Amsterdam, part 1: The city of bikes and canals

Amsterdam view from canal level.

We were sad to leave Iceland; it had captured our hearts in just a week.  We could not be too sad though, since we were heading to Amsterdam for a week, and more time in Europe beyond that.  We flew through Oslo, Norway, where we had an impressively expensive, but very tasty, airport dinner, then on to Amsterdam.  We enjoyed the views from the airplane of the very flat farmland and lots of (modern) wind mills.  A taxi driver with excellent English (so common here, wow!) and a fondness for 80's John Hughes movies delivered us to our apartment for the week in northern Amsterdam.  He commented that we did well in finding a place in a nice neighborhood, and we agreed that it looked pretty awesome.  We were instantly dazzled by the canals, bridges and cute buildings.

Our 'hood.

Happy in our new home for the week.

Our cute street.  Notice the ubiquitous hoisting beams at the top of houses for moving things in and out.

Hoisting beam in action across the street.  They were moving out a bed frame.

We had fun exploring Amsterdam a bit on foot and via canal boat tour.   Nik and Sully decided to rent bikes for the week, in order to explore even more and experience the city as the natives do.  The rest of us followed suit the next day, so that the whole family was outfitted with one-speed bikes from Yellow Bikes.  We were traveling in style!

Neighborhood floating playground

A canal cruise boat just like the one we enjoyed.

We expected to see many bikes in Amsterdam, but what a scene it is in person!  Bikes are everywhere, filling a 3-floor bike parking garage next to the train station.  All manner of bikes for transporting and carrying all manner of people and things.  If you want to learn the very interesting history of bikes in Amsterdam, read In the City of Bikes, by Pete Jordan.  Highly recommend!  After reading the book, I was intimidated about biking in Amsterdam, but once I tried it, I was hooked!  It is a great feeling to ride with the massive flow of bikes, like a blood cell in the circulation of the city.  There are bike lanes and paths everywhere, including stop lights specific to bikes.  Nik was always our leader and navigator, and I think this had a whole lot to do with our great experience.  He is a natural!

We were impressed!

Bakfeits: Dutch minivan!

Space for 2 kids plus groceries here.  

Party bike!

The boys on their newly rented bikes.

Nik and Sully's sweet rides.

Bikes for the whole family.

Sully on the bike ferry.

Lots to explore in this town.

The whole crew in Vondelpark.

Among the attractions we biked to were the Stedelijk (modern art) Museum, with a special exhibit on Matisse, and the Houseboat Museum (http://www.houseboatmuseum.nl/), which is an actual canal houseboat that you can tour.

Typical canal houseboat, across from the houseboat we toured.

Houseboat kitchen

Houseboat bed with an appropriate Matisse.

We also biked to dinner at an Indonesian restaurant, of which there are many, thanks to Dutch colonialism in Indonesia.  Here we tried the rijsttafel, “rice table,” a delicious selection of Indonesian dishes.  This food is especially dear to Nik's heart, after the three years he and his family spent in Singapore during his formative teenage eating years.

Our Indonesian rijsttafel "rice table" feast.  Sully was feigning disinterest here!  It was delicious.

Bikes and sunshine.