Amsterdam

This weekend Laura and I made our monthly extra-England trek abroad. 
We chose Holland because we got a good deal through Expedia.co.uk. 
Generally, we base our trip decisions on what deals are to be had on
travel websites.  So we had two nights in Amsterdam plus flights out
of Heathrow at reasonable times (which is unusual for cheap trips) for
a suprisingly good deal.

Our hotel was quite nice, rather out of the way, but it's nicer than our flat.

I'm not sure what's up with the European hotels and two single beds in
their hotel rooms despite advertising them as "Double" or "Queen"
rooms.

Amsterdam is an amazingly relaxed city.  I know what you're thinking,
"Right, relaxed due to rampant pot usage." but apparently this isn't
the case.  Suprisingly enough, according to our tour guide, 11 percent
of Dutch people have smoked marijuana in the last year.  Whereas in
Canada nearly 20 percent have admitted to smoking it.  Also, pot isn't
legal there, it's just decriminalized, like it is likely to become in
Canada.  Although I must say, it was a little unsettling seeing the
list of daught beers listed in pubs right beside the list of brands of
Marijuana.  The government controls very carefully the quality and
strictly enforces age restrictions and who can actually sell it. 
According to the locals, It's mainly tourists who partake excessively
and act up.


The redlight district was something else completely.  You simply can't
go there without feeling a) uncomfortable b) guilt c) a mixture of a)
and b).  Laura and I wandered around and saw all the woman standing
behind their windows.  Yes, they stand behind windows, which gives
"window shopping" a whole new meaning.  The "working women" are always
below red lights (hence the "Red Light District").  And no, I didn't
get any pictures of them, that is apparently a big social phopah.

Again, the government strictly controls this industry, requiring
licenses and regular medical tests etc.  They also outlaw "pimping" so
the women are always as a rule working for themselves.  They are
unionized and there is a pension plan!  They also have direct lines to
the police in case of problems and the police garauntee a response
time of one minute or less if they ring the alarm.

Now that I've talked about what everyone is likely to be wondering
about, we'll chat about what else we did/saw in Amsterdam.  First off,
the Dutch are all bikers!  50% of all trips taken in Holland are done
on Bicycle.  Whether thats going to see Grandma, or going to get
groceries.  Everyone has a bike.

If you zoom in on that middle picture, you'll notice that the "parking
lot" in the background is for bikes.  Crazyness.  There are seperate
roads and little side intersections for bicycles.  It's really smart:
on the roads they have a bike lane, but at most busy intersections,
they actually divert the bike lanes off of the main street an onto
seperate bike lanes away from the car traffic.  Much safer for bikers.
 Also, Amsterdam is uber-flat, so hills are not an issue.  The only
hills a cyclist need contend with are bridges going over the *many*
canals.

The Dutch bike fast and only ring their bells or yell to let you know
that impact is imminent.  So if you hear someone yell "Yah!" or
"Yoop!" you know you're in trouble.  Thats what they yell "Yay!",
really loudly to let you know you're in their way.  Then you have to
jump really fast or get creamed.  At first we were scared of said
biking culture, then we decided to embrace the madness and we rented
some bikes.


I mentioned the canals before.  This city has more canals than I could
cope with.  Every intersection seemed to go over a canal, and every
canal crossing looked like the previous.  It made navigation (even
with a map) a very difficult process.  We got very lost many times,
but got to see most of the city (two or three times over).  The canals
are nessisary because the city is built between 1 and 2 meters below
sea level.  It was a swamp before the Dutch began building wind mills
to power pumps to pump water out of the swamps.  So thats what all
those windmills were for, pumping water out of their farm fields and
cities.

... To be continued when I've had more sleep...

Here are all the pictures