Glimpses of Amsterdam

Oh I wish the weather and light had been more cooperative in Amsterdam - and it was kind of difficult to avoid the sky and concentrate on the details all the time... Here are a few of my impressions of Amsterdam - in many ways a pretty city, in others just very dirty and very worn. Including a lot of nasty dog poo on the sidewalks and streets. I also noticed that my skin reacted pretty much the same way as it does when in London, impure, grey and unhappy. I suppose the Amsterdam air isn't what it should be...

Apart from the multitude of channels and bridges, large and small, it reminded me of so many European cities and somehow it never really got to me. It never distinguished itself in the way that a few others cities have done, where the ambiance is something really special, cities which I just love, which I return to regularly or at least long to return to, plan to return to. I somehow doubt I will return to Amsterdam. I just got a feeling of been there, done that and not a feeling of oh-how-I-want-to-return-and-explore-more. Despite the very nice shoes on offer...

Yes, nice shoes, not so interesting when it comes to other garments. Mostly just the same, old boring high street chains you'd find anywhere. The one time I went really excited from looking at a window display it turned out to be a Noa Noa-shop... The other really nice clothes shop I found was so unbelievably expensive I shudder at the thought actually. I would so have liked there to be more of the Copenhagen-style of shops, small designer and handicrafts-shops. I didn't find many of those, at all. Perhaps I was just in the wrong place of things, although it seemed like we walked pretty much all over the city...

The impression of the Amsterdamians where overall quite nice, like Dutch in general they speak English so very well and of course put most Swedes to shame in that area... Although their smoking habits are *slightly* too much for my liking. And well, I don't have to even mention my views on their infamous coffeeshops and red light districts...

On the other hand I do like the impression of the Dutch having an, in general, unpretentious way of living, looking at life. Seeing the opportunities rather than the problems perhaps. Much like my impression of the Danes. And very far from my view of Sweden, Swedes and certain areas of our legislation...

I do like the fact that Dutch, like Danes, cycle a lot. What I don't like is their complete rudeness and inconsiderate behaviour towards traffic rules and pedestrians - ah well, like in Stockholm I suppose... The many trams were quite intimidating, high speed and everywhere including swooshing down crowded pedestrian streets.

When it comes to food we had some really nice meals in different places, in different price ranges. The coffee was way below average in general, sometiems plain average, but never really, really good. What was really good though was the bread, everywhere, all the time. And the fruit juices and fruits, fresh, sweet, invigorating, lovely. I'll return to some of the food highlights of the trip in a later post.

Lots of museums, many lodged in simply amazing buildings, large and small. We visited a few, some really lovely and unusual, one more than rather disappointing. More of that later too.

And now, a few glimpses of a city on water that is not Stockholm - here are some random pictures of an alas gloomy Amsterdam. For more pics, have a look in my Flickr album. The official Amsterdam website you'll find here.