Metro Tickets

We found ourselves spending New Year's eve heading to our friends place in Amstel. We took the Metro from Nieuwmarkt and the guard was already at the machine helping everyone out with their tickets. We'd done it many times before so we started doing our usual purchase: 4 x 1 Hour tickets (one each for the outbound journey and one each for the return trip since it would be more than an hour before we'd return).

The guard then told us that the Metro would be closed 8pm till 1am, which we were surprised to learn, and he also told that we only needed to buy 1 ticket each as long as we checked out properly at Amstel... because the tickets last for an hour of usage, NOT an hour from when they were purchased... so we've thrown away a dozen or so usable cards over the last year! Ah well, at least we found out now rather than after another year of living here!

Fietsen! (Bikes)

Well we finally managed to get some bikes! Living and working centrally has kept the priority low but we decided to take the plunge and get on to two wheels with the masses in Amsterdam!

We bought one from Fietspiraat that was quite good but unfortunately needed repairs to the pedals two weeks later (that they took care of for free) and a second one from Recycled Bicycles which we strongly recommend. They have 5-10 second-hand bikes at any one time and the guys there are really friendly and restore the bikes well before reselling. Most of theirs come from reclaimed bicycles from the police so they get a new ID number which makes it easier to track if stolen.

We got the standard rear-wheel circle lock and the secondary front-wheel/frame mega-lock, but we're thinking of getting a third. (Recommended by the locals!)

BBQ @ Amsterdamse Bos

My work team had a BBQ at Amsterdamse Bos park this evening. It's a lovely huge park with bicycle and horse tracks everywhere. We arrived about 6pm and started cooking around 7. Everyone else seemed to be playing some kind of sport or doing some kind of fitness activity so we enjoyed watching.

We took the 170 bus from near our work, but it also goes from Centraal Station, you can also get the 172.

Amsterdam Library

We decided to visit and join the Amsterdam library on our walk today. We can sum it up in just one word: wow.

However, just a few more words:

Open every day from 10am till 10pm, with 9 floors of books, DVDs, CDs and wireless free Internet access!

Sign-up was easy; at the front desk with passports and proof of address we had our cards in under 5 minutes from the very friendly and helpful staff. We then paid our yearly contribution of 25 euros at the payment machine (one on every floor) and headed upstairs to explore! Computers all over the place for searching and browsing the Internet made it easy to find the books we were looking for... this time books on Copenhagen and Bruges and a couple about Amsterdam and the Netherlands in general.

Signing the books out was so easy too, machines on every floor where you place your card on a desk, the computer scans it and then you place the books and it automatically scans their chips... you press yes to confirm the titles on screen and then it prints out an invoice and you're done!

Plus they have a great restaurant on the top floor with a wonderful view over Amsterdam that we plan on going back to... probably next weekend!

Amsterdam In The Morning

I love Amsterdam in the morning. Amsterdam is lovely at any time of the day of course -- it has a great feel about it, but my favourite at the moment is in the morning. This time of day is my favourite because there are only a few shops open -- just the bakeries and fish markets on my 15-minute walk to work -- with a few others cleaning up last nights' 'fun'.

The best thing is that all the coffeeshops and pubs/cafes are completely silent, no doubt having closed only a few hours earlier while I was tucked up in bed. It's even possible to walk through the red light district and have it seem like a normal street... although I don't make a habit of confirming that :) My route to work cuts across one corner of it, but also has me crossing 6 canals so is generally quite picturesque.

It's also great because it isn't completely empty... there are a few people around, but mainly only the street cleaners or the people heading to work as all the tourists are still fast asleep in their hotels or hostels (apart from the really keen ones already out taking photos -- usually in matching raincoats and 60+) as the shops and museums don't open until 9:30 or 10am!

Ikea

We went to Ikea the other day to find a few bits and pieces. Such a great store although I can't say I like the floorplan which takes you on a trail around all of their products but I guess they've got to try to increase sales somehow.

Getting there turned out to be fairly straight-forward, if not well sign-posted. We were able to take the Metro from Nieuwmarkt straight to Bullewijk* station. We bought 2 x 1 hour tickets each for 5 euros so that covered us both for the return journey. We could've bought 2 x 24 hour tickets but that would've been 7 euro each and we weren't planning on travelling on the Metro again during the 24 hours. We exited Bullewijk station and turned right and walked until the first major intersection and then turned left and Ikea was already visible. The first entrance we found was through the carpark so I think the general idea is to drive there rather than take public transport.

* One amazing thing to note, after we got off the train it started to leave the station then suddenly slowed down and came to stop... just to let a mother and her child that had arrived late get on the train! I can't imagine that ever happening in London, once a train has started moving the drivers there wouldn't stop for anyone.

So we wandered around Ikea for a couple of hours finding the bits we needed wanted and then went to the warehouse to gather the pieces we'd noted down. Like the other Ikea stores I've been to this one also had a huge restaurant, but we didn't go in as it was packed and we wanted to get home. At the checkouts there was a 'Contant Betaling' option and one beginning with 'Alles...', we chose the latter since we saw a sign with all cards on it and I was able to pay with my new bank card... or with 'my pin' as people seem to say here. At home we looked it up and the Contant Betaling option meant you could pay with cash so that's good to know for future as you couldn't use cash on the other tills at all.

