Feeling Amsterdam during my walks

‘What’s a pretty woman like you travelling alone in Amsterdam? Ha ha, you know that we Dutchmen like good things in life. Give me your mobile number and I will invite you to a party later tonight’ said the self-proclaimed crazy Dutchman to my breasts. I was in Amsterdam in spring when despite the bright sunshine sudden sharp winds brought the temperatures down. So, I went inside a large factory seconds shop to buy a light jacket. It turned out to be a large warehouse right in the middle of the city and specialized in luxury brands. Rows after rows of designer rags lined temptingly next to luxe shoes and accessories. They all had affordable prices and the warehouse was a piece of art by itself. High ceilings through which light poured in, industrial fittings, and bare brick walls. It was fantastic; it was very Amsterdam. I escaped my ardent admirer to browse and by sheer chance, happened to see him covertly foraging in his nose and examining the results with interest. ‘Yikes!!! What happened to the good old Dutch debonairness, those ruddy cheeks, and signs of good health?’ I paid quickly, pretended to blow my nose in my handkerchief to avoid shaking hands with the light-hearted salesman, and left.

The dollhouse city of Amsterdam

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Amsterdam exudes wealth and good health

Outside, the sky was china blue, the sunshine warm, and the very lovely Amsterdam stood like a dollhouse town. Despite my encounter with the warehouse creep, a smile lit up my face. I always liked the Dutch capital city and I was happy to be there once again. I enjoyed the unique combination of suavity with the business-like shrewdness of the locals. They are a friendly bunch, these Amsterdam Dutchies, and they love to chat with you especially if you can speak a few words in their ringing, sing-song language. The city’s reputation for beauty is fully justified. The charms of its elaborate canal system and narrow houses with gabled facades, legacies of the city’s 17th-century Golden Age, are undeniable. Despite its narrow streets, Amsterdam exudes wealth and good health. There’s something very wholesome about Amsterdam’s brown brick townhouses as they stand spindly and richly embellished, their reflections falling on the water of the canals and shady trees protecting their privacy. To me, they speak of the excellent habit of ‘being able to manage it’.

Life by an Amsterdam canal

The indomitable ‘can do’ attitude of the Dutchies

There’s hardly any other country that displays resilience and adaptability so much as the Netherlands. This little European country has forever and is still battling with the seas for sheer existence and yet they are constant in their position as one of the wealthiest and most developed nations in the world. Every little detail of Amsterdam showcases these qualities along with the equally powerful characteristics of nurturing beauty and gaining wealth. The Dutch, it seems, like to work hard to party harder and the unique Amsterdam shows this attitude to the T. Nothing is impossible here it seems, and even the seemingly undoable task of taking furniture up to the higher storeys of these narrow canal houses, has a solution. Next time, when you are walking along the old city lanes of Amsterdam, look up and you will find hooks hanging from the roofs of the traditional buildings. These are pulleys that draw up furniture to the apartments since most of the time the buildings and the staircases are wide enough only for one person. Often, these buildings have 1 room per floor and I was amazed to see a piano and a couch being hauled inside a flat through the windows. Do you have something like this in your country?

Furniture hauled into an Amsterdam apartment PC touwenblok

The secret local spots of Amsterdam

With resilience comes wealth and Amsterdam glorifies as the capital city of this rich trading nation. The city is a giant puzzle and except for the danger of being run over by bikes, it is a wonderful destination to explore on foot. The center of Amsterdam is truly magnificent. Canals intersperse the space into atmospheric narrow lanes and each street seems to have a unique characteristic of its own. Walk away from the crowded tourist hot spots. Wander through the canal-woven core and you will discover something unexpected at nearly every turn: a tiny hidden garden; leafy inner courtyards called hofjes; a laidback traditional brown bar called bruin kroeg; Dutch designer homewares and fashion; exquisite book shops; a jewel-box-like jenever (Dutch gin) distillery; flower shops selling bulbs of every imaginable plant; a quirky museum; an ultra-niche restaurant or warehouses selling factory seconds designer clothes. Walk further away from the canals and you will see laundry flapping from windows, roses covering the entire facade of a house, or children’s stores specializing in wooden toys. These are the residential sections of the middle class and not more than once, from some of these buildings, you will glimpse painted faces staring back at you from dark dim interiors. These are the professional ‘ladies of the night’ and one look at their sad old faces, empty, hard eyes, and sagging, tired bodies, will take out glamour of Amsterdam’s title as the city of sin.

A beautiful hofje in the center of Amsterdam

Being human and cashing on it

Initially, I was taken aback by the juxtaposition of such enterprise among the residential family streets and except for a glowing red bulb at the door or on the building facade, you cannot make out the trade practiced inside. The red light above the windows indicates that a woman is currently available and you have to break your mindset of moral ‘wrong or right’ to fully realize that these ladies are professionals engaged in legal trade. They have their trade union, pay taxes and have access to medical care. This normalization of the world’s oldest trade is yet another Dutch quality of accepting certain facts with a grain of salt and being true tradesmen, turning them into a lucrative business. This business mindset combined with a taste for eclectic beauty can be seen even as you walk away from the center. Post-industrial buildings in newer up-and-coming neighbourhoods are as photogenic as the traditional Dutch architecture and these also house creative enterprises like ethnic cuisine restaurants – think food from Bonaire; microbreweries; tech start-ups; and Avant-grade art galleries.

The backstreets of the Jordaan district

Escaping the cannabis fumes of the center

I like the relaxing fringes as much as the center of Amsterdam and to me, it is one of the most exciting cities to be in. If there’s one thing that I find detestable there then that is the smell of cannabis hanging heavily, especially in the streets in the center. Vacant-eyed tourists stumbling in and out of these coffee shops are as annoying as the smell and it is something, I can never get used to. However, when in Amsterdam, you do as the Dutchies do and so I did. I took the fact with a grain of salt and adapted. I used to leave my hotel room quite early after breakfast, and explore the city center in relative peace and quiet. The streets were nearly empty at that time and although most of the shops were closed, I didn’t mind. The china blue sky was mine, and so was the golden sunshine, the glittering canals, and the shimmering reflections of the dollhouses of Amsterdam. Can it get any better than that?