Amsterdam Part I, An Introduction

One of the many, tranquil canals

Amsterdam.  What do you imagine?  The first thing I always hear is DRUGS.  Yep.  To end the drug conversation, I’ll just say that most drugs are legal and sold openly.  Smoke some weed in front of a cop if you want to flaunt your new-found freedom, or just smoke endlessly, bellow like a bull, pass out in a public park, and wake up with the morning dew.  All possible.  Saw bodies in the park first hand.  Get yourself a couple of tabs of ecstasy and vent some passion at a rave.  Didn’t see it, but heard it at all hours of the night.  The prime words are coffee shop.  Coffee shops sell the junk.  Cafés sell coffee.  But, a big change is in the works that will bar tourists from partaking.  Think that will work, with legal rivers of drugs flowing all over the city?  The move is an attempt to eliminate “drug tourism.”

How about legal prostitution?  Alive and well.  Stroll through De Wallen and see the not so pretty ladies, rouged and ready.  Hope you don’t have to pay by the pound.

By the way, did you know that the Dutch introduced coffee to Europe?  The English word coffee is derived from the Dutch word Koffle.

Big mistake to let yourself be drawn into the fiction that Amsterdam is a one-dimensional, pleasure city.  More layers than a jumbo onion.  Some other descriptions that far overshadow the drug image:  Museums.  Big ones.  Outstanding. Collections.  Art on the streets.  Art in architecture. Art in fashions. Fountains.  Sculpture. Bicycles.  So many you can’t begin to count.  Streetcars that sail almost silently through the streets.  The biggest array of restaurants I’ve seen in one place.  Smoothly flowing canals that embroider the length and breath of the city.

Amsterdam facts:  pop less than 1 million.  Capital city.  Oldest stock exchange in the world.  Trading center.  Amsterdam comes from a combination of words meaning dam on the river Amstel. Beer drinkers will recognize the name of the river.  In short, day and night, it’s a hustling, bustling center of world trade and commerce.

More on all of these in Amsterdam blogs to come.  Right now, please accept my humble intro to this wonderful Dutch city and realize a mere 18 photos do not scratch the surface.

Outdoor cafés and bicycles abound

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Fountain outside and art deco masterpiece, the American Hotel

Art is everywhere

Note the classic boats

Take a canal cruise

The flower market sells more bulbs than flowers

But there are some beautiful flowers as well

Among other things...

I love the colors of the city

A famous Dutch product...

Fashion footwear

The city sparkles at night