Gryphon Travel

You might have heard that the dutch love their bikes. I’m here to verify that is completely accurate. More bikes than people? Well we did witness one guy biking and towing another bike with him, so he is certainly working towards that goal.

You absolutely must be careful as a pedestrian. Bikes have the right of way. They all have bells and will let you know they are coming. That’s your opportunity to get over or get run over.

The row houses are tall and thin, most with the historic hook at the peak. We learned that many buildings had figures on the top because so many people at the time were illiterate. They would use figures to express what kind of business was in the shop. A guy with his tongue sticking out with a pill on it would let people know that was a pharmacy.

There wasn’t addresses when the city was first built, so each building would be given a name. They still have the names on a lot of the old buildings.

Amsterdam was created when they put a dam across the Amstel River and they called the village Amsterdam. Then they dug canals all over the place.

City planners angled the streets of the slums so that there was a very short sight line down the streets from the rest of town. Didn’t want the fine upstanding citizens to have to see how bad the living conditions were for the poor. Because of that some of the buildings have very sharp corners and look 2 dimensional.

Our experience was that the Dutch are extremely friendly and welcoming to Americans. The city is easy to navigate, English is prevalent, and the city is safe and peaceful. I would encourage anyone who is a little nervous about visiting Europe to consider Amsterdam as a great starting place.