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Connecting in Amsterdam

Amsterdam, Netherlands

A quick 3hr stop and onward to Bangkok!

permalink written by  steveandclaire on June 29, 2007 from Amsterdam, Netherlands
from the travel blog: Steve and Claire in Asia
tagged Amsterdam and ChinaAirways
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The journey begins....

Amsterdam, Netherlands


The happy couple at the beautiful canals of Amsterdam
Well here we are in Amsterdam. We arrived safely at 6.30am, but unfortunately our luggage decided to have an extended stay in Kulala Lumpur without telling us! Needless to say we weren't impressed, but Jane hugged the luggage once we were reunited with it the next day!


Jane is reunited with her luggage!

Amsterdam is very pretty - much smaller and quieter than we expected. It's very easy to walk around because it's nice and flat and because it has trams! The weather has been very mild - probably what you are all getting in Melbourne at the moment, but a little bit cooler and rainier than we thought it would be! Very trendy and funky place with lots of nice shops etc.


Canals of course!
The canals really are beautiful, as are the floating flower markets. We have never seen so many bulbs in our life!


Flower markets


The wonderful world of bulbs!

We love the fact that Amsterdamians love their cheese!


Ah the world of cheese!

Cheese Galore!

Kristian has found a very interesting herb that he says is fantastic - not sure what it is but he seems happy with it!


Kristian ''relaxing"

One thing we were not so fond of were the bikes....it creeped us out that there seemed to be more bikes than people


Kristian getting some culture at Museumplein
HIGHLIGHTS: The Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum, Anne Frank House, English is very widely spoken (!), our lovely little hotel near Vondel Park, chips with mayo, the fact that in the red light district a man said to Kristian "How did an ugly guy like you end up with a beautiful woman like that?!"


Chips and mayo

LOWLIGHTS: Lost luggage, the famous "Dutch" pancakes are much better at the markets of Melbourne! Jane didn't buy the travel size hair straightener she saw at Melbourne airport and is now suffering in the humidity!


Cool eating area
INTERESTING FACTS: There are a lot of Indonesian and Argentinian restaurants here. There are also heaps of "croissantieres"- not a good dieting country! Police in Amsterdam ride bikes (of course) kind of removes any intimidation! Amsterdamians also love their runners!! Kristian was transfixed!! Also, Janes's love of vermouth is finally recognised§ On ice it,s a popular drink in Europe and cheapish!


Jane is thrilled that her nail has been fixed!

USELESS INFORMATION: Jane got her nail fixed! Jane possibly enjoyed the red light district more than Kristian! She was transfixed!
Next....off to Paris!

permalink written by  JaneandKristian on September 10, 2007 from Amsterdam, Netherlands
from the travel blog: Jane and Kristian's honeymoon
tagged Amsterdam
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Amsterdam

Amsterdam, Netherlands

it was around 10pm when we got here. d city is very very much alive! coffeeshops n smell of weed everywhere. d coffeeshops here r not like ours back in Singapore. coffeeshops here r d venue where u are allowed to smoke weed. can imagine d smell inside a coffeeshop... eeks!

anyway, our host stays right in d city and is very convenient to go anywhere. we are staying in a little house in the backyard of their apartment. d little house is self contained with everything needed for a stay (just missing a stove otherwise it's a full studio apartment)!

karen & maarten, our hosts, chatted with us over tea and helped us booked tickets to Anne Frank House. then we can skip d queue n head straight into d house. they were saying how long d queues are at some museums and how we can skip d queuing up for tickets!

there's a whole lot of museums here but i think we have quite enough from the Maurithaus in Den Haag. so we'll see if we get into any museums here.

i'm looking forward to see d Red Light District n all d leaning buildings though! it should be pretty interesting!

permalink written by  wangyng on April 16, 2008 from Amsterdam, Netherlands
from the travel blog: Hello Europe!!
tagged Amsterdam and Netherlands
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Amsterdam

Amsterdam, Netherlands

we are almost coming to an end to our stay in Amsterdam. i didnt really like d city actually... 1 of d few rare ones who would say this i guess. almost everyone i knew spoke extremely well of d city. well, d city is nice and all n i do feel d 'free spirit' there. but i also see (or smell) d ciggies n weed n d results of soft drugs on d streets. not a pretty sight i must say. and d city is way tooooo COLD! it's much colder than Den Haag was! maybe cos of d canals or something but it was freezing! especially when d heater in our room doesnt work. d door doesnt shut very well either so there's cold air coming in thru d door. burrrrrr......

but i do like d Dutch people. they are nice n friendly in general and very humorous. d house leans left, right, front and even backwards! very cool althou sometimes i wonder if they will just collapse 1 day!


uneven houses/building

look at the windows & d door, it's all crooked!


the cafe building leans!

there's lotsa museums here to visit but we didnt go to any (except Anne Frank House which i will talk about in a bit). we were still overloaded with Flemmish paintings from the Maurithaus in Den Haag.


at Museumplein - the red & white statue says "I AMSTERDAM"

Rijks Museum - houses some important works of Vemeer

the infamous red light district is definitely worth a visit! it's 1 of d highlights of my time here. there's women in windows all the way in the streets! 1 transsexual or transvestic opened d door of d window which freaked us out a little. but all he did was shouted 'Ni Hao' to us. quite interesting experience i would say.


Red Light District

d other place that left deep impression on me is d Anne Frank House. it was quite amazing to actually see d description right before your eyes! for some weird reason, i feel really sad in the house and felt like crying when u see her words n how she lived in d small house. very very depressing place but unbelievable.


Anne Frank statue near d Anne Frank House

i thik that sums up Amsterdam. d town of Bremen musicians is next! but before that, here's more photos i took in Amsterdam.


nice cute door bells... maybe i should get 1 for Singapore...

fridge magnets! look closely...


