A Bicycle Built For Two

Amsterdam is beautiful and there are bicycles everywhere! 

One of many canal in Amsterdam (Prinsengracht)

Beautiful canals, bridges and bicycles.

They have parkades for bicycles, traffic lanes for bicycles, special traffic lights for bicycles, and you an find a bike chained to anything that is chainable. 

Overflowing bicycle parkade near Centraal Station.

Bikes, bikes, and more bikes!

The story behind owning a bike in Amsterdam is that you have to work very hard to ensure your bike looks as crappy as possible so that nobody wants to steal it.  Everyone is very good at this as pretty much every bike looks like the ones in the far corner of the Dunstable dump. 

Crappy bike chained to a lizard statue.

Even so, every year there are over 20,000 reported cases of stolen bicycles.  Does Calgary even have 20,000 bicycles in total?  They say the canals in Amsterdam are 3 meters deep.  One meter of mud, one meter of water, and in between one meter of stolen bicycles!

The evidence is well hidden.

Along the canals are skinny row houses that are connected for the entire length of the canal.  On average, the width of a 'house' is only 6 meters wide.  The Dutch government calculated taxes according to width of the front façade of your home, so all the houses were built very deep, narrow and tall. 

Photo of skinny row houses taken from a canal boat.

All houses are identified by a gable up top.  Each gable has a post or steel I-beam protruding from it.  This attaches to a pully system that allows you to hoist your furniture to all levels of the house.  

Example of different gables.

 I was under the impression the buildings were leaning forward with age, and are eventually going to fall into the canal.  I was informed that they built the row houses with the top of the house protruding further than the bottom.  The buildings stick out at the top to minimize damage when hoisting large items.  Neat!  The angles on some buildings are very impressive - on a canal corner the buildings lean outward for both faces of the 90-degree corner angle.  The ancient architect earned his paycheck in Amsterdam.  Some apartments date back to the 1600's.

Leaning houses.

 There are of course many "coffee shops" for which Amsterdam is very well known.  The "coffee shops" differ from cafes in that they allow you to smoke weed.   Prior to arriving I wondered:  " How will I know which coffee shops are the ones that are laid back and have the munchies?"  Well,  the smell gives it away so there was no confusion.   Yup, pretty stinky places.  Also, the dubious shops are very clearly labeled as "coffee shops" and not as cafes.

A "Coffee Shop", a creepy dude, and more bicycles.

Equally well known is the Red Light District.  I assumed the Red Light District would be tucked away in a far dingy corner of the city, difficult to get to and difficult to find.  In fact, the Red Light District is in the main center of town. It's right there for everyone to visit, about 3 blocks from the main train station.  It took me a while get up the nerve to walk through (by myself).  I had to circle it a few times to build up my courage.  It's not a place where nice girls go, right?  Sorry Mom.

It is tacky to take photos in the Red Light District so I have taken a photo of the sex museum instead...because that's not tacky.

What would a Zannerpalooza blog update be with out a food reference?  I had mini Dutch pancakes called " Proffertjes" with icing sugar on them - my taste buds were extremely happy.  I wanted Dutch-Indo food (Nasi Goreng and Sate) but the restaurants I could find had dishes for 2 or more people. 

Proffertjes.



I really wish I had a travel buddy in this city.  There are so many fun things to do, but having a friend to give you courage, and to laugh (giggle) with makes the fun times even better. 

It is spring and the flowers are in full bloom.  The floating flower market was really colorful and a unique setting.  The amount of flowers they are selling off of floating barges is countless.  The market extends for 2 city blocks.  I picked a café with bar stools at the window so I could watch everyone circulate through the market.  It was a relaxing environment and a great way to people watch.

You name it, they have it!

Literally.

More flowers.

Back view of floating barges that make up the flower market.

The city went crazy the day I was there because Amsterdam won the football game.  I have never seen so many crazy drunk people - thousands and thousands of them all singing and chanting a song about Amsterdaaaaaammmmmm.   It started at 11am and at 10pm it was still going strong.  

Partying in the boats.

Partying in the streets. 
These crowds are why I didn't rent a bicycle.

As a Canadian - this was my first introduction to European soccer madness.  I loved it.  The male to female ratio appears to be about 20:1. Single Ladies, if you want to pick up a drunk stoner on a bicycle - this is the place for you!