Having never been to Amsterdam before, I've high hopes that the city adds up to more than it's reputation as a continental Blackpool. we arrive in cold, drizzly weather, but that doesn't dampen my spirits. This kind of weather is ideal for exploring a city, as you don't feel too bad about lingering over coffee, or ducking into a cheesemongers to warm up a little.
The tacky touristic part of town is as expected: hazy stag-parties giggling outside coffee shops, and rough looking sex workers jiggling inside windows. In the drizzle it feels like a cross between a crap Norfolk seaside town in the winter and a kinkier version of Camden. The eating options are grim, with gaudy chinese restaurants, fast food joints, depressing Italian restaurants and, for some reason, dozens of Argentinian steakhouses.
On the plus side, the rest of Amsterdam is marvellous. The network of concentretic canals makes for picturesque rambling around the city, pausing occasionally to admire the architecture, peer into an antique shop, or make way for a cyclist. The Rijksmuseum is just small enough to prevent the onset of museum fatigue, although I reckon that Rembrandt fellow was overrated. I can appreciate the whole light and shade thing, but next to Vermeer, or de Hooch it all looks a bit souless. A bit like he was painting for the money. Anyhow, the best thing to follow a traipse around the Rijksmuseum is coffee and a waffle, eaten in a freezing shed by the nearby ice skating rink:
Our Dutch cousins do a great cup of coffee, and that waffle provided 120% of the recommended calorific intake. Check out the plate though - I haven't seen one like that since staying in my Auntie Edna's static caravan in the early 80's.
I miss my flat cap.
The tacky touristic part of town is as expected: hazy stag-parties giggling outside coffee shops, and rough looking sex workers jiggling inside windows. In the drizzle it feels like a cross between a crap Norfolk seaside town in the winter and a kinkier version of Camden. The eating options are grim, with gaudy chinese restaurants, fast food joints, depressing Italian restaurants and, for some reason, dozens of Argentinian steakhouses.
On the plus side, the rest of Amsterdam is marvellous. The network of concentretic canals makes for picturesque rambling around the city, pausing occasionally to admire the architecture, peer into an antique shop, or make way for a cyclist. The Rijksmuseum is just small enough to prevent the onset of museum fatigue, although I reckon that Rembrandt fellow was overrated. I can appreciate the whole light and shade thing, but next to Vermeer, or de Hooch it all looks a bit souless. A bit like he was painting for the money. Anyhow, the best thing to follow a traipse around the Rijksmuseum is coffee and a waffle, eaten in a freezing shed by the nearby ice skating rink:
Our Dutch cousins do a great cup of coffee, and that waffle provided 120% of the recommended calorific intake. Check out the plate though - I haven't seen one like that since staying in my Auntie Edna's static caravan in the early 80's.
I miss my flat cap.
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