Sadly, traveling to Amsterdam brought our airplane-free streak to an end. This was doubly sad because Arlanda airport, in Stockholm, is way outside the city. From Nacka, it was over an hour for us to get there. Then the flight had a short layover in Copenhagen… it was a long travel day. Fortunately, our hotel was very close to the airport in Amsterdam, so once we landed, getting to our place was easy.

Why’d we stay out close to the airport? Because Amsterdam is, not to put too fine a point on it, fucking expensive. We got a hotel on credit card points because we couldn’t afford anything. Actually, come to think of it, we got our flight there on credit card points too, because we couldn’t afford anything. “Free” trip to Amsterdam!

Amsterdam

We only had two nights in Amsterdam so we had to hit it hard. It was sort of late afternoon when we got in, and it was raining, so we didn’t bother trying to get into the city, deciding instead to pack it into one busy day starting the next morning.

Getting into the city that next morning was easy, as the train station was a short walk from our hotel. From there, we blasted down to the heart of the city, Amsterdam Centraal station.

We walked out into the beautiful sunshine blanketing the center city, and into the teeming masses. And, I gotta admit, after a short walk my snap judgement was: I don’t like it. I was tired of the tourists, and this area felt so touristy. Obviously we’ve been to a lot of touristy places; maybe I was just getting tired of them, but it felt different this time, more grating. Even the famous permissiveness of marijuana–the coffee shops–just felt annoying, rather than liberating, as in this area it was so obviously pitched to tourists, as opposed to just feeling like some regular thing.

But… this touristy center is not Amsterdam. As we walked away from the center, I told myself to give it time.

Amsterdam is famously a city of canals, which form rings around the center city. They provide most of the photographic beauty you almost certainly recognize the city for. And, it turns out, as you walk away from the center, the more canals you cross, the better Amsterdam gets.

It is an endlessly charming city, and once you get out a few rings, it is easy to love. The canals are supremely and universally beautiful, with calm, clear, shimmering waters, and flowers along the sides. Many of them are lined with houseboats, some with people living in them and some available as hotels or B&B’s. It used to be poor people who would live in their boats along the canals. But as usual, well-to-do people came and co-opted what poor people have to do merely to survive, called it ‘cool’, and then displaced all the poor people.

The streetscapes are beautiful, and as you walk out a few rings, the streets become more and more residential. I always love being out in the real neighborhoods of a city, instead of the tourist neighborhoods they use to present themselves and draw others. It’s out in these areas that Amsterdam is fantastic.

Touring the City

Our wanderings out of the city center were the beginnings of an ambitious self-guided walking tour of the city. First, we walked past the Anne Frank House. This is where Anne Frank and her family hid during the Nazi occupation in WWII, before being found and sent to the concentration camps. You may have heard of her.

We continued out across more canals heading for an important landmark in the day’s itinerary: the Foodhallen. These big food halls have become a staple of our European travels! For 10 euro, we got a big mezze platter that easily fed both of us. Fantastic!

From the Foodhallen, we walked south to Vondelpark, the large beautiful park on Amsterdam’s west side. As well as being a beautiful place to walk through, we were curious about Vondelpark because there was some indication that it may be legal to have sex there. Outside. I know! We got very confusing information looking this up on the internet. But it sounds like it was made ‘legal’ by some community government, but Amsterdam police were like nah, that’s against city law, we’re not allowing that.

We next made our way to the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam’s huge collection of Dutch and other European art. It’s a beautiful building, and a beautiful museum, but uh… between you and me… Dutch art, whew… pretty drab!

After the museum, we started to move back in toward the center city, to pay a quick visit to the Bloemenmarkt. Set on a series of barges floating in one of the canals, it is a huge flower market. You can buy flowers, bulbs, seeds–everything you need to enjoy or grow flowers of your own. It’s pretty cheap too, and don’t worry tourists–they have you covered! They can package up all their stuff for you to take back home to the US or Canada! Not Australia though–they’re pretty militant about what plants can be brought in.

Shortly after, we were looking for dinner, and spotted a place speaking our language: charcuterie and cheese platters with wine. It… wasn’t cheap! But a couple glasses of wine and some decadent platters were a perfect way to finish up our day in Amsterdam!

Well… One More Thing…

There was one more stop to make. On our way back to the train station, as it was getting dark, we wound our way to the east side of the city center, to take a walk through the famous red light district. No trip to Amsterdam was complete without a tour, we figured, even if neither of us were, uh, in the market.

It was early, so there wasn’t a lot going on yet. But, some of the windows were indeed already lit up red, with women trying to attract customers. And, a few times we saw men exiting rooms, so I guess the women weren’t wasting their time with the early start.

As I said, it was early, and it gets much crazier later at night. But it was weird how normal it all feels. Families are still walking the streets at that time, and it largely felt like window shopping in any other market.

However, we didn’t get to see it get any crazier–because a big, bad thunderstorm showed up and chased us out of town. We put our little umbrellas up but still got soaked as we ran back to Centraal station to take the train home.

Visiting Friends Around the World

That rain stuck around through most of the next day.

We stayed trapped at our hotel, as wave after wave of rain came through. It would stop, clear up, with the sun shining brightly… just to turn literally minutes later, with another drenching round of rain.

We had a train out of town in the afternoon, and had hoped to go into the city for a bit. But, instead, we just waited at the hotel until it was time to go.

Where we were going was Zwolle.

Where?

Yeah, Zwolle.

Since visiting the Netherlands, we’ve met two Dutch people on our travels, who we then told how we visited Zwolle. Both times they kind of crinkled up their nose and asked, ‘Why in the world did you go to Zwolle?’

‘Why in the world’ is because Erika knows someone who lives there. One of the students–Kervin–from the school in Honduras where Erika volunteered is now all grown up and lives in Zwolle, Netherlands, with his girlfriend Emma. She’s Dutch, and they met while he was at college in Delaware, and she was briefly studying there. Now, they live in Holland. It’s adorable.

So we took the train an hour or so to spend the night with them. They were kind enough to let us stay the night, they bought us Thai food, Kervin took us out for drinks at a local bar. Basically, they were way too nice to us, and we couldn’t be more thankful and appreciative.

Zwolle, it turns out, is lovely, and while dodging the never ending rain storms, Kervin and Emma took us for a short walking tour of the city. It’s compact, easily walkable, with plenty of cute places to eat and drink. There’s also a ton of fun street art decorating the sidewalks, which makes use of perspective for some entertaining effects.

Zwolle, it turns out, also gets rowdy. Kervin and Emma have a–frankly amazing–apartment right in the center of town. However, it’s also right where the party is at, and there ain’t no party like a Zwolle party, cause a Zwolle party don’t quit. Apparently. It was quite loud until god knows when.

Visiting with Kervin and Emma was awesome, and I wish we could have stayed longer. Thank you both so much, we can’t wait to return the favor!

What’s Next?

Whew, even by our fast-forwarded Europe trip standards, the Netherlands was a blur. There’s so much more to do and see, but they really like to take your money there, so we’re going to have to come back with more of it.

For now, we moved on, taking a short train ride south to Brussels, Belgium. Come back next time to learn the naked truth about Brussels!