Amsterdam

Played rapid-tourist in Amsterdam yesterday - found myself with some time to spare on a late afternoon out by Schiphol and quite easily made my way into town on a combination of hotel shuttle and Dutch trains.

As usual, the good camera resides at home (*sigh*) and the phone camera does not do Amsterdam the justice it ought to do - but here are a few glimpses anyway:

Bicycle parking
All those small critters on those ramps are bicycles. I'd be hard pushed to find equally massive bicycle parking in Copenhagen - which also is a bicycle-heavy city.



Canals and the houses along them
Quintessentially Amsterdam-ish. I probably could say Dutch -but then, this was the first wee attempt ever I've had on playing tourist in the Netherlands.






Not-coffee shops

With my USAian amd UKian friends, discussions has sometimes touched on the topic of not-oregano. Amsterdam is rather full of coffee shops, proudly marketing not-exactly-coffee. For all I know, they do serve coffee - although a colleague also has recounted his experiences of having a cookie in such a shop and "feeling funny" afterwards :)




OK, this one doesn't actually say 'coffee' on the facade... Many others did.

Red lights
Then, by random wandering, I ended up in the red light area. (It's already been pointed out to me that the number of men who don't know where they're going, yet ends up there, is staggering beyond statistical credibility - but on scouts' honour, it was random...)

The, errrrmmmm, lighter brigade markets its offerings more visibly in Amsterdam than in most other places - behind windows, scantily clad ladies try to attract punters' attention. Old enough not to blush terribly, I nevertheless did not go as far as photographing the phenomenon.

But this shop I had to take a picture of - even in liberal, pragmatic Denmark, I have not yet seen a sex shop combining that offering, no doubt tourist oriented, with that of bicycle rentals...