Amsterdam

We drove into Amsterdam on Sunday and it was raining. We managed to find the hotel which we later realised could have been a lot more difficult given this canal city. The hotel was just over the outer canal from the old city so the roads were at least 2 way! We had to take the car back to the airport after dropping off all our stuff so we managed that, and managed to find the train back really easily. Then we just had a few beers in the non-smoking bar at the hotel as everywhere else is still smoking (until July - unfortunate timing on our part). Then we went to the Indonesian restaurant right next door which was half non-smoking and we had the best food. It was fabulous and we got so full! So ended the first day.
On the second day it was at least not raining, so we went for a walk. Here are some general shots around Amsterdam with the important bits noted.

Bikes - EVERYONE rides bikes. They have actual lanes for the bikes. Really cool. And they ride in the rain too!

The flower market. Since it was only just coming into spring, there were a lot of bulbs and not so many fresh flowers. You can also buy cans of marijuana seeds all ready for planting for about 3 euro. We thought better of it.

Back of the flower market.

So to the centre and the original dam in the Amstel river. Hmmmm, how did this city get its name I wonder.

Madam Tussaud's house of wax. We didn't go inside. More interesting things to see.


The local brew - unfortunately the brewery was closed for renovations until summer! AAAHHHH!!!

City hall in the central square.

We decided to take a canal cruise since it was an hour for 7 euro and had english commentary.

The central train station.

7 bridges over one canal. Pity about the construction.

This was the mayor's house.

Engineerin marvel of a bridge.

This is over the entrance to the tunnel under the harbour.

Since the houses date from the 1600s and the doors and stariways are so small, this is the only way to get furniture in and out. Most of the houses actually have their own furniture hooks at the top.

Very old part of town near the historical museum.

Yes, we went into said historical museum and that was great.

Don't leave your bike unlocked!

Ah, now this is interesting for those from UQ physics. Here they have dug up a barrel of pitch that has been underground for centuries. It was only put here in 2006. I wonder how long before it leaks? Their own pitch drop experiment!!!!!!!!!

The Dutch of course were great sea explorers and this was one of their very ealy maps. You can actually see the top of Australia at the bottom right!

To see how things would look, they often built models. These are of the town hall and other buildings before they were built.

Cog wheel as in the model in the next picture.

No, not a navigation instrument, actually a high pressure window washer.

This used to be attached to a building. The next photo describes what happened.

The house of Rembrandt.

They used to be able to close off all the canals, and had the wall around the city with fortifications and guard houses.




The second day in Amsterdam we hit the art galleries. We went to the Rijksmuseum where they have a fantastic collection of Rembrandt's paitings. They have many other paintings of the same era. We spent a few hours in there and closely inspected each painting. Absolutely AMAZING. I have never seen art like it. We also went to the van Gogh museum which doesn't have so many of his paintings and it was a little disappointing that they didn't have more. Oh well, what we did see was good.

That night we went to a Spanish restaurant that didn't have anyone smoking in it, probably because we were the only ones there!
As we left Amsterdam early Wednesday, we did not see any more. Off to Norway!