In what seems to be a city wide promotion, this huge sign was just outside the famous Rijksmuseum. A beautiful building, famous for housing one or two million Rembrandts. Unfortunately, as with most of the museums, it was under renovation. We did manage to spend a few hours at the Van Gogh Museum, which we loved; it was an interesting exhibit with some of his best works on display (The Bedroom, Wheat field and crows, Sunflowers).
We loved the atmosphere of Amsterdam. It seemed very relaxed with tons of bikes around, just cruising along. It didn't feel like a big city, but along with all the canals and bridges, there were flower boxes everywhere. The beautiful canals were lined with narrow, wonky houses of all different shapes and sizes with fancy architecture and gables. The buildings have a distinct lean forwards towards the street with a pulley at the top of the gable deliberately designed to move and hoist furniture into the building. One day strolling the streets, it was pretty cool to watch a huge fridge being hoisted in through the window.
Of course, no trip to Amsterdam would be quite complete without seeing the infamous red light district. Being a native to Amsterdam, Stiffler had no desire to see it, but as we strolled towards the area we encountered it by accident. Actually, it's really quite a picturesque area being in the older part of town. It is also the 'coffee shop' district - where shops sell 'wacky backy' in a somewhat legal fashion! Not our cup of tea, or even 'coffee', but it had a cool vibrant atmosphere even though very popular with tourists. We strolled around the red light district later at about 9pm and it didn't feel as seedy as we expected. Of course, it's hard to miss the girls in each window and the Erotic museums along the road. We did get offered various stimulants by people selling on the streets and bridges though, but no different from other parts of the world, I suppose. * Mush
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