Amsterdam revisited

A brief guided tour of Amsterdam, just for you, Relax Max. Just for you.

First the canals and canal-side roads.

Then the multitude of bridges and locks.

An amazing assortment of boats, from the ridiculous to the sublime.

The unique styles of architecture.

And after that whirlwind tour, would you visit the flower market?

Then a meal at a canal-side restaurant...

or the floating Sea Palace Chinese reataurant.

Or best of all, the Vijff Vlieghen Restaurant. Touristy in a way, but wonderful food, wonderful service and a truly wonderful setting.

I know, I bet you'd just prefer some yummy biscuits.

Plan de Fomento de la Lectura

On our arrival in the hotel in Amsterdam, I found this little book on the bedside table.

It would appear that the chain of hotels, NH Hoteles, are sponsors for the NH Vargas Llosa Prize for Short Stories and that they offer these complimentary copies of some of the stories (translated into English) for their guests.

This attractive logo on the back of the book is for the Plan de Fomento de la Lectura.

It's a government funded programme designed by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport to promote reading. It seems to be an excellent idea all round, both to have a book to read in a hotel room, and the sentiment behind it.

Amsterdam impressions

I loved the wonderful city of Amsterdam so much, I could let this post go on for ever, but I'll try to keep myself under control. It's not the first time I've been there, but it was the first time as an adult and without children.

I think the best thing is to let the pictures speak for themselves. If you click on any, you will be taken to a larger version on Flickr. Some of the links are written in Dutch but as they are part of the Amsterdam Heritage site (one of the best I have come across) I have included them, partly becasue you can guess quite a lot of what they are saying, and partly because of the great illustrations.

Dam Square from our hotel bedroom window, showing the National Monument, the Royal Palace and the Nieuwe Kerk.

Views of the carefully planned canals

Wonderful buildings with their variously shaped gables.

Tiles in unexpected places

In doorways

In the Vijff Vlieghen restaurant cloakroom

Other historic buildings

Sint Nicolaaskerk

The former stock exchange, the Beurs van Berlage. The clock says "Bide your time".

The Weigh House, the oldest secular building in Amsterdam, designed as a city gate and part of the mediaeval defences, now houses a café.

The Weeping Tower, the small building in front of the Sint Nicolaaskerk, was also once part of the city defences. It's now a restaurant and bar.

Although it's only a fraction, that's probably enough to show you how much there is in Amsterdam. I know I'm repeating myself, but it's a wonderful city.

We found the people wonderful too. Everywhere they were friendly and welcoming (and there must just as many tourists as there are in Paris). It was noticeable that even taxi drivers (I learnt something - they have blue number plates) were meticulous in making sure that they gave way to cyclists, and cyclists gave way to pedestrians with a smile, even when they were wandering round without a clue as to where they were.

Two questions before I finish:

Can anyone explain the unusual (to me) traffic light system?

And does anyone know the significance of this trompe d'oeuil "bridge" over one of the smaller canals?

You definitely must click on this to see what it's about :)

Home from Amsterdam

It was wonderful

When I have some time, I'll do a "proper" post of what we saw, but in the meantime

Here is

a little preview

of the lovely city

as we saw it.