Amsterdam

We road the 08:00 train from Antwerp on July 23rd and arrived in Amsterdam at 10:06 right on schedule. We registered at our hotel which is virtually across the street from the train station and visited the tourist office where hundreds of people wwere waiting with queue tickets to speak with an information clerk. What a city...in whatever direction you walk, you'll find yourself on streets shared with amzaing harmony amongst pedestrians, cyclists, pedal taxis, scooters, cars and electric trams. Canals run around the city in fairly concentric circles with the train station more or less the hub. Each ring of canal shares connecting navigable tributaries, and the streets which ( for the most part) parallel both the concentric and connecting canals rise ever so slightly over their intersections with the canals just enough to allow the multidude of tour boats to pass silently underneath. Despite all the various modes of traffic, the city of Amsterdam differs from other large cities in that cars are not dominating the roads which makes life for pedestrians quite pleasant. You'll hear lots of bike bells and tram bells ringing to warn inexperienced pedestrians to get out of their way, but, for the most part, the roads are well divided, well marked, and a pleasure to walk upon although having a street map is a good aid to efficient navigation. The commercial streets are packed tightly with all sorts of shops, restaurants, and bar/cafes offering their wares and services to the steady and heavy stream of potential clients strolling and rolling by their doors. Most of the buildings appears to be 17th century many of which have shifted from the perfectly rectangular form leaning sometimes left or right and sometimes forward. In some buildings, the architectural deformations have required over the centuries to the placement of non-rectangular doors to properly fill the doorways. The Karpershoek (on the corner near our hotel) is the oldest pub in Amsterdam and serves De Konnick although not in the bollika...the bar tender told me that he didn't have the original glass (the bollika) but assured me the beer would taste just the same anyway....I think he was right.