would imagine most everywhere in the World, appreciated by some as at least an attempt to communicate in their native tongue. It's not really an issue anyway, if you speak English, since we encountered no one in our travels to the various places of interest that did not speak it, most of them very fluently. More than a few people at the places dealing with a lot of the public and visitors spoke several languages, and French and Italian seemed fairly common also. | | | Nemo science museum, near the Maritime Museum |
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| jss1018's Amsterdam Travelogues | | | | Title [Click to view] | Travel Year | Pictures | | Our Christmas week in Amsterdam | December, 2004 | 7 | | Amsterdam, later trips | December, 2006 | 1 |
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 Comments for jss1018 about Amsterdam | | | | |
pinkcamel Sun Jun 18, 2006 06:53 UTC
This is going to sound weird but you decide whether you have things to declare or not. If not, you can go through the 'green' exit'. You may be pulled over by customs officials who think you look dodgy or suspect, but mostly, you can walk straight out. | Pavlik_NL Sun Jan 16, 2005 16:13 UTC
Good tips & nice pages. Amsterdam is indeed a strange place, but I hope that NL & A'dam never become a police-state. Safety should come from preventing things happening to yourself, not from being protected. That's what the Dutch tolerance is all about. | scottishvisitor Fri Dec 31, 2004 22:20 UTC
Good page with great tips & info Greetings from Scotland & Happy New Year | Xefian Wed Dec 29, 2004 12:16 UTC
Great page ,enjoyed tips and travelogue |
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