Amsterdam

On August 21, 2026 0 Comments - Photography, Travel

Bicycle Kingdom

The first thing you learn as a tourist in Amsterdam is to watch out for bicycles. Bicycles have unconditional right of way in this city, followed by public transportation then pedestrians and lastly, cars. There is a strong and well established bike culture here with separate bike roads running along every single street and bridge and park. There are bikes everywhere. Everyone rides. And FAST! So, if you should walk across a bike road without having a good look both ways, you will cause an accident. In 2 days here I have seen near accidents a few times already. Usually an unsuspecting tourist wanders into a bike lane and gets yelled at if they are lucky or run over if not. With locals, it is understood that bikes go first.

Cycles parked along a canal. Small boats tied up on the other side.

Canals and Bridges

Amsterdam has around 165 canals with a total length of around 75km. And, there are over 1500 bridges crossing the canal systems to keep people moving over the water.

Typical tall, narrow house. Canals, bikes and bridges everywhere.

Most bridges have individual names. This is”Staalmeesterbrug”.

Storm clouds building over one of the large main canals.

Central Amsterdam Buildings

Although all of the buildings have unique details and architecture they all share a few similarities. Most are quite narrow and tall with big windows and very steep staircases. There are no tall buildings here. The tallest of these houses is probably four stories plus a small attic.

Shutters on old tall houses. Used to keep the weather out and also to keep goods safe from thieves. Many of these old buildings used to be warehouses for goods (like spices). Because of flooding, the expensive product was kept on the top floors while the bottom floors were more for offices and storefronts. Anyone who has read The Diary of A Young Girl by Anne Frank will be familiar with this arrangement.

Central Amsterdam is now a Unesco Heritage Site. The buildings cannot be altered in any way unless approved and absolutely necessary. Also, it is law that they must be kept in top condition by their owners or they risk having the government confiscate the property. Most of the houses are beautifully maintained with pretty details and tiny gardens wherever there is space.

Some of the houses across this canal are crooked. This is common in a few spots where they were originally constructed on swampy land and are now starting to lean over.

More crooked houses in the distance. There are many tour boats running all day long along the canal system. We took one and it was a lot of fun. I learned so much about the city.

People also have private boats docked all along the edges of every canal.

Typical street view. All the houses are different but also very much the same.

Old and New

With it’s narrow streets and bridges, tight corners and swarms of bicycles, there is no room for large cars. Instead there are lots of interesting tiny vehicles (many electric) that you do not typically see in SUV obsessed North America.

This is a tiny electric Fiat. It is so small that you can park it sideways instead of parallel to the curb. It is so symmetrical that it is hard to tell the front from the back from a distance.

Travelling Partners:

I am lucky to be travelling around the city with my good friend and his parents (who have no issues with walking non-stop 20km/day) …as long as there is a coffee and snack break here and there : )

Snack break. This is the best thing I have eaten here: Netherlands style cured herring. It is kind of hard to describe. It is not pickled like the more common herring you see around. Raw but…not exactly: it has the texture of a nice fatty sashimi fish. I asked one of the fish merchants how it is made. The herring season lasts for only a month in late spring/early summer. The fish are gutted and put whole into buckets of salt water and then frozen to -40 Celsius. Before serving, they are thawed extremely slowly and then hand filleted one at a time. Here they are served with raw onion and pickle. It is a unique and incredibly delicious fish preparation. I would recommend it to anyone visiting here.

Rain, Sun, Rain

The weather here changes FAST. It can be roasting and sunny for 10 minutes and then it clouds over and pours rain for 10 minutes. And then back to blue skies just as fast. It has been raining quite a lot with grey and gloomy skies so it has been a little challenging getting any good pictures.

This might be my favourite picture of this set. Milosz’s mom is looking up at a building from across the street while Milosz is inside buying stroopwafels with his dad. We ate them fresh and hot while standing under an awning in the pouring rain.

Our Apartment

Some nice Polish tourists walking alongside the building where we are staying.

The house we are staying in has big bright windows on all sides that open wide to let in light and fresh air. The house has so many nice details but, for some reason, I like this stairway the best. Like all other Amsterdam houses, this one is tall and narrow. You have to climb a total of 57 steps to get from the entrance to the bedrooms on the top floor!

Egyptian Geese beside the canal near our apartment. There are so many unique birds here.

Public Transportation

There is a well organized and user friendly system of subways, trains, trams and busses running between every point you can imagine. Amsterdam is a very easy city to explore on foot or by train.

Subway headed to Centraal Station. Trains are quiet and clean.

There are a few trains that get tagged but it seems pretty uncommon. And anyways, they look pretty cool with some extra splashes of colour. I may try to capture some sounds later although we are travelling mostly by foot here.

First Impressions of Amsterdam

Amsterdam is a clean, efficient and functional city. There are people EVERYWHERE : pedestrians, cyclists and drivers. It is a busy and crowded place. But, it all seems to work. There are almost no traffic lights here but everything runs smoothly. The Dutch like to hustle along and they are good at it. Cyclists, pedestrians, cars, and trams all weave in and around each other through intersections at top speed and everyone seems to know and respect the system. It is a little dizzying but also awesome to watch during the rush hour.

Even though it is so busy, it is also very quiet. There are very few private cars in the city centre as there is very little reason or incentive to drive here. Bicycles outnumber cars by a huge margin. The city is noticeably quiet and the air is noticeably fresh and clean. Many cars are electric and the government has even mandated that all boats using the canal system must have electric engines within the next 2 years. Blasting music out of your store or boat is against the law. Police boats on the canal make sure that everyone complies with the rules.

The overall effect is that central Amsterdam is a wonderful city for a person to be outdoors in the company of tons of other people with almost zero noise or air or water pollution. I can spend hours walking through crowds on busy streets in the centre of the city and still come home feeling relaxed and refreshed.

The Dutch are also noticeably fit and healthy. I haven’t noticed any “gyms” here but almost everyone seems to be in great shape.

Amsterdam is a city built for people, not cars.

More to come…

photography

TigerSalad

Ideas-Photographs-Sounds: Home and Away