My first visit to Amsterdam!

I have wanted to visit Amsterdam for a number of years. There was a vague interest, and then I saw a segment on one of those Sunday Morning news shows about the Dutch capital. The reporters did a remarkable job painting an incredibly romantic picture of a city famous for its canals. I was SUPER excited to have it as our last fun port on this epic cruise journey. (Fun because our last port is actually Dover, England – noted for its White Cliffs – and where we bid farewell to the Crown Princess and head directly to the airport. Sigh.)

So did Amsterdam live up to Jane Pauley’s hype (yeah, it’s been a minute)?

Maybe.

We started the day with an hour bus ride from the port of IJmuiden (I have no idea, and the capitalized J is not a typo). We toured Amsterdam via a canal boat, and then we just wandered around for a couple of hours before heading back to our ship in I-Town. We had a whopping 5 hours to explore, which was both a long day and far too short.

Jane did not lie. Amsterdam is beautiful.

This is just what I imagined it looked like!
Thanks, Jane!

The canals indeed lend a romanticism to the urbanity. We spent about an hour in the Canal Museum (highly recommended) and learned that in the 1600s, Amsterdam’s popularity and population were growing but the city was running out of land. The city is about 3 feet below sea level, so it is naturally swampy. The Men in Charge at the time concluded the best way to expand Amsterdam’s footprint was to dredge up silt and sand and relocated it to make land where they wanted it. Canals would be used to divert the water that was left behind.

Lots of bridges, lots of bikes, lots of trees

The canals are mostly in concentric horseshoes
around Amsterdam's center, which means they 
softly bend around the city.

Some of the boats on the sides are
personal vehicles; others are houseboats
that people live on or rent out as Airbnbs

Even today, the canals in Amsterdam are dredged regularly – not just of silt but of about 10,000 sunken bicycles every year (like Copenhagen, bicycles are EVERYWHERE!). And the windmills outside of town are used to pump water out to the canals. To be honest, I never stopped to wonder what the famous Dutch windmills were for, other than postcards!

Tons of bike parking lots are scattered around
the city.

A bona fide Dutch windmill!!

The system of canals and bridges was actually pretty easy to follow on foot. You could sense the planning and forethought. There was even a helpful map! If you’ve ever been to Venice, their canals are a spaghetti bowl of confusion. Amsterdam was very easy to navigate without fear of getting lost. Especially since Rob was in charge of the map.

I was honestly disappointed by our canal cruise. Although the boat was wooden and charmingly old-timey and had windows on the top, it was hard to see much. Especially since the woman I was sitting next to spent most of the time hogging the window.

Me wistfully wondering what I'm 
missing beyond all the wood beams

My view most of the ride.
She got some really nice photos.

I tried going outside, but I was too short to see over the boat’s canopy. And a busy social media influencer had commandeered the prime seat in back for perfect posing. So, I concluded the best I could do was enjoy the choppy scenery, hope that Taller Rob was getting better photos when the influencer was editing, and note the rival tour company that has open air boats (Flagship) for our return visit. Because yes, it was already clear that Amsterdam requires a second and longer exploration.

My photo of this really pretty building

Taller Rob's photo of the same 
building, plus others I didn't know
were there

The scenery was much better and delightfully unobstructed once we started walking around. But romantic? Depends where you are.

Amsterdam is gritty. It’s touristy. It’s crowded. It has FAST bikes that are not required to yield to pedestrians, so you have to be on alert at all times. Amsterdam definitely felt like a big city. But it also felt safe, despite the bikes. Even in the Red Light District.

Yep, we went there. But it was by accident. Honest!

We were wandering down a street and the vibe changed considerably. Lots of bars, some adult-themed stores, and an overall essence of “hangover.” Lamp posts were plastered with a zillion stickers, the asphalt was worn from repeated hosing, and the general aroma was the pungent smell of legalized pot occasionally overridden by the odor of doorway pee. People in various states of alertness were adhered to the canal walls, seemingly waiting for it to get dark again. It was very Vegas-esque.

And yes, we did see a leather bikini-clad, unnaturally buxom woman displaying herself in a “store” window, chatting on her phone. She was all kinds of distracting. I didn’t take a picture, for any number of reasons. Prime being: it’s illegal (the photo, not the display).

There really are red lights!!

It took me a while to shake the ooky feeling of seeing that woman in the window. I reminded myself that it’s legal and entirely her choice and probably very lucrative. But it just made me sort of sad. I’m not sure I needed to see that legendary part of Amsterdam.

I decided to be fascinated instead by noticing that many of Amsterdam’s stone houses are listing worse than the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Given the swampy foundation, and 300+ years old construction, I guess it should not be surprising that some of the old buildings along Amsterdam’s canals are moving. But it was startling to see, and even more startling that it appeared the buildings are still in use.

If you look closely, you can see the
top of the brick building leaning 
towards the tree

Notice the black material on the left
side of the building in the center. It is
filling in a gap between the buildings
that is much narrower at the top
than at the bottom.

The bottom right side of this
building is totally wonky. And there
is a business in it!

One day in Amsterdam was simply not enough. By the time we were back on our bus, I had a list of Next Visit Must-Dos. Things like going to the Anne Frank House. And the Rembrandt Museum. And the private museum of classic art masterpieces but featuring cats. And the Floating Flower Market. And taking a train to Haarlem where Corrie Ten Boom lived (referenced SO often among my church friends). And heading out to Gouda to learn about and eat a lot of cheese. And taking a canal cruise on a boat without a roof.

Doesn't that look lovely? Pretty flowers,
beverages, unobstructed view. I shall
ride a boat like this someday.

So now we head home to Woodhaven. I’ll write a final blog once we are back settled in. It’s been a cruise of a lifetime! Thank you for coming along!

Looking forward to seeing you again,
Amsterdam!