Amsterdam

Ok, well this post is a bit early.  My sister was in Brussels first, then we went to Bruges, then we returned to Brussels and THEN we went to Amsterdam.  Anyway, I have finished managing my pictures from Amsterdam so I'll do that post first.

Amsterdam:

Well like I mentioned in my last post, Amsterdam is one of my favourite cities in the world so far.  I have been to a lot of places so that is saying something.  Let's see if I can list the countries I've been to.  A little game.  Canada, U.S.A., Mexico, Bahamas, Spain, Morocco, Austria, Korea, Japan, China, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, France, England.  Ok, so it's 16 countries.  That's fun.

Anyway, Amsterdam is my favourite city so far.  There are many reasons for it and one important one is the layout of the city.  It's SO logical.  It started off as a very small port city, but in the 17th century they added 4 canals which are layed out in semi-circular concentric rings around the original city.  It's very very easy to find your way around.  Here's a map of the city:

There are no streets labeled on this one, so it's easier to see the layout.  To walk from one side of the map to the other would take between 20-30 minutes depending on your speed so it's a very easy city to navigate.

Another plus is that most locals speak English.  In fact, I didn't meet anyone who couldn't.

Here's a little story about why they're allowed those famous "coffeeshops" and that red light district.  It all started back in the 18th century (or something like that) when the city became Protestant.  As such, the other religions were banned.  This resulted in Catholicism, the main religion before, to become an underground affair.  I use the term "underground" loosely, because what happened in the most famous case, the Catholics built a church in the attic of a house.  The house is now a museum called Museum Amstelkring (Our Lord in the Attic).  Click that link to see cool pictures!

Right, well the thing with Amsterdam is that money has always spoken louder than words or religion.  The Catholics paid the police to look the other way on Sundays when they were having their services.  The funny thing is that during their services, they'd play their organs loudly and the locals would say "Catholics!  Go arrest them!" to the police.  The police, in turn, would say "I don't work on Sundays" or "I'll go up in a second" and not really ever get around to doing it.

The same theory is in place today.  The Amsterdam state of mind dictates 3 things:
1. If it's discreet, it's ok.
2. If it's not hurting anyone, it's ok.
3. If it's good for business, it's ok.

In those days, those 3 things applied to the churches so the police looked the other way.

Today, those things apply to the prostitution and coffeeshops, so they argue.

For the instance of coffeeshops they'll tell you:
1. It's discreet because they're called coffeeshops, not pot shops or marijuana shops so the people inside must be drinking coffee... nothing else.
2. It's not hurting anyone.  Our tour guide thought it was funny that she sees people blowing each others faces off with guns on American T.V., but they have such strict regulations when it comes to showing people smoking up.  The Amsterdamer's mindset is "violence = bad, sex & drugs = ok".
3. It's good for business.  I don't think I have to explain how much money goes into that city annually because of that kind of tourism.

Alright, enough jibber jabber.  Down to the pictures!

 Amsterdam is the city of canals.  Aside from Venice I suppose.  There is an extensive network of said canals that run through the city and they're not just for show either!  Lots of people have private boats that they take for a ride on a nice day.  Here are some facts!  There are 2500 houseboats in Amsterdam.  The water in the canals is purified every 3 days and once a year they clean them out with giant scoops.

Here I'm continuing to play with my new colour accent feature!  Here are some facts about the bicycles in Amsterdam!  There are 750,000 people who live in Amsterdam, but there are 1,000,000 bicycles!  Every year, 20,000 bicycles are cleaned up from inside the canals.

The red light district by night.  You're not allowed to take pictures of the actual red light district up close because the prostitutes will either break your camera, send their pimp to beat you up, or throw a cup of urine in your face.  I didn't want any of those things to happen to me, so I didn't take any pictures.

 bikes bikes bikes!

The Anne Frank house

I took a picture of these very nice horses, then realized they were pulling a Heineken beer thing!  How fun!

 This is one of my favourite pictures I've ever taken.  It's at the floating flower market which is HUGE and very fun to visit!  

Alright, that's Amsterdam in a nutshell.  We did lots of things, but those are the nicest pictures of them all.  We went to the wax museum, took 2 walking tours and a boat tour, visited several museums and had time to spare!

For now, I'm just getting a bit sick so I think I'll retire for the night.  Maybe drink a tea and take it easy until bed time.

Hope you enjoyed my rant about amazing Amsterdam!  I will go back one day!  Actually, I will go back in 2 months.  But after that, when I'll have left, I will think to myself, I will go back one day!