Amsterdam

After traveling through the Amsterdam Airport 7 times and never having left the actual airport, when I found out I was going back to Uganda with Four corners Ministries in June I arranged a layover for a couple of nights to get out and see the city. It’s a really old place and it looks very different from mother other major cities I’ve been to.  There is an absence of skyscrapers and most of the homes are built along the canals.  There are tons of canals that are transportation and navigation routes in the city.  The iconic tiny houses lined along the canals are really unique to that area of the World.  I found out on a canal tour that centuries ago, when they were building many of the homes that they were taxes on the canal frontage so that is the reason so many are narrow and deep.  Public transportation in Amsterdam is defiantly the way to go.  Renting a car was my first though but would have been impractical after seeing the tiny streets and the limited parking spaces tell that many people do not get around by car but bikes are everywhere and were covering the road anywhere you went.  Based on the amount of bikes I saw, I would estimate there are 3 bikes per person in Amsterdam.  So, so, so many bikes. I bought a two day ticket for the public transportation which included train, light rail and bus and it was great so I could get out where I wanted without having to pay per trip.  After spending the day in downtown, I got out and went to Zaanse Schans which is the countryside where the famous historic windmills are located.  The windmills were amazing looking over the water and probably my favorite spot while there.

If you’re ever flying through Amsterdam and have more than a 4 hour layover, I would suggest getting out of the airport and taking a quick train ride to downtown or out to Zaanse Schans.  I had a great time with my less than 48 hours in the Netherlands.