Oh Amsterdam! A beautiful place and one which amazed me not just with her scenery but also the infamous red light district.
Marj who is a Dutch gave me some notes before we set off and well, we tried to achieve as much as possible!
A few things to remember:
- If you go out at night the trams stop running at about midnight. Most people cycle between places. I’d suggest renting bicycles.
- Shops close early (5-6pm) except on Thursday evening they stay open until 9pm. The shopping street is called Kalverstraat.
- A Coffee Shop sells weed, hash, hallucinogenic mushrooms, space cake, etc and sometimes also coffee.
- A Café sells coffee, cookies, cakes, etc.
- Almost everyone in Amsterdam speaks English
Things to do in Amsterdam:
- Anne Frank house
- The Wax Museum (in Dam Square)- Have a picnic / walk around Vondel Park (although it might be cold in September)
- The NEMO. The architecture is quite cool and the view from the top is nice.
- There are seven or so Red Light districts (de Wallen (the walls) in Dutch). They’re very safe and an interesting place to walk through at night. The big annoyance is drunk tourists acting stupid – which can also be entertaining to watch. I would suggest visiting the main red light district near the Oude Kerk (the Old Church). There is also a Prostitution Information Center (PIC) set up by a former sex worker to inform the public about the facts. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_Information_Center
- There’s a big “I AMSTERDAM” statue in one of the parks that they set up. It’s a good place to take souvenir pictures.
- Van Gogh Museum
To eat:
- Pancakes! The places that sell them are called Pancake Houses. Holland uses a special kind of syrup on pancakes that I’m pretty sure you don’t find in other countries.
- Haaring (herring). It’s raw and usually you put onions on top. They sell this in little stands on the side of the street.
- Patat (French fries). You’ll have to ask people when you’re there, but there’s a Patat stand that has been around for a hundred years or so and you can get all different types of sauces to put on top
- Kebab – this is more of a food you eat after a long night out. Yum yum.
- Poffertjes (small poofy pancakes with butter and powdered sugar).
- Sit at a café and drink coffee with spekulaas (dutch ginger cookies). The Dutch are crazy about philosophizing and talking about politics over coffee.
That's all, folks!
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