Amsterdam

On August 21, 2026 2 Comments - Europe 2026, Photography, Travel

***please try to look at these photos on a bigger screen. Your phone will crush all the details***

This is the first post in a five part series. There is a link at the bottom to continue on to the next posts in chronological order.

Bicycle Kingdom

The first thing you learn as a tourist in Amsterdam is to watch out for bicycles. Bicycles have first right of way followed by public transportation then pedestrians and lastly, cars. There is long-established bike infrastructure here with separate bike roads running along every street, bridge and park. There are bikes everywhere. Everyone rides. And FAST! So, if you walk across a bike road without having a good look both ways, you might cause an accident. In the two days I have been here, I have seen near accidents a few times already. Usually it is a pedestrian unknowingly drifting into a bike lane, getting yelled at if they are lucky or run over if not. With locals, it is understood that bikes go first and they seem to have a second sense about how to get around through all the pedal traffic.

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.

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

Houseboats along the banks of a canal. Many are permanent homes with electricity and sewage lines direct to shore.

All the bridges have names. This is”Staalmeesterbrug”.

Central Amsterdam Buildings

Although all of the buildings have unique details and no two look exactly alike, they all share a few similarities. Most are narrow and tall with big windows and steep staircases. There are no skyscrapers here. The tallest of the houses is probably four stories plus a small attic.

Shutters are used to keep the weather out and, in the past, to keep goods safe. Most of these old buildings were once warehouses for goods (like spices) during the golden years of the Dutch East India Company. Because of flooding, the expensive product was kept on the top floors while the bottom floors were for offices and storefronts. A local we met told us that, at one time, pepper was worth more than gold and that the Dutch still have a saying “pepper expensive” for anything that commands a very high price.

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 good condition. 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. You can see this in a few spots where they were originally built on swampy land and are now starting to lean over.

More crooked houses in the distance. There are 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. The boat captain’s name was Frodo..no kidding.

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. At the top of every house, there is a protruding beam with a hook on it. Because the staircases are so steep and narrow it is next to impossible to move large items by that route. Instead, the Dutch devised a pulley system where things are hoisted up using the hook and brought in and out through the huge windows. This was used in the past to move goods in and out of the warehouses and today, people who are moving in to apartments use the same system to get furniture to the upper floors.

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 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 not pickled like the more common herring you may have eaten. This herring is 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 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.

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. These buildings, although more modern, still have steep narrow staircases and lots of huge windows. There is never any shortage of sunshine or fresh air inside the apartments.

The house we are staying in has big bright windows on all sides. The apartment 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. This bird, common in ancient Egyptian artwork, was first introduced to the Netherlands in 1967. You can see them around all the canals and rivers of Amsterdam.

Public Transportation

Subways, trains, trams and busses run 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 and they look pretty cool with some extra splashes of colour.

First Impressions of Amsterdam

Amsterdam is a highly functional city. There are people EVERYWHERE : pedestrians, cyclists and drivers but, even though there are almost no traffic lights, it all seems to work. 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 the natives understand and respect the system. As a visitor, it is all a little dizzying but also awesome to watch during the rush hour.

Even though it is so busy, it is relatively quiet compared to other big cities I have visited. There are very few private cars in the city centre with bicycles outnumbering cars by a huge margin. The air is noticeably fresh and clean. Many cars are electric and the government has mandated that all boats using the canal system must have electric motors 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 and noise levels stay in check.

The overall effect is that central Amsterdam is a city where people can enjoy being outdoors together with almost zero noise or air 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.

Cyclists riding along the canal wall in the afternoon sun. This is a city built around people (and bicycles) instead of cars and you can definitely feel the difference.

More Amsterdam to come….

To see the next post in this series CLICK HERE.

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2 Comments

Reply
Luke August 21, 2026

Thank you! Beautiful photo of my grandma – captures her essence very well. I am excited to live vicariously through your posts.
- Reply
  Martin August 22, 2026
  
  Yes! I love that shot too.

TigerSalad

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