The Amsterdam Look
There are many looks to this city of three-quarters of a million residents. There is the huge, ultra-modern Schiphol Airport with its own casino. There are the rather plain neighborhoods where the citizens of Amsterdam, the Dutch, live. And there is the tourist area of the old city, defined by canals, centering on Dam Square and Centraal Station. This photo is the archetypical shot. A canal bridge, a beautiful old building, lots of people, mostly tourists. Welcome to Amsterdam.
For most of us the first we really see of the city in our Amsterdam travel is Centraal Station, the train station that services both the trains from Schiphol Airport and the high-speed TGV's that come from all over Europe
(Click here for Rail Europe). It is at the hub of a system of canals that are the beauty of the city. Its architecture is unique, and once you see it, you will always recognize and remember it.
Before you leave the Station, make SURE you have purchased a strippenkaart at the inside window that sells them. This is for the trams that are always at the front of the Station, ready to take you anywhere in Amsterdam, or even out as far as where the windmills are. The trams in the photo are yellow, but do not expect that. Most have artwork of some sort on them, sometimes very complex artwork. The tram lines are few and simple to understand, and it is quite easy to get around on them.
But you are not relegated to just the trams. There are taxis galore, both the regular automobile kind, and water taxis that ply the canals. Both are reasonable, and the water kind is particularly fun. You can catch both kinds at the front of the Station. The water kind are, of course, in the nearby canal.
Or you can walk. It takes less than half an hour, if you don't stop to shop or explore too much, to walk from Centraal Station to the outer ring of canals. Get a map from one of the small shops you see that carry tourist items, and you have everything you need. You can go up the extremely well traveled streets of the downtown area, seen above, and be tempted by the cacophony of stores and restaurants and money exchange shops (all offering lower rates than the ones next to them) and tiny casinos and more things than you can hardly comprehend. It's fun.
If you wish, visit Dam Square, seen above, just five minutes away. There you can witness a usually very dense crowd of every type of human being on the planet. Also birds, usually. Sometimes a ferris wheel. You can get accommodations here on the very busy Square in hotels of different prices, or on the less traveled side streets where nice small places for lodgings can be found, or toward the outer ring of the canals where the more pricy shops and hotels have their district.
In Amsterdam travel, perhaps more than anywhere else, there is quite a wide range of everything to suit everyone's taste.
And speaking of things with something for everyone's taste, there is one thing with such a wide choice in Amsterdam, it gets its own entire page. If you'd like to see what that thing is, Click Here
In the meantime, if you would like to look into making Amsterdam travel plans,
Click here for Rail Europe. They have been serving the American market since 1934. They have helped more than 1 million american travelers a year spend 215,000,000.00 on their plans.
I can not recommend them highly enough. They are the best.
And for inexpensive car rentals all over Europe, I think the best source is Carrentals.co.uk. They have over 4,000 Rental car hire locations worldwide.
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