11.08.11
Posted in Travel Log (N. America & Europe) at 1:40 pm by Benjamin Ross
This is the 7th entry from my 2011 Europe Trip.
The first place my feet touched down on the European continent was Amsterdam. Once the center of the world’s first modern capitalist economy, Amsterdam of today is a bustling Old World metropolis, full of both culture and debauchery.
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| Amsterdam’s most defining feature is the ring of concentric canals which form belts around the old city. |
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| Amsterdam was one of the world’s first cities to urbanize on an industrial sale, and its canals are the result of an extensive city plan enacted in the early 1600’s to deal with the city’s rapidly expanding urban population. |
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| Amsterdam, and the Netherlands as a whole, also prides itself on a history of tolerance. One physical symbol of this is the house (middle) in which Anne Frank and her family were hidden from the Nazis by their Dutch friends. |
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| Another symbol of Amsterdam’s spirit of tolerance is the De Wallen Red Light District, now one of Amsterdam’s prime tourist attractions. More on De Wallen below. |
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| Amsterdam is one of the world’s most pedestrian-friendly cities. With many of its old streets too narrow for any motorized vehicles to enter, pedestrian access has always been a major consideration for Amsterdam’s city planners. |
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| Amsterdam also has one of the world’s most innovative multi-modal transportation systems, the central point of which is Centraal Station. Opened in 1889, Centraal Station also forms one of the busiest inter-city transit hubs in the Netherlands. |
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| Servicing the city centre is a web of trams which run on rails in the middle of city streets. These provide the primary means of mass transit within the city centre. |
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| Amsterdam also has a metro system. But unlike North America where subways serve only urban cores and suburbs are entirely dependent on the automobile, the Amsterdam Metro is primarily used by suburbanites commuting to the city centre. |
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| The development of Amsterdam suburbs generally follows extensions of the subway, with even the furthest suburban districts having access to mass transit into the city centre. |
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| The majority of the Netherlands’ population lives in the “Ranstad” a conurbation consisting of the cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, and Den Haag, as well as several small communities in between. A high-speed inter-city train system links all cities within the Ranstad so that each one is in commuting distance of the other three. |
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| With its concentric canal belts, boats are another way to get around Amsterdam. |
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| But perhaps Amsterdam’s most conspicuous mode of transportation is its widespread embracing of cycling. With a population of under 1 million, Amsterdam claims to be home of nearly half a million bicycles, with estimates as high as 30% of the population using bicycles as their primary means of transportation. |
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| Chained to fences, sprawled along curbs, and tied to trees, parked bikes are everywhere in Amsterdam. |
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| Most of Amsterdam’s streets also have dedicated bike lanes, grade separated from vehicular traffic. |
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| Next to Amsterdam Centraal Station is what could quite possibly be the largest bike parking garage in the world. |
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| Here’s a view of the bike garage from the side. There are so many bikes in Amsterdam that providing ample bike parking is a legitimate challenge to city planners. |
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| Creative methods, such as this underground bike parking garage, are often devised to create parking space for Amsterdam’s army of bicycles. |
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| Amsterdam does a marvelous job of integrating all four primary methods of city transportation, with most major streets having separate lanes for pedestrians, bicycles, automobiles, and the tram. |
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| Amsterdam’s most distinct physical features are its canals and tall, narrow, buildings. When much of the city centre was being laid out, taxes were levied based on storefront space at ground level. This encouraged building upwards, and has contributed to Amsterdam’s present urban design, which continues to harness the efficiencies of urban density. |
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| Amsterdam’s high rates non-automotive transportation are facilitated by its high urban density which makes biking, walking, and mass transit convenient and efficient, while car ownership is unnecessary, and often more of a headache than a convenience. |
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| Amsterdam, and the Netherlands as a whole, is also one of the flattest places on Earth, another convenience for pedestrians and cyclists. |
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| With streets hardly wide enough for a bicycle and many buildings built directly on the canals, conceding Amsterdam to the automobile (which was done in most of North America, and even some of Europe post-World War II) would have necessitated bulldozing entire sections of the city centre to clear way for highways and parking. |
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| There are spaces for automobiles in the city, but as shown by this picture, it isn’t exactly the most convenient way to get around. |
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| Another fortunate point for Amsterdam was that although it was invaded by the Nazis in 1940, the city’s infrastructure remained relatively unscathed by World War 2. Amsterdam was never subjected to the widespread bombings which leveled Rotterdam, and thus much of the old city remains, whereas Rotterdam had to be rebuilt from scratch after the war. |
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| Amsterdam is also one of the most picturesque and historically well-preserved cities I’ve ever visited. I spent an entire day wandering around and snapping random pictures. |
