Buildings of Amsterdam

There are many ways to explore Amsterdam, by bike, boat, tram or just walk. I preferred walking, I did use the boat sometimes which I wrote about in the Grachten Post.
Since I arrived at the main station of Amsterdam, it was the first quite impressive building I spotted.

Amsterdam old town is famous for it's buildings.

  

"Grachten" of Amsterdam

Now Amsterdam is world famous for it's canals called Grachten.

They were used to be a direct link for all the trading people back in time. The time of trading with ships and stuff... no not the 20ties.
Ahh that's what I was looking for the 17th century, the Golden Age.
When they were sealing around the world, trading extraordinary spices...

...building new inventions, the art was blooming...

... and not to forget, were enslaving other cultures to work for them and steal their resources. Have a look at this map from the historic museum.

But hey let's not complain about the past, let us enjoy the present.

The Grachten are a really special thing to see, don't miss a cruise if you're there. They have day tickets or weekly tickets often in combination with other things, for example the trams. It's not the cheapest option, but it's worth it.

They have different routes to cruise with, some bring you a bit out in the port, near the high class hotels, in the front of the Anne Frank House or to the Tulp Museum.

Others will bring you through the Grachten with the houseboats. Which I found the best part.

There are still people living at houseboats. You may think, "Living at a boat? That can't be comfortable!" I might thought that too, but since I was there and had look, it seems very reasonable. Have a look for yourself:

chill :)

You definetly have to make sure that your getting up at the right side of your bed or you have your moring shower in an instant.

And okay your right, it may be a bit narrow, but hey... Amsterdam IS narrow, EVERYTHING! (At least the old towncenter ;). They have cafés which have room for three people and are profitable! Even the toilets, you can hardly sit and have shhsss... at them.

I have no idea how tall dutch people do their "big buisness" at such a toilet. There was like one cm space left between my knees and the door and I'm not tall! :)

Errmm... Anyway, where was I? Aja, the lovley Grachten.

Like most things, it's more fun to enjoy the Grachten with sun. You'll sit in one of the flat boats and enjoy Amsterdam in a quiet, relaxing way.

Also it's good fun to see a city from beneath, floating by at the water. Instead of seing a city from above, which is the more common thing. The Grachten are so amazing that they are an official world heritage since 2010. A must if you're in Holland and a should if you're in Europe.

And here's a movie to give a even closer look:

a day in Nijmegen

Next day after the pubcrawl, I went to Nijmegen, which is in the east of Holland, to meet up with Moni. I still was hung over, that's why it was hard to get up early to travel from Amsterdam to Nijmegen. I thought it will take me 1,5 hours to get to Njimegen with the train, but I guess it took me two hours or even two and a half, because they rebuilding the rails.

Anyway finally arriving in Nijmegen I met Moni and she was so kind to make me a nice breakfast to get rid of my hangover :)

Later on we grabbed a bike and explored the city, Moni showed me around. She had to go to a grocery and to the gobbler. She also met some of her friends, they seamed all nice and funny people, everybody was smiling and had fun! (Even the gobbler! But I guess it was because he made fun of me ;) But I loved to hear dutch, because as a german speaking person, you now and then understand some pieces.

Then went to the old town:

 

Of course we went to the church, you'll always go to these nice buildings, even tough you're not religions! Why is that anyway? :)

We also had a look at the market place, walk around and to the bridge:

I'm a bit sad that I didn't took pictures of the nice little backyards and smaller roads near where Moni lives, because it's lovely there. I only got this one (actually the one before with the coloured houses is one too):

And we went to the cheese shop in town.

Moni chose some good cheese for me, which I enjoyed the next days in Amsterdam. Two big chunks, that was enough for the hole week.

So that was a great day in Nijmegen and I enjoyed it very much! Thank you Moni! :)