Amsterdam - The Fun Facts

Jeff had two days off for Easter weekend so we decided it would be silly to waste a good four day weekend in Geneva when we could see somewhere new. . . so off to Amsterdam we went!! Why Amsterdam? One word. . . .tulips!!! I love tulips! When I saw pictures of the flower gardens in Amsterdam I thought it would be so beautiful to see them in person. There's only about a 6-8 week window to see them in bloom. Plus neither of us had been there before so why not?

First off. . .the where? The Netherlands is just about straight North of us...see the map below. Remember Switzerland is the small country right in front of the the word Europe on the map.

Here's a look at the country up close. We spent our trip 

visiting Amsterdam, the capitol city.

Fun Facts

• The airport in Amsterdam is actually below sea level, 25% of the entire country is below sea level.
• Amsterdam is in the Netherlands. The country is not called Holland even though many people (even from there) refer to it that way. The Netherlands has 12 provinces. Two of them are called North Holland and South Holland. The majority of the population in the Netherlands is from either of these provinces, so people from there tend to say they are from "Holland" to refer to the area of their country. This is in turn has caused many people to believe the country is called Holland.
• They speak Dutch in the Netherlands, but most people speak at least one foreign language. . .typically German or English.
• The Dutch are the tallest people in the world.
• The Netherlands has nearly 1,000 museums, 42 of which are in Amsterdam alone!
• There are still about 1,000 traditional working windmills across the country.
• There are over 1,700 bridges in Amsterdam, crossing over 100km of canals!
• Along those canals are 2,500 house boats of varying shapes and sizes.
• Almost every Dutch person has a bike, and there are almost twice as many bikes as cars.
• The bikes even have their own lanes for traffic in the city.

This bike ramp outside the main train station 

in Amsterdam holds about 7,000 bikes!! 

One more thing about Amsterdam that a lot of people talk about is the "Red Light District." I can tell you that yes it does exist, but it's not what you expect it to be. Sure there are scantily clad girls dancing in windows, but there are literally thousands of tourists walking up and down these streets visiting other sites and sitting down to eat at restaurants. But it's famous in Amsterdam.... it's even clearly labeled on the map from the hotel.

Coffee shops do sell pot and lots of people smoke it as you can smell it about everywhere you go!! So with all that pot smoking you would expect food, right? Well there are people selling donuts and pizza everywhere!! (I would not recommend it as it looks like it's days old.) They even have a "fast food" place that is basically just a long wall of vending machines with hot sandwiches. A cook is in the back making the sandwiches and places them into the display that looks like little post office boxes. Just put your money in the slot, open the door and enjoy your hot sandwich.... genius!!