1.5 Euro beef croquette machine. And yes, it was delicious.
It’s still pouring outside and I was a little too optimistic when I packed my suitcase with only summer shorts and dresses. As I sit here in my new wet sandals waiting for my tights to dry off before heading out for lunch, I’m looking at my Amsterdam photos and realizing that it wasn’t the sun that made the first day my favourite of this trip.
Each day that I’ve been here, I’ve taken some form of a tour and each one has been nearly identical making each day a little more repetitive. When I first arrived, it was Priya who took me and Div on a walking tour of the city and we covered everything our organized tour guide covered on day two, and then some. This morning our canal bike tour was cancelled due to the rain so we took a covered canal boat tour and again we toured the same buildings and passed the same locations we had already walked past. It was a lovely ride, but having taken three city tours I’ve come to the conclusion that tourists shouldn’t take a tour at all.
The best way to discover Amsterdam is to go about your day as though you live here. Take a long walk all throughout the city, shop and eat the croquettes that are served at the fast food walls for 1.5 €, have a free Nespresso cappuccino at the Bijenkorf, and wave to the tourists that float by with their guides as you sit along the canal sipping beer or wine and chatting with new Dutch friends. Amsterdam is a city with a culture that stands on its own even without the converted churches, Indian trading company warehouses, or their new Buddhist temple. If you have a question about something like the hoisting beams that can be found on every narrow house, simply ask the Dutch. They’re all very friendly, helpful, and speak fluent English.
In case you’re wondering by the way, the protruding beams with hooked ends on each house are for moving furniture into / out of homes because the houses are so narrrow. They are narrow because back when they were first built, houses were taxed based on their width and not their length so the Dutch would build very narrow long houses.