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| Unique among European capital cities, organized religion had only a minor influence on the history of Amsterdam. The city museum makes proud mention that Amsterdam was one of the first European cities to drive out the Catholic Church. Thus, there are no opulent churches and ostentatious displays of power in the form of architectural monuments. From the 1600’s onward, Amsterdam was controlled by wealthy Protestant businessmen who were more interested in making a buck than flaunting their power to the masses. |
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| Even Dam Square, the geographic center of Amsterdam, is paltry by the standards of European capitals. |
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| Regardless, it’s probably still the most photographed place in Amsterdam. If you want to get your picture taken next to Halloween-skeleton men or a human statue, Dam Square is the place to be. |
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| You can always tell how touristy a particular place is by how friendly the pigeons are. |
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| hanging out at Dam Square at night |
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| the Albert Cuypmarkt |
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| The Netherlands has a relaxed attitude towards drugs, and “coffeeshops” in most Dutch cities sell marijuana. The legal limit to own and carry is 5 grams, and most coffeehouses sell a wide variety of strands at prices listed by the gram. |
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| Amsterdam coffeeshops come in a wide variety of themes, and in addition to marijuana, most sell soft drinks, coffee, snacks, and provide tables and couches at which to smoke. Coffeeshops which serve alcohol are not allowed to sell marijuana, although they do allow customers to bring their own and smoke on premises. If you’re looking for a place to drink coffee without the company of pot smokers, then you want to find a “cafe,” not a “coffeehouse.” It should also be mentioned that most Amsterdam coffeehouses cater primarily to tourists as opposed to the Dutch, who as a whole (I’m making a big generalization here) don’t seem too interested in mind-altering drugs. |
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| On the southern end of the city centre is the massive Vondelpark. |
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| Being that Amsterdam is the world capital of stoner tourism, Vondelpark is chalked full of tourists taking full advantage of the Netherlands’ lenient drug laws. |
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| It’s a beautiful urban park, and an ideal place to take a run, take a walk, or to stare at the trees for a couple hours. |
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| pretty sure everybody in this picture is stoned |
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| Like drugs sales, prostitution is also legal in the Netherlands and the De Wallen Red Light District is one of Amsterdam’s premier tourist attractions. |
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| Prostitutes rent windows from which they display the goods to onlookers. Johns walk up an down the street, and window shop (literally) for a hooker. |
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| Pimping is illegal in the Netherlands, and therefore each prostitute is the sole proprietor of her own business. Prostitutes are frequently tested for diseases, subject to protective labor laws, and also join local unions. |
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| De Wallen is so heavily touristed that it feels like a Disneyland version of a Red Light District. The majority of the people there are tourists walking around gawking at the sites of scantily-clad women posing in windows, as opposed to people actually looking for a “good time.” (In case you’re wondering, I fell into the first category). |
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| De Wallen isn’t necessarily unique in the Netherlands. Every Dutch major city has a Red Light District, if not several. |
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| In addition to prostitution, voyeur enthusiasts can enjoy multiple theatres providing live sex shows in De Wallen. |
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| De Wallen is a site not to be missed in Amsterdam, granted some of it’s character (and much of its seediness) gets lost in commercialization. |
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| Adjacent to De Wallen is Amsterdam’s Chinatown. |
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| Like Amsterdam itself, Chinatown is small and compact, consisting of only two or three streets and the requisite restaurants and tourist shops. From those I talked to, it seems like the majority of the Amsterdam Chinese community comes from Wenzhou. |
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| The main tourist attraction is the Buddhist Temple. |
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| inside the temple |
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| Seeing as Indonesia was once part of the Dutch colonial empire as well as a major destination for Chinese emigrants, Amsterdam has many Indonesian Chinese restaurants. |
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| I’m no expert in this field, and these are certainly not the best specimens, but the Netherlands also has a very active graffiti culture. |
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| Most of the best work I saw was looking out the windows from high-speed trains (hence no pictures). This above looks more like typical teenage angst. |
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| The city of Amsterdam provides several free ferry lines across the IJ Bay to the outlying districts on the other side. |
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| another view from the ferry |
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| Though Amsterdam is arguable the birthplace of the modern industrial capitalist economy, by the end of the 18th Century the center of world production had shifted to England, and later the United States. Amsterdam did however see its fair share of industrial buildup, and today is still home to many obsolete industrial spaces especially north of the IJ. |
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| Many of these industrial spaces are now serving as a creative playgrounds for artists, architects, and urban planners. |
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| …such as this collection of apartment units constructed out of old shipping containers. |
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| …and a decrepit loading dock converted into an industrial artistic wonderland |
