Netherlands - Page 4

Amsterdam

After an hour of relaxed driving we reached Amsterdam. The previously selected parking garage was not accessible because of a construction site, meant first stress. For me - without any experience - it was first not apparent where the border between road, rail and bike path is visible. Also stopping briefly to investigate was hardly possible, everything fully parked and prohibition signs everywhere. Eventually, of course, we found a place, but it was getting a bit unrelaxed. 1pm I had booked a ticket for Believe it or not. Meant in the end: 1/2 hour walk in to the city, then 1/2 hour walk back to the car to get luggage, then 3/4 hour walk to the hotel. And since you still want to see something: 3/4 hour walk into town, then back in the evening. One thing learned: Netherlands next time environmentally friendly only by train 🙂.

But you should have learned to improvise if you're on the road more often. So Ripley's Believe It or Not! also became an interesting change from conventional museums. If one like curiosities and bizarre things, these odditoriums exist in other countries as well. After hotel check-in, we marched past the Heineken Brewery, the second largest brewing company in the world, toward the city center. Along the Amstel we crossed some canals, marveled at the many houseboats and gabled houses, walked over the flower market in the direction of the museum district.

In front of the Rijks-Museum soothing classical music sounded, a few students probably earned something in addition here in the passage. Deservedly, sounded wonderful. Here on the Museumplein pile up renowned museums, among other things was here still the Van Gogh Museum and also Banksy, the famous street artist exhibited here. But museums were no longer on the plan today, something edible had to come by slowly and so we wandered out of the beautiful museum park in the direction of kebab stand. In general, certain Must Do's were not on our plan. Manu was already here in several museums, knew the canal trips and De Wallen, the red light district.

Paul was rather in football fever, and so we planned the next day individually. We walked to Johan Cruijff Arena outside the center. First, the way ran along the Amstel out of town, many noble houseboats were here. Later it looked more like a commercial area, then we saw the beautiful arena in the middle of some skyscrapers There were guided tours through the stadium, but the time was too short, we also wanted to go back to the city. Paul still looked for fan articles of Ajax, then we made our way home, with airplanes landing above us every minute.

Arriving in the city center, we first got a good overview of the city center from the sloping roof of NEMO, the Science Museum. Passing the Sea-Palace, we then walked to the harbor. It was raining very hard by now, and there was only fog hanging on the water. So we decided to walk slowly home through the canal belt, not without looking at some of the beautiful things here: the Amsterdam Centraal train station, the Royal Palace and of course the many picturesque gabled houses.

Our brief impression of the Netherlands: Besides its special geographical location, the country impresses with its diversity, its openness, its tolerance. There is so much to discover here in terms of art, technology and future projects that no vacation would be enough. In summary: A young, progressive country, which is also beautiful 🙂.