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City On Water On The Move
msterdam is a compact, Amsterdam themselves can’t really
instantly likeable city. be bothered with the stuff. And
It’s appealing to look at while Amsterdam is renowned for
and pleasing to walk around, a its tolerance towards all styles
fascinating mix of the parochial of behavior and dress, a more
and the international; it also correct-thinking big city, with a
has a welcoming attitude towards more proper dress sense, would be
visitors and a uniquely youthful hard to find. Behind the cozy
direction, shaped by the liberal cafes and dreamy canals lurks the
counterculture of the last four suspicion that people of
decades. It attracts people to Amsterdam hearts lie squarely in
the buzz of open-air summer their wallets, and while
events, by the cheery intimacy of newcomers might see the city as a
the city’s clubs and bars, and by liberal haven, locals are not
the Dutch facility with bothered by these things.
languages. People in Amsterdam
are able to speak good-to-fluent Nonetheless, Amsterdam has not
English, on top of their own changed and still remains a
native tongue, and often more casual and intimate place, and
than a smattering of French and people of Amsterdam themselves
German too. make much of their city and its
attractions being gezellig, which
The obvious contradiction of is used frequently by Dutch
thoughts as well as behavior people roughly corresponding to a
embodies much of the spirit of combination of “cozy”, “lived-in”
Amsterdam. The city is world and “warmly welcoming”. This
famous as a place where the feature is most apparent in the
possession and sale of cannabis city’s unparalleled selection of
are effectively legal and yet, drinking places, whether one
for the most part, people of selects a traditional brown bar
or one of a raft of newer, street life. It also holds myriad
designer cafes, or grand cafes. shops, bars and restaurants,
The city possesses dozens of includes the Red Light District,
great restaurants too, with its just to the east of Damrak, and
Indonesian cuisine contains dozens of fine old
second-to-none, and is at the buildings, most memorably the
forefront of contemporary Oude Kerk, the Amstelkring and
European film, dance, drama and the Koninklijk Paleis.
music. The city has several
top-rank jazz venues and the The Old Centre is bordered by the
Concertgebouw concert hall is first of the major canals, the
home to one of the world’s Singel, which is followed closely
leading orchestras. The club by the Herengracht, Keizersgracht
scene is restrained by the and Prinsengracht - collectively
standard of other main cities, known as the Grachtengordel, or
although the city’s many gay bars “Girdle of Canals”. These canals
and clubs partly justify were part of a major
Amsterdam’s claim to be the “Gay seventeenth-century urban
Capital of Europe”. extension and, with the
interconnecting radial streets,
Confined by the circuitous sweep form the city’s distinctive web
of the Singelgracht canal, shape. This is Amsterdam’s most
Amsterdam’s compact centre delightful area having handsome
contains most of the city's seventeenth-and-eighteenth-centur
leading attractions and only y canal houses, with their
takes about forty minutes to distinctive gables, overlooking
stroll from one end to the other. narrow, dreamy canals: a familiar
The Old Centre remains image perhaps, but one that is
Amsterdam’s commercial heart, still entirely authentic.
with the best of its bustling
About the Author:
Rahul viz recommends that you visit http://www.bookings.nl/city/nl/amsterdam.html?aid=305255 for more information on City on Water on the Move.
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