Travelogue: Amsterdam
As all good things must come to an end, so too must my memorable trip to Europe. Two weeks seemed like a really short time to visit four cities steeped in history and culture, but in the end it turned out to be a very good balance between expense and enjoyment (I'm just a grad student on a slightly-better-than-shoestring budget!). I managed just 19 miles of running on the entire trip, but compensated a bit by walking more than 50 miles in the same period. Since many have asked about my trip, I thought it might be a good idea to post my itinerary in some detail on this blog. I intended for it to be just one entry, but it started ballooning up a bit, so I decided to split it in four sections, one for each city I visited. Move your mouse over each photo for a one-line description. Enjoy!
Friday, 28 July
Having woken up at the unearthly hour of 2am in order to make a 6am flight, I was pretty bleary-eyed when I landed in Amsterdam Schiphol 16 hours later at 7 a.m. local time. I nonetheless took a train to Amsterdam Centraal, where I dropped my bags off in a locker and met N. Amsterdam is a very pretty city with narrow streets and is crisscrossed by a number of canals. We first visited the Anne Frank house, which is a few minutes walk from Centraal Station in the historic district known as the Centrum. This is the building in which Anne Frank hid from the Nazis during WWII from 1942 up until her discovery and deportation to Auschwitz in 1944. We then proceeded to aimlessly wander the city, discovering street after street teeming with bicyclists and trams, nearly getting run over more than once. There are plenty of tourists in Amsterdam, and we saw many on numerous boats cruising the vast network of canals that cuts across the city. We met P in the afternoon and visited the Van Gogh museum, which houses many of his paintings. At this point, I was a little woozy from having slept just 3 of the past 48 hours and decided it was time to call it a day. We took a train to Utrecht (a half hour south of Amsterdam), where we were to stay with E and P. I think I went to bed at 7pm and woke up at 11am the next morning.
Saturday, 29 July
We started pretty late the next day thanks to my marathon sleeping session and reached Amsterdam around 2pm. We swung by the shipping museum, which details the maritime history of the Netherlands, followed by some more street roaming, a DIY backpacker-style lunch on the street beside a canal, and explored the Dam Square. At this point, I decided to go for my first run in the Vondelpark, which is in the southwestern corner of the city. Running with a map in hand, I proceeded to lose myself a few times before finally finding the park. The day's walking had taken its toll on my feet, but I still managed a good 55 minutes - a bit over 7 miles. I returned to Centraal Station, ate "dinner" on the platform and off we went to - ahem - the famed Red Light District. Although I didn't actually "do" anything here, just the sights and sounds of the place were completely different from anything I've ever seen or heard. Stay away from this place if you're orthodox and conservative. I think we returned to Utrecht at about 2am that night.
Sunday, 30 July
The next day, E was kind enough to take us out in his car to some very picturesque towns north of Amsterdam. These included Markem, which used to be a fishing village and still has a harbour for small boats and yachts, and Edam, famous for its Dutch cheeses. We spent most of the day walking around these towns and tasted some excellent cheeses. E and P treated us to a very nice dinner that night, as we were to leave for Paris the following morning.
Stay tuned for the next part - Travelogue: Paris
Friday, 28 July
Having woken up at the unearthly hour of 2am in order to make a 6am flight, I was pretty bleary-eyed when I landed in Amsterdam Schiphol 16 hours later at 7 a.m. local time. I nonetheless took a train to Amsterdam Centraal, where I dropped my bags off in a locker and met N. Amsterdam is a very pretty city with narrow streets and is crisscrossed by a number of canals. We first visited the Anne Frank house, which is a few minutes walk from Centraal Station in the historic district known as the Centrum. This is the building in which Anne Frank hid from the Nazis during WWII from 1942 up until her discovery and deportation to Auschwitz in 1944. We then proceeded to aimlessly wander the city, discovering street after street teeming with bicyclists and trams, nearly getting run over more than once. There are plenty of tourists in Amsterdam, and we saw many on numerous boats cruising the vast network of canals that cuts across the city. We met P in the afternoon and visited the Van Gogh museum, which houses many of his paintings. At this point, I was a little woozy from having slept just 3 of the past 48 hours and decided it was time to call it a day. We took a train to Utrecht (a half hour south of Amsterdam), where we were to stay with E and P. I think I went to bed at 7pm and woke up at 11am the next morning.
Saturday, 29 July
We started pretty late the next day thanks to my marathon sleeping session and reached Amsterdam around 2pm. We swung by the shipping museum, which details the maritime history of the Netherlands, followed by some more street roaming, a DIY backpacker-style lunch on the street beside a canal, and explored the Dam Square. At this point, I decided to go for my first run in the Vondelpark, which is in the southwestern corner of the city. Running with a map in hand, I proceeded to lose myself a few times before finally finding the park. The day's walking had taken its toll on my feet, but I still managed a good 55 minutes - a bit over 7 miles. I returned to Centraal Station, ate "dinner" on the platform and off we went to - ahem - the famed Red Light District. Although I didn't actually "do" anything here, just the sights and sounds of the place were completely different from anything I've ever seen or heard. Stay away from this place if you're orthodox and conservative. I think we returned to Utrecht at about 2am that night.
Sunday, 30 July
The next day, E was kind enough to take us out in his car to some very picturesque towns north of Amsterdam. These included Markem, which used to be a fishing village and still has a harbour for small boats and yachts, and Edam, famous for its Dutch cheeses. We spent most of the day walking around these towns and tasted some excellent cheeses. E and P treated us to a very nice dinner that night, as we were to leave for Paris the following morning.
Stay tuned for the next part - Travelogue: Paris
posted by The Thinking Runner at 5:39 PM
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