If you read my last blog (#7), you would see the journey, I had in getting to my Eden Hotel in Amsterdam. With that said, I slept very well, my room was excellent for a king single bed unit with ensuite with the hottest water for a shower I’ve come across. 13/10/25 (Day 12) With my room cost the buffet breakfast was included & WOW! .. it is a full breakfast. For the insane City Tax incurred (€128) when checking in the hotel it should be a 5star to justify that expense.

Amsterdam is a city of about 1Mil people; it is full of bikes, trams & tram lines, cycleways, roads in every direction, canals you can’t get your head around for direction, etc. You quickly learn where & when to walk & use your 360° vision. For a bustling city you can get around quite easily & just about everything goes within reason. Not too much policing, but they are about everywhere. Certain road & tram etiquette is required but people walk like ants in a colony. Another thing that hit me was the frequent strong smell of weed. It is legal here on the streets & in pubs, etc.

My first task was to pack my day bag ready for a bicycle tour & to head to the required meeting place up near Amsterdam Centraal, about a 22min walk away. Today & by the looks of the week it is going to be a very cloudy day, with misty rain. I walked past Magna Plaza which is a high-end shopping centre under renovations so there’s very little inside. I eventually found the bike shop but of course I was 25mins early & they were shocked to see me well ahead of time. I explained my diligence in being early in everything I attend. I went up the street & found a great little café (Caffe Vergnano 1882) where I was able to unwind very quickly & even did a review on it while I was there.

Again, I was right on time for my bike, but we had some very late commers, so we had to start the introduction & safety criteria again. So frustrating & it’s starting to rain. Must remember to not follow parallel with the tram lines, for you will come undone very quickly & violently. Baylon was our guide, but he was over cautious & it was harder to ride much slower. He showed us several historical buildings and their facade effects of shutters, gantries, etc even after major restorations. A couple from Scotland were my adopted partners, for they seriously needed watching over. I opted to ride last so I could keep an eye on the couple plus allow Baylon to easily see my bright blue wind jacket. As time went on, the group surged ahead of us at one major road crossing on a bend leaving the wife & myself behind. I could read her mind where she was going to take a direct short cut to catch up to her husband & I sped up a bit to catch her right arm & yell stop!!! She didn’t hear the tram coming up from behind her & she was just about to ride in front of it. The tram missed her by 600mm max. Catching her emotions, she was extremely thankful I saved her from the thought of a tram run over. Now the group was just about out of sight with no visual of what had happened. With a bit of collective confidence, we crossed the tram lines & took up the street & made good time. She could not wait to tell her husband of that near-miss. Very lucky & still Baylon was none the wiser.

We stopped in the huge natural forest park Baylon calls Amsterdam’s NY Central Park (Vondelpark) due to the same landscape designer used here. The lady (wife) shouted me a coffee for sticking with her & before long we were back on our bikes. We did get to see Ann Frank’s house externally & to see inside it is booked out for months. Not far from Ann Frank’s house is Westerkerk, a protestant church (1620 – 1631) which is Rembrandt’s burial place. Amsterdam is basically built on an extensive pine tree forest of some 13million or so trees due to the area being swamp land. Amsterdam Centraal Station is built on about 9,000 trees & fill. A lot of older buildings are early 1904 – 1940s (war period) & some are leaning in on a corner, but no-one worries about this. There are lots of houses (3 storeys high) that have a gantry out from the attic with a pulley wheel for getting stock & furniture up from the street. Houses were even built intentionally leaning out from the 1^st floor to help with the lifting process so they wouldn’t hit the frontage or glass windows. You can see this in my photos. Very unnerving for me.

Going to another nearby & smaller park we stopped to see the Turkey & US Embassies next door to each other & diagonally opposite is the Concert Hall in all its grandeur. After that we cycled back to the bike shop & within a few minutes everyone had gone, all without any commentary or safe travels, etc. Really weird. I did see the Scottish couple some 80m up the street & managed to get them to wave back. Oh well, Go Figure? Anyway, I hit the pavement again to see more of Amsterdam. The canal boats, Victoria Hotel & St Nicholas Basilica built in the same years as Amsterdam Centraal. I didn’t manage a visit inside .. seems to have the big doors closed all the time.

I had to do a Dutch pancake thing before I run out of days, so I found this great cozy pancake café (lots of them but not everyone is cute & welcoming) called Milky Pancakes & they were so accommodating & really enjoyed my time there. The banana & hazelnut topping on the pancake was yummo!!!! After that, I had to do some serious walking to wear down that pancake & walked into the large plaza with the Royal Palace & the central sculpture where they have a dedication ceremony on 4^th May each year & then Liberty Day on the 5^th, so it’s a huge giving thanks & then celebration time.

14/10/25 (Day 13) Along the canals there are many permanent canal homes (old boats & barges) that have strict city & maritime controls on them. They eventuated when housing was extremely rare straight after WW2 & most have remained in that way of living. After that canal I went down to another canal to see the now famous ‘Skinny Bridge’ which was used in a James Bond film a few years back. Walking over it you can see how it works to raise the wooden platform for the bigger boats. Very ingenious & many more types can be found.

In the photo of the little black house next to the canal was the home of Rembrandt when he was painting. It is now a little café & looks very good for its age even though it is tilting slightly. Moving on you can see the green ship like structure. That is the NEMO Science Museum. I walked up along its ramped roof to take better view pictures but a bit expensive to go into it. I did take a photo of the insane engineered water clock in the foyer that was designed & completed by a physicist. The architect of the ‘green ship’ never designed it as a ship structure but something about light & dark .. (too much weed, I think) but so many Amsterdam citizens call it the ‘Green Ship’. Looking back down the ramp, you can see the Naval Museum with an old bounty ship moored there. This building also stored all sorts of ammunition & arms there for the defending of Amsterdam & now is a museum.

I checked out a souvenir shop (so many to see) & in broad daylight at a small child’s eye level was the rude section & my photo only took the less dirty section, so it can be full on here. I don’t believe any prudes live in Amsterdam. Also, walking past certain shops, bars especially I often get a full lung of weed smoke. Cough. Also, people all around are smoking the stuff, so you can’t avoid it plus the smell. Explains why I was painless, sort of happier when I arrived back at the hotel each day. LOL!!!

My first full day here took in 10,915 steps = 8.52klms on 13/10 & 15,009 steps = 11.63klms on 14/10, so not bad. Tomorrow, 15/10/25 (Day 14) I take a short train trip to Naarden Burrum train station to meet up with a very close friend, Ayla who had to postpone from Tuesday (14/10) which was totally fine & understandable. So blessed she could still make it for this old man.

I’ll end my 8^th Blog here & many thanks for reading them. My next blogs will be more of Amsterdam & catching up with 2 of my much-loved backpacker friends I met years ago at my new hometown of Yamba at my cousin’s then Yamba Backpackers as well. Please stay safe, happy & healthy.