Amster....dam!

Along came the first long weekend in May and what better excuse than that to pack our bags and head off to another European destination. We spent some time trying to figure out which city we would like to visit but eventually settled on Amsterdam. Firstly, we would like to say that although we are well aware of some of Amsterdams attractions, it wasnt really why we wanted to visit. This argument proved to be difficult to swallow for the workmates, friends and family we informed about our intended trip. We just got the raised eyebrows and the "Uh huh" type response with a dig and a dirty smile from the blokes. Oh please, how wrong could all these people be? It seems not that wrong, but it was totally unintended, I promise.......

So our first impressions of Amsterdam were that it was quite a pretty place. We loved the layout of all the roads and canals and the thousands of bicycles lining the streets was a sight to be seen. Once again we were impressed by the brilliant transportation that the european cities offered. It was wonderfully reliable, fast, quiet, cheap and efficient - something that the UK had yet to master. It seems though that the Netherlands relies heavily on engineering which could explain why their infrastructure is very good for a relatively low population country. The constant engineering development is helped along not by the demand of the economy but by the demand of survival. The Netherlands is between 4 to 10 metres below sea level and is constantly having water pumped out to keep the lands dry enough to live on. This explains why they have an impressive windmill collection. These were not used to grind flour back in the day but to pump the water, mostly done by modern pumps these days.

On arrival in the city we made our way to our backpackers. Innocently following our map, we ventured into the outskirts of the redlight district which is where we found our accomodation. It was not such a bad spot really, being surrounded mainly by cafes, bars, restaurants and a dodgy looking toy store. So we found the door to our place, pushed the buzzer and were let in to be greeted by the steepest staircase we had ever seen in our lives. It was a couple of degrees off being vertical I kid you not! And the step size was wide enough to get your toes and a bit more on. We climbed it using both our hands and feet, without bending over. The owner assured us this was a typical Dutch staircase and that our room was on the third floor, great. So after being given our keys, the huffing and puffing continued up the narrow staircase to the third floor. What a wonderful room we found with original loft ceilings and a double window, a true Dutch experience - before red lights and green tobacco was invented.

Our first excursion out was a tour of the city. Spoilt for choice with tours by boat, bus, tram, foot or bike, we chose the canal boat. We were taken around the city under many ancient bridges and saw the way the people lived on and around the water. The waterways are such an integral part of Amsterdam and the city was built on the back of these liquid streets so it was really easy to imagine the life of the locals in years gone by as we cruised by and under the ancient structures.

Once off the boat we took a stroll up the main street and wandered into Dam Square. This is the thriving meeting place in the city and is surrounded by a great palace and cobblestoned streets. The weather on our first day was wonderful and sunny and it was not long before we had worked up a thirst. The drinking options are many and varied in Amsterdam, some more interested than others. We were just on our way to the pub when we were overtaken by the pub itself. This thing took drink driving to a whole new level. A 15 seater pub that was powered by its patrons, what an excellent way to get around the city and get home without driving. The pub came complete with a sound system and was steered and stopped by the bar tender. We had seen nothing like it and although it was impressive, it wasnt really our thing and besides we had neared our destination, home for a rest.

After having a snooze back home we decided to hit the town. Wandering through our neighbourhood was fairly straight forward and we settled into a nice wee irish bar for a drink and to watch the sailing on the sports screen. We had a bizarre moment in the irish pub where an uncanny amount of glasses were smashed within a very short period of time. The pub wasnt full, nor were the people particularly drunk, it just seems like one of those random moments - or a whole chain in a row. It was kind of like a fireworks show in a way, one stray glass elbowed off the bar by a guy over there followed by the broom and shovel guy, then another wine glass, a beer glass and the finale was an entire table of glasses tipping off an overturned table behind us after one of its legs fell over a step. We gripped our glasses tightly, looking like the only innocent people in the bar and finished up. Very weird, but very entertaining.

So our evening stroll took us through some of the darker side of Amsterdam which was not how we intended on spending our evening but it seems once in this labrinth, it is impossible to escape without going down one of the alleys. We ended up at a great bar where we met a German and American who we spent the rest of the night talking away to.

We woke the next day at around lunchtime and headed off to see the local museums. We skipped the Van Gogh museum and chose to see the vast Rembrant collection at the Amsterdam Museum. These paintings were huge and spectacularly detailed. The highlight was the NightWatch which is one of the most famous Rembrants. It was a little weird seeing famous art in the flesh. After our little tour of the arts, we went to check out Ann Frank's house. This is where Ann and her family hid from the Nazi's for 3 years during the war. Very surreal being in her bedroom where there is still writing and sketches of hers on the wall. We left feeling very lucky that we hadnt seen anything like that in our lives, being there made her seem like someone we could have known.

The next day was our last and we spent four hours on a tour of the countryside by bus. We visited windmills, cheese farms, dams and clog makers. We had a ride in a ferry across to an old island village which was like stepping back a hundred years. Becs wasnt feeling the best and the trip back to the village to fetch some lost tourists was not too popular at all. Our tour ended with rain which we were thankful didnt come any earlier in our trip. We just got enough time to walk around the corner to the worlds skinniest house, I could almost touch both walls.

Amsterdam was a wonderful weekend break and is well worth a visit despite what most people think you might want to go there for.