The City of Bikes

Everywhere you look in Amsterdam, you'll see bikes upon bikes. Infront of every business and train station there is no expansive parking garage, no cab stand, no drop off lanes just a giant metal structure to lock up their bikes.

The bike lanes are bigger and better kept than the streets and the bikers have the right of way, no matter what. And they know it.

People fly by in their Dutch best, the old, the young and everything in between. No one wears helmets because it's safer to bike than to walk. If a bike gets into an accident, weather it be hitting a pedestrian or car, the other person has to prove that it wasn't their fault.

It is nice to see that somewhere on this giant planet, people are embracing a much better mode of transportation and have broken their reliance on cars. Hopefully one day cities in America will be a lot more like Amsterdam.

Amsterdamsel

Oh, Amsterdam the city of Hedonism. People go there to indulge on there every whim and the city caters to you.

The people are friendly, the vibe is calm and everything is covered in whipped cream.

I had pancakes for dinner. Twice.

It is an unbelievable city situated around a maze of canals and cobble stone roads and the most difficult about the city is walking.

Huge bike lanes criss-cross with roads filled with scooters and a few cars and tram tracks and at any given moment any of these vehichles will vear onto the sidewalks. The amount of bikes in the city is unreal, there is an average of 3 bikes per people in the city, and they always have the right of way.

Amsterdam is an amazing city, it is small enough to easily get around and navigate and it is filled with interesting arcitecture and beautiful bridges. Everything about the city is backwards in the best possible way. It's a little mecca of delight in the center of the Nothinglands.

The first night, we got to our beautiful hostel, dropped off our things and set out to explore the city by moonlight. The next day, we went across the street to the Van Gogh Museum and wandered around there for while before grabbing lunch and heading the world famous red light district that we explored and went to a museum.

The next day, we went to the Anne Frank House which was terribly sad, but a very interesting place.

That afternoon we took a tour of the Heineken Brewery.

On our final day, we just wandered the city street like a bunch of beaten down vagabounds trying to soak up every last minute of the purely unique Amsterdam experience.

It was one of my favorite cities I've visited and I can't wait to go back.