Damn!!! Amsterdam!

Fabulous! That is how I would describe the quint city of Amsterdam. The capital city of The Netherlands hosted the most wonderful & relaxed vacation I have ever taken. Let me tell you why.

Despite landing into Schipol Airport with temperatures at 4 degrees below zero & snow over the entire landscape, we (a friend & I) began our journey to our hotel in a Mercedes S350 driven by a Hollander with the quirkiest sense of humor. He had us in splits all the way to the hotel. By the time we got to the Renaissance Hotel, I had a stich in my side.

My first impression of Amsterdam: a city that has a wonderful mix of the old & the new. Amsterdam has more canals than Venice & is a lot cleaner! Houses line both sides of the canals. All the houses look the same, with steep roofs & gables to hide their steepness, a hoisting arm at the top to help if you are moving houses. Quaint is the only word that comes to mind. And there is a lot of quintness all around.

Trivia: Amterdam is named after the dam on the Amstel river. Amstel - Dam! Amsterdam! :-)

By sheer coincidence (and no prior planning, as usual), we had chosen a hotel which was a short walk away from Central Station (pronounced "Centraal Sta-choon"). Here, we figured out that we could get a 72 hour pass which allowed us to hop on & off any tram, bus or train that we wanted & to whatever points within the city. For 13 euros, we thought this was a steal & so this was now the mode of transport that we had chosen.

Then we figured out that the trams go almost everywhere! Which was a big bonus. Cause we could look at the various places on the way & just hop off if we notice anything interesting. Plus the tram stops were a lot better to spot than bus or train stops & so we decided to stick with the tram network.

Taking the No. 2 tram, we experienced very funny (to Indian ears) sounding names like Dam (pronounced as "The Daam", which is the same dam which assists in the nomenclature of Amsterdam), Konningsplein, Kaisersgracht (which is the Emperor's Canal ... so gracht is canal in Dutch), Princengracht (by the previous explanation, is the Prince's canal) and finally Leidseplein (which we fondly called Led Zepplin, dont ask me why...I'll hit you!). Leidseplein hosts the most number of pubs, restaurants & shops that we could see. It very quickly became our favourite place to go to in case we were stuck for a decision. There's a Hard Rock Cafe, a British cafe which shows a lot of soccer games live, a lot of coffee shops.

Let me clarify. A coffee shop in Amsterdam is unlike any coffee shop that you will see in any other part of the world. A coffee shop in Amsterdam is the place where you go to get stoned! That's right. This is the place where you get grass (for those who are wondering why cow fodder is being sold at a coffee shop, you should not be reading this blog!). And I think Amsterdam is the only place in the world where you have to show an ID to enter a coffee shop.

One thing that has been on my list of must-do things in Amsterdam was a visit to the Van Gogh Museum. I am a huge fan of his & always wanted to see the Master's work in person. I should have been ready to have mixed emotions & more realistic expections. On the positive side, the Master is simply great. No picture, photograph or imitation will give you the sense of what this genius was capable of. No print in the world can come close. The thick oil waves still visible, the awesome mixing of colours, the fantastic sense of space in the paintings. Simply amazing. It was one of the most gratifying experience to see the Master's work up close. On the flip side, though, was the nag that there were not enough of his masterpieces in the museum. There were very few of them on display. Some of his most famous ones, like Starry Night, weren't there. There was only one of the famed "Sunflowers". I guess I had too many expectations from the museum. The artist came good, the museum didn't.

Having spent so much time on the Van Gogh museum, I should warn you that there more than a hundred museums in Amsterdam & I would take forever to describe my experience with each of them. Suffice to say that you should budget some time in Amsterdam to see a lot of this (if you are intersted in the arts).

Heineken! The word sums up the flagship beer of The Netherlands. And boy, did we have a lot of it. And to top it all, we went for "The Heineken Experience" which is a guided tour of the old Heineken brewery. This was a great experience...knowing the process of making beer, peering into the huge brewing chambers, multimedia shows and of course, more beer... all for 10 euros. A definate must-go for people in Amsterdam for the first time.

Amsterdam is also one of the centers for the diamond industry. I was told, before I went there (obviously, by my wife), that diamonds are available quite cheap and that I should get some. Let me clear that piece of rumour right away. India is far, far cheaper for buying diamonds than Amsterdam will ever be. I dont want to go on a trip on the India diamond market as this is a blog on Amsterdam, but believe me when I say this: Amsterdam is NOT cheap for diamonds!

And then there's the shopping. We did a lot of it. But mostly souvenier shopping for a lot of friends back home.

What we did the most was walk around the city & just experience the culture. Go into places that looked interesting. Talk to people about the history & the culture of the place. We even had ideas of going to Rotterdam, which is the port city of The Netherlands, but we decided against it.

Now for the bad things. The Dutch don't like to smile. That is one things I noticed of all of them. They all walk around with a scowl on their face. Maybe it's the weather which makes them frigid, maybe not. But they just dont smile.

Another thing. They will not offer you water to drink. It's almost a crime if they do. Even if you ask for a glass of tap water, they will refuse. Instead, they will sell you a bottle of water for 3 euro. We even asked one of the waitresses in a bar about this & she said that her manager had reprimanded her once for giving a guest some water. In my culture, it's a sin to deny anyone water, even your own enemy. So this was extremely strange for me.

And the place was bloody cold! Freezing! For people belonging to the temperate climates of India, Amsterdam was a completely different ball game. Maybe we went at the wrong time of the year, maybe it's always like this. The only saving grace was that the temperature a couple of days before we landed was 27 degrees below zero. And that changed to over zero temperatures for the entire duration of our stay. So I guess we were better off than we could have been.

And last but not least, I hate Schipol airport! It is the lousiest international airports I have ever been to & don't intend to ever go to that airport unless I am going back to Amsterdam (which I will most probably go again). There are no places where people can catch a nap. The airport closes between midnight & 4am. They dont admit people until 3 hrs from the flight time. The food is bloody expensive & the staff is bloody apathetic to any problem you might have.

But despite all of this, I still think this was the most relaxing, enjoyable, stress free and most leasurely vacation I have had in a long, long time. If you want to take a vacation, I would most definately recommend Amsterdam!

Phew! After reading this, I'm sure you need a break. I sure need one. So see you at the next blog! Maybe I'll have pictures of the trip posted on the blog by then (if I forget I am a lazy bum for a few hours).