Getting everything home was pretty easy too, we only had to pay to have one item delivered and that cost 39 euro, fortunately they were able to deliver it later that same day. We managed to carry the rest of the stuff home via the Metro. Easy!

Garlic Queen

Recently I had dinner at a restuarant called the 'Garlic Queen' which is between Rembrandtplein and Leidsestraat. As the name suggests, almost everything on the menu contains garlic. The selections were good, the meal itself was very tasty and I enjoyed the atomosphere of the place also.

Their website doesn't really do them justice, it's a shame they don't have any photos up as the interior is interestingly decorated. I recommend you go along -- if one of your friends really hates garlic you can always ask to have a meal prepared without it, but it really is worth trying -- the garlic ice cream was delicious!

Look both ways... in four directions... twice

Going for a stroll around Amsterdam has its pros and cons. Almost everywhere you look there’s a brilliant view, everything is within walking distance in the central area and it’s generally easy to know where you are without a map in a fairly short time. However, the downside is that you have to be much more aware of your surroundings and everyone else around you. Most of the time you’re OK on the footpath, but there are some odd pedestrian-cycle-traffic areas where anything goes – it can be easy to wander into one of these without noticing it.

Road rules in Amsterdam appear to be extremely flexible. So flexible, in fact, that they can be bent 180 degrees. They appear to be built on one common rule which is ‘I’ve got right of way, you don’t’. This rule seems to apply to all methods of transport, apart from pedestrians who seem to always be in the wrong. Bikes, motorcycles, cars and other vehicles can come from almost anywhere despite all the one-way signs... the trams are a little easier to avoid since they’re on tracks, but they do hide each other quite well so if there’s one close by then cross the road cautiously as another one can zoom past from the opposite direction without much warning.

So in general, the old rule of looking both ways before you cross is very important to follow whenever crossing a road in Amsterdam, but please take my advice and at least look both ways twice!

Schiphol Airport

Schiphol airport is so good. It's huge but well sign-posted and there are time indicators on the signs so that you know how long you'll need to leave to get to your gate. There's lots of room everywhere and there aren't the normal queue bottlenecks that seem to plague other airports especially at passport control or customs.

But the one cool thing I noticed this time is that you can go to the Rijksmuseum while at the airport! It's on the Holland Boulevard which is behind passport control and between the E and F Piers. This mini-museum has ten works by Golden Age Dutch masters from the Rijksmuseum's collection and it changes a number of times each year. Well worth a visit if you've got a little extra time while waiting for your flight.

‘Coffee’ Shops and the Red-light District

You tell people you’re moving to Amsterdam and the first thing they say is “Oh I see, you’re going for the ‘coffee’ shops and red-light district, wink wink nudge nudge”. Monty Python reference aside, while this is what Amsterdam is well known for, once you get here you realise it’s actually a small part of the whole.

When my girlfriend and I first visited we managed to walk though the red-light district without even noticing (we then back-tracked just to satisfy our curiosity, but it turned out to be mostly full of stoned or drunk English men stumbling from one window to the next). The main area itself is quite small and easy to avoid, although there are smaller mini versions dotted around the city which you can accidentally wander into but it’s all fairly tame by today’s standards.

The coffee shops are of course everywhere like cafes in most other cities but more often than not people seem to just be there for the coffee oddly enough. So one of the nice things about Amsterdam is that you can really make it what you want it to be, I suppose that comes from it being such a tolerant and accepting nation. If you're really that way inclined you can of course skip the coffee shops and just DIY as shown in the photo.

One thing I found out recently is that The Netherlands has more great museums per square foot than anywhere else in the world! And for 40 euros you can buy a Museum Card (Museumkaart) which lets you into 29 of them in Amsterdam (and hundreds more elsewhere) as many times as you like for a year. You can buy it at some of the museums or at Uitburo at Leidseplein 26. If you’re already living in Amsterdam then you can buy it online at the link above.

Good Stuff Too!

I should point out that this blog isn't just going to include things that Amsterdam doesn't have or do -- I'm just finding a few of the differences quite surprising and am thinking other people might too. I will be adding posts on the good stuff going on here also, and there's a lot of that... just outside my window is a canal! How cool is that!? Plus I can walk to work in 15 minutes! And the trams run reliably and it only costs 40 euros a month for a zone 1 pass!

New Apartment

I've been in Amsterdam for three weeks and have just moved into our new apartment -- I'll go into more details of the process in a later post so that I can hopefully provide some useful tips.

Our apartment is in the Nieuwmarkt area which is a great location right in the heart of the city. Thankfully we're far enough away from the red-light district that we can avoid the masses of tourists. I'm very much looking forward to exploring the local area, especially once my girlfriend (with whom I shall be writing this blog) arrives in April.

The apartment is nicely furnished and the common areas are clean which is apparently quite unusual for Amsterdam. The living areas are very sunny and we have a lovely view of two canals out the front, and no buildings immediately behind us so we don't feel too cramped. The only downside I've noticed so far is that we don't have a proper oven! I'm not sure how I failed to notice this when I visited the apartment. I guess it's just one of those things that in New Zealand you never think to question... who *doesn't* have an oven!? Things aren't too bad though, we do have a special microwave oven which appears to have a grill so I believe that's the cut-down substitute. I shall look forward to experimenting with that tomorrow.