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| The following group of pictures are all from the old loading dock. I wasn’t able to ascertain whether the space was an officially sanctioned art project or an aesthetically pleasing act of mass vandalism. |
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| Back on the Southern bank of the IJ again…In North America, we tend to associate the word “suburb” with expansive strip centers, low-density housing, and car-dependent transportation. As energy costs have risen in recent years, the inefficiency of American suburbs has been exposed to a wider audience, and the smart growt movement and a revival or cities is well under way. In the Netherlands, suburban development has stuck to a different paradigm. Dutch suburbs are of comparatively high population density, are built in conjunction with mass transit, and facilitate mixed-use commercial/residential spaces. There is little sprawl, and the suburbs remain integrated to the efficiencies of the urban core. |
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| The Amsterdam Metro is designed to transport suburban residents from their suburban homes to employment centers in and near the city centre. Construction of new suburban districts generally follows the development of the Metro system, with even the most distant suburban districts having access to the Metro. |
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| Unlike their counterparts in North America, suburbs in Amsterdam are both pedestrian and cyclist friendly. Due to efficient land use and population densities, most suburban destinations can be reached without the use of a car. |
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| Here’s a typical suburban Amsterdam residential block. Individual units do not have their own private outdoor space, as they would in suburbs in the US or Canada. Instead, units are close together, and most open spaces are shared by the community. Without the typical dead space endemic to North American suburbs, Dutch suburbs are able to maintain high enough densities to support mass transit systems and allow for convenient pedestrian shopping and entertainment. |
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| all the while maintaining much of the greenery and quiet which make suburbs appealing |
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| Suburbs in Amsterdam provide many of the advantages of life away from the city centre, while at the same time allowing for the advantages of dense urban living including energy efficiency, walkability, and mass transit access. American urban planners: take note! |
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| Several miles south of Amsterdam’s city centre is the Zaidas, also known as Amsterdam’s Financial Mile. |
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| The Zuidas is the Netherlands’ foremost business district. Its Zuid train station is expected to eventually overtake Amsterdam Centraal as the main point of departure for high speed trains to Belgium, Germany, and France. |
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| Currently Zuid sits at the axis of 2 of the Amsterdam Metro’s 4 lines, with another being built, making it a central point of the Metro system. |
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| Exploring Zuidas, you feel centuries removed from the old narrow houses and canals of the city centre. |
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| The Zuidas is another fine example of Amsterdam’s superb urban planning. Buildings are built up and not outward, there is little dead space between them, and everything is within a convenient stroll from the metro station. |
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| One reason Dutch urban planning works so well because it builds urban spaces for people, not for cars. Even among the wealthy, most Amsterdam residents rely on a combination of mass transit, bicycles, and their own feet to commute to and from the office. |
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| and here are some more shots of the Zuidas |
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| What’s even more impressive about The Zuidas is that technically speaking, it’s in the suburbs. Yet the design paradigms implemented are those which are typically thought of being unique to high-density downtowns, at least in North America. |
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| notice the bicycle parking lot in front |
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| Whereas North American office parks commonly surround buildings with functionally useless greenspace, the Zuidas (and Amsterdam in general) makes wise use of its open spaces. Rather than spacing out the buildings, they are built close together, allowing for convenient pedestrian access. Open spaces are built in strategic locations, where they are accessible from many of the high-rises, rather than being spaced out, with several under-utilized open areas for each building. |
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| When it comes to urban, suburban, and transportation planning, Amsterdam puts on a clinic to which the whole world (and especially the United States) would by wise to pay heed, the Zuidas being just one of the more recent examples. |
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| If I had to pick one city from my trip which I would say is essential for any trip to NW Europe, it would probably be Amsterdam (with London a close second). The city simply has it all: culture, history, art museums, public art, old architecture, ethnic food, parks, and partying, and a sophisticated transportation network to get you anywhere you need to go. I stayed here a full 3 days, longer than anywhere else on my trip, and I’d gladly go back again and spend a week. Next stop: Utrecht |
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harry
said,
November 8, 2011 at 5:41 pm
Ben, first of all, thank you so much for writing. I enjoy your articles a lot.
I recently came back from my second trip to Amsterdam. I think the thing I dislike most about it, is the number of bicycles and cyclists. Of course, cycling is a clean and green and healthy mode of transportation, but when pedestrians and cyclists meet, then it is not always pretty. The number of bikes whizzing past at breakneck speed is incredible, sometimes in areas full of pedestrians. The bikes really do make for a less than relaxing stroll, as you always have to be on the lookout for them.
Grandpa and Grandma said,
February 4, 2012 at 5:49 pm
We are sad to see that the trees in front of the Anne Frank House have disappeared. The Indonesian influence is so big because Netherlands ran the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia, for several centuries.