Amsterdam at night


The Christmas Shop - it sells all things Xmas through the year!

at Museumplein - the red & white statue says "I AMSTERDAM"

permalink written by  wangyng on April 18, 2008 from Amsterdam, Netherlands
from the travel blog: Hello Europe!!
tagged Amsterdam and Netherlands
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International Mayhem

Amsterdam, Netherlands

On the plane to Amsterdam I was in a seat next to the window so I could sleep durning the night, since we took off around 7.30pm and would arrive in Am around 11am. I get into my seat and this odd man sits next to me. The plane takes off and we get to talking and hes asking me if it was my first time going to Europe and I tell him that yea, its my first time international anywhere. He asked me the usual, what I was up to back at home, etc. I told him I went to UCSD and he asked what major, and I said Bioeingineering but switching to BioInformatics with a Japanese studies minor. He was like oohhh...Im head of a biotech company in North Dakota, we'll be needing people like you in the future with protein modeling and such on the computer, and im like yeaa, wow, how small of a world. We proceeded to small chat and he told me alot about himself, and told me alot how the international travel went and such, it was like he was my adoptive father for the 10 hour flight. When time came to sleep I couldnt sleep at all so I pulled out my reader I had been working on while I was waiting in the airport and continued to read about Machiavelli and Petrarch. I definitely had extreme jet craziness because I didnt sleep the whole plane ride, while everyone else was dreaming closeby. I got through over 100 pages of the reader, which was nice because I ususally cant read on a plane and the reading was very dense, though thought provoking.

In Am. the man next to me helped me get through customs and showed me where my terminal was since Amsterdam Airport is huge!! I got my bearings and went to pull some euro out of the atm, got a bite of food, changed my shirt and brushed my teeth in the bathroom, and went to wait for my next plane. By that time the terminal got moved and I had to walk to the complete other side of the airport. Being surrounded by all these people who didnt speak english, for some reason, felt more comforting to me than all the english I hear at home. But at that point I also realized how my good understanding and capabilites to speak Japanese were completely useless to where I was traveling.

permalink written by  Amanda on June 29, 2008 from Amsterdam, Netherlands
from the travel blog: Revelle in Rome
tagged Amsterdam and PlaneFamily
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The Big Canal

Amsterdam, Netherlands

I’ve been in Amsterdam for a few days now and it’s a fun city. I’m ready to leave though. I was supposed to leave today (July 12) but due to complications with bus schedules, I won’t be leaving to Prague until July 14. I went a head and rented a bike for a few days. Bikes are the best and easiest way to get around Amsterdam. Most of the roads here are designed specifically for bikers and the trams.

Cool parking garage for bikes.

There are only two places I’ve found that have free wi-fi so It’s hard for me to write here or respond to emails. The hostel I’m staying at in Prague has free wi-fi so it should be easier to keep in touch.
I’ll finally be making my way east so my money should be worth a lot more than it is in the west. Now my dilemma is booking hostels/trains/buses/flights far enough in advanced so I don’t get stuck somewhere like I am now. I decided since I’m losing a couple days, I am just going to skip Bratislava and just go straight to Budapest. I’ll try and be there on the 18th.

It’s cool how this city works. The entire city lies below sea level. I found this diagram in the hostel.


Left: View from the top floor of Amsterdam’s library, the largest one in Europe.
Right: View from the city up close

Here are a couple pictures from the Red Light District. Sorry I know they’re blurry but I still think they look cool.

permalink written by  pathaley on July 12, 2008 from Amsterdam, Netherlands
from the travel blog: Eurotrip
tagged Canal, Amsterdam and RedLightDistrict
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Amsterdam

Amsterdam, Netherlands

I just got back from a fantastic trip to Amsterdam.

Before I continue, what does no HTML means. Does that mean I can't post links like this one: http://www.acaiberryfrance.fr/

Why is that?

permalink written by  Around The World on January 30, 2010 from Amsterdam, Netherlands
from the travel blog: Around The World
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Going Dutch

Amsterdam, Netherlands

I am currently sitting in the most adorable cottage ever. Situated right on the canal, with houseboats as neighbours, Elvis Blue singing in the background, my mom grumbling about her Kindle in the foreground, and with unlimited internet access, I am in heaven.



My mommy

Not to mention the fact that I'm in new sweatpants (going chav, perhaps?), have just had an awesomely warm shower, and have a pack of the waffles my Oma and Opa used to get me when I was a kid.

It's been a fun two days. We've conquered three markets (Albert Cuypmakt, Noordermakt, and Lindengracht market), each with ridiculously cheap goods on sale (hence the sweatpants) and tons of interesting people strolling up and down.


Market

We made it to the Dam, approached Madame Tussauds (but changed our minds when the long queue and the Price of entry became known to us), and ended up searching for legendary Grandma's Appletart (and found a place that probably wasn't THE place, but still had awesome tart).


Protest going on in Dam Square

Yesterday we went on the Canalbus - a really nice method of getting around the city and seeing the touristy spots, as it allows you to hop off and go do your photo-taking, gasping-in-awe thing, and then hop back on the next one an hour or so later.


Canal view


Captain

My mom managed to get me to take off my ridiculous purple beanie, but then I went and found myself another equally ridiculous one. :)


Me and my hat v.2

I met my old pal, Freddy, down in Dam Square. He tried to kidnap me, but I fought him off.


Me and my buddy

And tomorrow my mom's setting off back home to where the sun is hiding, so I still have another day of exploring the city ahead. I'm also quite excited as tomorrow will also be my first CouchSurfing experience. Let's hope it works.

permalink written by  Brigid Jelsma on February 5, 2011 from Amsterdam, Netherlands
from the travel blog: Walk a little further to another plan
tagged Amsterdam
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