Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
orIEntAtIon
Amsterdam is a progressive way of life housed in Europe's most
17th-century city. Physically, it's built upon millions of pilings.
But more than that, it's built on good living, cozy cafés, great art,
street-corner jazz, stately history, and a spirit of live-and-let-live.
It has 750,000 people and almost as many bikes. It also has more
canals than Venice...and about as many tourists.
During its Golden Age in the 1600s, Amsterdam was the
world's richest city, an international sea-trading port, and the
cradle of capitalism. Wealthy, democratic burghers built a planned
city of canals lined with trees and townhouses topped with fancy
gables. Immigrants, Jews, outcasts, and political rebels were drawn
here by its tolerant atmosphere, while painters such as young
Rembrandt captured that atmosphere on canvas.
The Dutch are unique. They are among the world's most
handsome people—tall, healthy, and with good posture—and the
most open, honest, and refreshingly blunt. They like to laugh. As
connoisseurs of world culture, they appreciate Rembrandt paint-
ings, Indonesian food, and the latest French film—but with an
unsnooty, blue-jeans attitude.
Approach Amsterdam as an ethnologist observing a strange
culture. Stroll through any neighborhood and see things that are
commonplace here but rarely found elsewhere. Carillons chime
quaintly in neighborhoods selling sex, as young professionals
smoke pot with impunity next to old ladies in bonnets selling
f lowers. Observe the neighborhood's “social control,” where an
elderly man feels safe in his home knowing he's being watched by
the prostitutes next door.
Be warned: Amsterdam, a bold experiment in freedom,
may box your Puritan ears. Take it all in, then pause to watch
