Springboards

The sights sounds and smells of Amsterdam

December 11^th – Amsterdam. We arrive at Central Station which is the best point to use for navigation around the city. Last time I was here it was a January and the temperature was minus 12  ̊C, and the cold sucked at your knees (or any lightly covered place) the minute one stepped outside. Today could be described as refreshingly cold. The hotel room is a welcome relief of cool space where you can even open a window, sheer luxury after the hothouse tiny boxes of Tokyo, London and Paris. Why do hotels feel the need to wind up the heat, sometimes unbearably, day and night?  It must cost as fortune to keep the heat up in winter and it makes sleeping (and breathing!) difficult.

 Out and about the streets of Amsterdam. I would call Amsterdam the city of sounds, or the city of music. There is music coming from the Dam and the sound of trams, ding ding, and an old man along Damrak Street plays the Xylophone, while music filters out from the different shops. This afternoon I explored the area between the Central Station and Dam Square.  Running parallel to and in between Damrak and Nieuwezijds-Voorburgwal Streets is a foot-traffic only street. Criss-crossing between Damrak and Nieuwezijds-Voorburgwal are many little lanes.  These and the foot-traffic only road are filled with restaurants (Italian, French, Chinese, McDonalds, KFC, Burger King), cheese shops, souvenir shops, places you can get a piercing, a Chinese massage, cannabis tea, smoking paraphernalia, sex toys, sex T-shirts, sex ashtrays, even a salt and pepper shaker set each in the shape of a penis, and clogs, clogs, clogs, clogs, clogs. Interesting smells waft around. Young men move in groups of up to eight or ten. Police also cruise through on foot and in groups of four to six. 

Amsterdam is an intriguing, stimulating and somewhat sleazy city. If you are looking for a city in Europe that is a little different, this is it – although of course I have many, many cities still to see.