Our first plan of action after arriving in Amsterdam was to head for the excursion desk at the terminal. My wife and I told the man at the booth we wanted to take a tour, maybe a bus tour. He says to us, almost conspiratorially, “You don’t want to see Amsterdam from inside a bus.” We talked briefly (there was a line behind us) and he suggested a bicycle shop a few blocks down. (I used the word ‘conspiratorially’. I said that because I don’t think he offered that suggestion to anyone else in the group we arrived with, at least not that I heard.) Then again, we were younger than most of the people in line to visit the tourism booth at that time.
The day was overcast, but the clouds would burn off by midday leaving plenty of sunshine. Departing the terminal, we walked in the direction the guy manning the tourist booth sent us sent us. As we walked, we took in the sights of Amsterdam, and started to feel its vibe rather quickly. Along the harbor we saw a couple of river cruise boats as well as some of those long, low canal cruise boats; probably one of which we’d be taking later in the afternoon. There were some mid-rise waterfront apartments off in the distance.
Right after this I spied a sign promoting the annual Kwaku Summer Festival (https://kwakufestival.nl). I have no idea what the Kwaku Festival is but it did look like it would be fun. Plus, I know someone back in the States by the name of Kwaku so I sent him a photo of this sign.
Lifting our eyes up from the sign and across the harbor again, we saw the unmistakable Eye Filmmuseum (https://www.eyefilm.nl/en), which I learned later is the national museum for film. The building has a very futuristic shape, almost like a geometric spaceship. Also unmissable was the 15-storey poster promoting the current exhibition, titled “Fellini”.
As instructed, we turned left at Amsterdam Centraal, but before going through the tunnel, we paused to look at the train station. On the other side of the tunnel we found MacBike, right where our friend said it would be. We wanted to take a bicycle tour. Alas, we just missed the guided tour by a matter of minutes and there wouldn’t be another one that day. We ended up renting bikes for a few hours.
No map, no plan
With no map and no real plan, we mounted our bikes and peddled away. In a way it was kind of liberating. No tour group to keep up with (or be slowed down by). No itinerary. On our own time. See what we wanted as we wanted. Unfortunately, we had no idea what we were seeing, no idea where we were going.
From MacBike, we took a northwest (I think) track, made roughly a rectangle, ending up back near Amsterdam Centraal. Gaining some confidence that I wouldn’t encounter any twisting streets that would get us hopelessly lost, I led us on a southwest (I think) course.
We biked past a few canals, and over countless bridges, stopping whenever, wherever we wanted to. Mainly for photo stops. I had heard that the canals around Amsterdam were arranged like a concentric semi-circle. That probably explains why we passed so many of them.
And along these canals we saw several houseboats. Some had floating a patio tied up to them. Some even had a smaller boat tied to the patio.
On one of these canals we spotted a tower. I learned later that it is called Montelbaanstoren. It seems to be of two different styles. On the bottom is a tower like those that are found on castles. The upper portion seems to be a steeple with a clock on its sides, a bell tower, and topped by a spire with a cross and weathervane. We paused here for a bit to take some pictures and watch some of the boat traffic along the canal. I did find it interesting that Montelbaanstoren sits on a base in the canal itself, not on the bank.
Our aimless route followed a series of squares that generally ran southwest, each picking up from the western side of the previous square. I thought this would be more interesting than just heading off in a straight line.
For some reason we turned toward the interior of Amsterdam, I guess in a southerly direction. Here we observed more of Amsterdam’s street life. And the canals we crossed here seemed to have more activity. Except now these appeared to be smaller private boats filled with Amsterdammers out for Sunday cruise or on their way to a gathering.
The clouds had burned off a while ago and we were now enjoying the sunshine on our bicycles.
While we were enjoying the street life, we spotted a car fabricated to look like a cat. Fur, ears, tail, even a real, strategically placed starfish (some of you will get that reference). My wife saw it first and told me to grab a photo. The car was moving and people were walking in front. I was only able to grab two photos. Normally I would not post snapshots like this, especially with someone’s shoulder in the shot, but this was the best of the two I was able to get. And you probably would not have believed me otherwise.
Somehow, we found ourselves in Rembrandt Square (Rembrandtplein). I know this because there is statue of the painter in the center. Rembrandt is surrounded by several bronze sculptures. I think these were installed to help depict Rembrandt’s famous work The Night Watch. The area is lined by cafés and restaurants, some of which double as nightclubs when the sun goes down. All of this surrounds a large grassy area.
Art is not really my forte, but I can identify the work of certain artists. In elementary school, we studied some of the masters, Rembrandt being one of them. At the time I was able to pick out his paintings by his style. I have since lost that ability, probably due to not seeing very many examples of his paintings since then. So it was very cool to come across Rembrandt’s statue, especially in the way we did today.
Rembrandt Square seems to be a very popular spot for locals and tourists alike. I’d guess it’s just as popular at night. When we rode up, the square was quite busy with people moving about, relaxing on the grass, eating, drinking. There was a quartet of musicians playing: trumpet, guitar, well-worn bass, and an accordion.
Now before we arrived, we were advised that some of the coffee shops in Amsterdam, um, sell more than coffee. Though we did not plan to indulge, we did kind of want to go inside to see what these shops looked like, possibly see what they had for sale. Did one (or more) of the coffee shops here sell more than coffee?
The light rail system in Amsterdam seems to be pretty extensive. It looks like it works very well. We saw train tracks on many of the streets we went down. The system appears to run much better than many transit systems back in the States, except maybe New York.
As we rode, we did a typical clueless tourist move: we pedaled right into in the middle of a transit hub with buses and trains moving in and out. That was on me since I was leading. A couple of the trains and buses had to stop to allow us to figure out how to get out of the way. We got more than a few dirty looks – deservedly so.
The departure time for the boat cruise we booked was approaching so we turned and headed back toward MacBikes. This time we took a direct route back. Though we had a nice time exploring the city without any map or guide, I think we might have enjoyed it more had we had some explanation of the sights in the city. Still, I think the advice our friend gave us at the excursion booth was spot on. I’m glad we did not opt to see Amsterdam from inside a tour bus.
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