Vancouver to Amsterdam: April 9 to 13

April 9, 2012 to April 13, 2012

WEATHER: a mix of sun and cloud with a few showers, cool

We flew KLM from Vancouver to Amsterdam overnight on April 9, and arrived at Schipol Airport (15 ft. below sea level) at 10:30 am April 10. With our cumbersome Bike Friday suitcases and awkward duffels, we thankfully climbed into a taxi for the half hour ride to Hotel Verdi, on a tiny quiet street in the Museum district. Our room wasn't ready yet, so we walked to the tourist office at the Leidsplein to buy our Museumkaarts, which turned out to be an incredible value. For 45 euros, the card gives one free admission to most major museums in the whole country and is good for a year. We had already paid off our cards by the time we left Amsterdam on Saturday.

Bicycles, water and bricks characterize the central canal area of Amsterdam.

Our hotel room was on the top floor, up three flights of incredibly steep narrow stairs, but it was large and bright with a fridge and kettle and a nice view of trees and rooftops--worth the climb. Each morning a standard Dutch breakfast was served in a pleasant room on the ground floor, the walls papered with autographed posters of various classical groups who had stayed at the hotel and played at the nearby Concertgebouw, considered one of the finest concert halls in the world. We soon learned that the standard breakfast consisted of sliced meat and cheese, boiled eggs, yogurt and canned fruit, unexciting sliced bread and coffee or tea. A green salad was an unusual addition to the selection at the Verdi.

Central Amsterdam skyline as seen from the patio on the seventh floor of the library.

We spent the next three days walking for many kilometres around Amsterdam along the canals, visiting the Van Gogh museum, the Rijksmuseum, the Tulip museum and the Amsterdam history museum, as well as the brand new public library with its excellent cafe. Because it was high season and the week after Easter, the city was crowded with tourists, especially noticeable at the main squares and the museums. We were pleased that our museumkaarts gave us express entry into the Van Gogh museum, right when they opened, which allowed us to see his major paintings before the rooms filled up with people.

Tulip season in Amsterdam - a houseboat not far from the tulip museum.

The cycling culture here is quite amazing. Everyone rides bicycles. You see parents transporting two or three children (on one bicycle), fashionably dressed ladies wearing nylons and high high heels, old ladies with large purses, (who ride amazingly fast) and businessmen in suits and ties chatting on their cell phones. The train station is crowded with parked bicycles, and major streets have separate bike lanes with separate bicycle traffic lights. It was a treat to sit in a cafe at evening rush hour, and watch the hordes of cyclists ride by the window. There are still a lot of cars, though, as well as trams and some very loud motorbikes, which make the streets surprisingly noisy. All the buildings and many of the streets are brick and the sounds reverberate off the hard surfaces. Along the picturesque canals, cars and cyclists compete for space with pedestrians on the narrow streets, so if you're walking, you have to keep your eyes open. We weren't tempted to join the throngs of cyclists during these first few days when we were still a bit spaced out from jet lag.

Just part of the bicycle parking area outside the train station.

Central Amsterdam is lovely for walking, less so for cycling on brick-paved lanes along the canals.

We found a nice little restaurant, Pompa, very close to our hotel, and we ate there three of the four nights. After walking all day, we didn't feel like going far for dinner. They had a varied selection and were not expensive. Because of the nine hour time difference from home, the first evening felt like breakfast time to us, and we were served omelettes and English breakfast tea by the friendly wait staff.

Al hauled the heavy suitcases containing our Bike Fridays all the way up the three steep narrow staircases to our hotel room, where he put the bikes together, ready for our first ride to Utrecht on Saturday. The pleasant Japanese family who owned the hotel would keep our empty cases in their living room until we returned on May 7.

The bicycles, assembled and waiting patiently in the hotel room for the start of the journey.

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Graham FinchI see you're in BC -- just hope you're keeping cool there and not being totally roasted.
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