Amsterdam - Venice of the North

Cramped, wet and full of secrets.

Amsterdam is one of the capitols, where you need to be. I was once in Holland, but only passing by during hitchhiking and I was always thinking that Amsterdam is too close to Poland to visit it separately:) But for my birthday we'd decided to go there and find well know tulip and windmill farms. In the beginning I must admit that we haven't see them, maybe of the village they are, but not close to the cities and highways. On the suburbs there are located strange industry and corporate buildings. We wonder why there are look like this, but when we saw the city center, we understood - every buildings look similar, so perhaps architects must give the vent of theirs emotions outside the city. 

Ours first expression was, that Amsterdam is similar to Venice - we was there during our last holidays. The same as in Venice, there are so many canals, narrow crowded streets and expensive hotels.

First tip: what to do with your car?

When you travel to Amsterdam with the car (same as we) we have the best advice for you:  

Amsterdam has invented the solution for the tourists travelling by theirs own cars. The solutions is called P+R with means that you park your car on one of the defined car-parks located on the suburbs of Amsterdam.

Then you travel to the city center and come back by the public transport such as trams, bus or a metro. 
This solution is very useful, comfortable and cost effective, because after all you pay for all day parking only 1€ excluding your public transport tickets which costs approximately 5€ for two persons.

More information and the list of the parking places you can find here.

I amsterdam. 

When you arrive to the central station you can easily sightsee the main buildings and places by foot. The great adventure is to take one of the boat trip along the canals, but this pleasure is rather expensive, it cost around 15€ per person. We now a better way that amount of money and it's much cost effective to take a walk inside the old town of Amsterdam which is not so big.

Must see in Amsterdam:

In Amsterdam, there are many buildings, museums and characteristic places more or less interesting which prices you'll find on the photo. 

But to feel the unforgettable and unique climate of the city you can just walk through the old town narrow streets and canals.

We choose the way which you can see on map and introduced you what focused our attention.

Our trip was started from the central station, where we arrived the tram from RAI P+R. As we discovered most of central station in Holland look similar and pretty nice.

Amsterdam central station

Amsterdam central station

Next we find catholic church, being cared for Community of Sant'Egidio.

Did you know, that after the reformation in Netherlands the religion was not longer connected with the country. The society became more and more atheistic. The churches still can exist but they were built from that time as hidden behind the residential buildings. Only the oldest churches can be seen from a main streets.

Most characteristic of Amsterdam, what you can see with every steps is entwined city with water. 
Wide canals use for public and private transport, narrow streets and not 'car friendly area' is very similar to the northern Italy city called Venice. 

Amsterdam - the Venice of North

Going through canals you will see a lot of houses on the water. Probably very expensive rent and not enough space in the city make the people leaving 'on the water'. You must see how popular is it. 
I can add, that in Wrocław, city in Poland is only one home like this, and more than one hundred bridges and lot of creeks.

House on the water

Next on our map was one of the most famous brewery which was settled in Amsterdam and there you can see how they are making this beer and try it just after the production process.

The Heineken brewery building

During the tour in Amsterdam you should go to Rijks museum. Is one of the most popular museum in Amsterdam. Inside you can find sculpture, graphic arts and the Rembrand's paintings. Also the Rijks garden is reealy nice. On the back of museum you can find most famous sign 'I amsterdam' which are besieged by tourist. 

Rijks museum

Did you know that most of old houses has a hook and they are leaning to the streets? Why?
- To not to bump the walls of the building when the heavy stuff was pulled up to the top. Corridors inside this building are really narrow, so people didn't use them to bring staffs.

Sloping houses

One of the last points of our trip was the Dam square. It's the main place of the city, till XIX century in the Dam palace was the seat of the Royal family then it takes the role of the of city hall. The building is one of many examples of the classicism architecture in the city. Furthermore on this place is located the museum Madame Tussaud, monument, Krasnopolsky Hotel and the Amsterdam's Cathedral.

Madame Tussaud museum

In the picture below you can see it in the different perspective.
We took the photo of Dam square and the cathedral in the 1:25 scale in the Maduraum world of miniatures located in Den Hague, where we have spent next two days.

The trip was summarized on the Red light streets which are 'opened' around 8 p.m. from that time car cannot enter the district and nobody can take photos there.
The day rent for the 'window' on the red light street is 150€, so you can imagine how many guests are there every night... and how much you have to pay for the pleasure... 

Red Light Street

We decided not to stay in Amsterdam for a night because of the very high prices of hotels and hostels there. Instead we've moved to Hague where you can find the similar hotels in even half of the Amsterdam's price (by the way - it costed around 40€ per person per night).   

Achtung! Warning! Pozor! Uwaga!

In Amsterdam you can even smoke and prepare drugs on the streets but you cannot drink an alcohol - be careful the police is everywhere and you can pay huge fees for it.

There is so many pedestrians but even more cyclists and motorbike riders who don't care about the smaller users of the pavements and pose a threat.

Ducky' bike

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