Switzerland doesn’t celebrate Memorial Day, but by coincidence a holiday that is celebrated, Pentecost Monday, fell on Memorial Day this year.  Melissa and I took advantage of the three day weekend to visit Amsterdam and the American cemetery in the south of the Netherlands where Melissa’s great-uncle is buried.

Even though we live in the rich country of Switzerland we’re still thrifty Americans.  So for the flight over and back we chose to leave at 5:20 p.m. Saturday and return at 7:00 a.m. Tuesday to get the best deal.  The flight from Geneva is only an hour and a half, but it took us a little longer on the way over because, when the plane was still loading, someone threw up.  Luckily they were far enough from our seats that we didn’t have to smell it.  I had a window seat this time, but it was on the wrong side of the plane to see the mountains.  However, it was on the correct side to see the canals laid out in grids stretching as far as I could see, as we came into Amsterdam.

We landed a little before 8 p.m., checked into our hotel, then found a train into Amsterdam central station.  We didn’t have anything in mind to see, but it was still pretty light out so we thought it would be fun to wonder around and get acquainted with the city.  Canals, bicycles, crowds of foreign tourists, and the occasional smell of marijuana are what greeted us.

Canals in Amsterdam are almost as numerous as streets.  The central station was built on an artificial island, so as soon as we stepped out, we were on a canal bridge.  The water in the canals was murky and still (unless a boat just drove by), but it didn’t seem polluted or smelly.  Most of the canals had every available space filled up on both sides with boats that seemed to be built as big as possible to fit under the short narrow canal bridges.  It was interesting to learn that all the water in Amsterdam is fresh water, and all accesses to the ocean are sealed by locks and dams far away at the coast.

As well as canals everywhere, there are also bicycles everywhere in Amsterdam.  Around popular sites, like the train station, bicycles were chained to every available spot on signs, trees, and some even chained to other bicycles.  The main streets all have a special bike lane, and it took a little bit to get used to checking for oncoming bikes as well as oncoming cars, before crossing.

On our Saturday stroll we stayed in the heart of the city and were always in big crowds of people.  It was surprising to me how much British English I overheard.  I think it might have been the most popular language of people walking on the street.  A large proportion of the tourists seemed to be in their 20’s, and we passed quite a few groups of people dressed the same that were probably on a bachelor or bachelorette party.

When we walked off the main streets through some of the pedestrian-only narrow alleys the area felt a little less safe.  The smell of marijuana was pervasive, and every section seemed to have at least one head shop.  A couple times we had to push our way through crowds of people blocking the whole alley outside of bars.

Before we went back to our hotel, we stopped at a street vendor to buy some fries served in a paper cone.  It seemed like a cool way to serve them until we reached the bottom of the cone and both got ketchup all over our hands.  As twilight was fading to night, around 10 p.m., we returned to our hotel to prepare for the next day.

On Sunday we left for a full day in Amsterdam, right after our hotel breakfast.  It’s a 10 minute walk through suburban streets to the train station, and it was interesting to see that the canals are all over in the suburbs too.  Many of the modern office buildings had moats around them, and the canal water was clearer than in the city.  Clear enough that at one spot we could even see some carp swimming around.

When we arrived in Amsterdam we headed directly to the boat dock outside the station.  There are many different boat companies that move tourists around the city, but they all seem to have boats of the same shape: long, skinny, and low to the water.  I’m thinking it’s probably because that is the biggest boat that can travel the canals. When we rode our boat there were a few bridges where the clearance looked like less than a foot on the top and sides.  The company we bought tickets from was called The Canal Water Bus, and our tickets allowed us to hop on and off the boat as many times as we wanted during the day.

As the boat traveled along there was an automatic speaker that spouted out facts about the city and sights we passed in the languages of Dutch, German, English and French.  Some interesting facts were that there are over 600,000 bikes in the city, that around 10% get stolen every year, and that lots of them are sitting at the bottom of the canals.  We also learned that most of the buildings in the city have a hook and rope system sticking out from the roof, which is used to lift goods to the upper stories. Because of this system many of the buildings were built at an angle so that when the goods are being lifted they won’t bang against front of the building.

Our first exit from the boat was at the Rijksmuseum, which is the Dutch national art and history museum.  Inside are four floors with a dizzying amount of artifacts and paintings from Dutch history.  We stopped for lunch before entering, and both tried a new twist on pancakes.  My pancake had an Indonesian chicken filling, and Melissa had one with ham, cheese, and onions on top.  They were both good enough, that I’m thinking it would be fun to try similar recipes at home sometime.

Inside the museum I learned that the Netherlands, just like every other European country, has a lot of history.  I could probably visit the museum 100 times and learn something new each time.  The museum does a good job not glossing over their colonial past, and is home to many famous paintings.  My only complaint is that at 17.50 Euros per person, admission was expensive.

When we hopped back on the boat after the museum, we had the same captain.  We rode for a while then hopped off to look for a bar/brewery located in an old windmill.  Our walking path took us through the center of Amsterdam where we found some prostitutes. We didn’t see anything advertising where they were, we were just walking down a main street when we turned into a side alley. In the alley instead of normal doors all the buildings had full length glass doors, and standing behind each door was a girl in her underwear.  Some were dancing, some were opening and closing their doors trying to lure customs, and some were just watching the people go by trying to make eye contact.  It was a strange sight to see, but don’t worry about looking through my photo album I didn’t take any pictures, I don’t think it’s allowed and it would be in poor taste.

At the windmill brewery we had three beers each.  Melissa was satisfied because they were all microbrews and a couple of them were quite hoppy.  The area around the brewery was a nice change of scenery too.  It was far enough from the city center that the sidewalks weren’t packed with tourists.

After our beers we walked to a different boat stop and hopped on to see the same captain for a third time.  We rode back to the central train station, then found a restaurant nearby to have steak and fries, which is much cheaper than in Switzerland.  I felt like we were busy all day, but still missed a lot of sights.  A hard part about traveling is that sometimes there are just too many interesting things to see and not enough time in the day.

On Memorial Day we visited the American Cemetery in Margraten, but that deserves it’s own post.

Monday night, after returning from the cemetery, we walked through the city one last time, and had waffles and beer for dinner.  Then on Tuesday morning we took the first hotel shuttle to the airport at 5:50 a.m.  In hindsight it would have been better to leave for the airport sooner, because we became a little stressed out trying to make the flight on time.  We first went to the wrong terminal entrance and then got separated in security.  By the time we made it to the gate it was only 20 minutes before take-off, but they still let us on.

Overall, Melissa’s impression of the city was that it reminds her of Minneapolis, with all the water, bicycles, and the beer selection at bars.  But for me Las Vegas comes to mind, because a large portion of the tourists seem college aged, and casino’s, weed, and prostitution are all legal.

[Show slideshow]