It was my first afternoon in Amsterdam and I was sheltering from the rain in a really cute little cafe (no, not a coffeeshop*;) near my hotel (the brilliant College Hotel) when I spied this girl having an espresso with her boyfriend. As she got up to leave I asked if I could take her photograph. Unfortunately it had started to rain more heavily so in order to keep her dry (nothing worse than asking a person you have just met to stand in the rain so you can take their photograph), I kind of accidentally stood in the dedicated bike lane (well, one leg was in it anyway!). Now, if any of you have been to Amsterdam you will know this is a very, very, VERY bad idea. Almost everyone in Amsterdam rides a bike, and they ride pretty fast (I know, cos I tried to catch up with a few girls on bikes to take their photograph and failed miserably). And those bike lanes, I came to realise, aren't just for your treadly: they are for scooters, mopeds and I even saw a little motorised "car" puttering along one! So after getting yelled at by an irate woman on a scooter (quite rightly- I did a bad), I took this photo. It is a bit blurry but that was a combo of the rain, my shock at realising I was in the middle of peak-hour biking traffic, and that I had nearly ended up squished on my first afternoon in Amsterdam!
*if you are looking for places to go for fab espresso in Amsterdam, best to google espresso rather than coffee shops otherwise you will end up with a list of places to go for something rather a touch stronger than the coffee bean :) I can recommend Stumptown Coffee Roasters who are from the US but have a super cool pop-up cafe on Albert Cuypstrat, home of the oldest street market in Amsterdam. Apparently a deal was struck with the owners of the space (a creative agency) whereby the Stumptown crew would make coffee for them, in return for use of the space for 3 months. Brilliant!
I live in Amsterdam! I am so sad I have not seen you over there!
ReplyDeleteDid you like it despite the bad weather and the crazy bicycle people? I hope you did, because we Dutchies would love to see you again in the (near) future.
love how natural she look. and the dress is very cute! xx
ReplyDelete@Anon- hey Anon, I loved Amsterdam!!! It is a very pretty city, with so much history and I have to say that everyone I met was so super friendly. Even the tram drivers (and I talked to quite a few because I got miserably lost on 3 occasions- I am not blessed with any sense of direction, at all) are really friendly and helpful. I actually wish I had longer to stay so I could have done a bike tour, or at least hired a bike (although I am not so sure I am confident enough to ride with the locals, nor find my bike again after leaving it somewhere! How do you find your bike at the end of the day?!!). I also am disappointed I didn't get to see any windmills- I do like a good windmill! I need to go out to the country next time to see some. I would also have loved to have taken a little boat along the canals, somehow the tourist boats seemed a little too impersonal. Next time I will do that as well!
ReplyDelete@franca- I loved her dress and wedges as well! And she was about to hop on her bike when I took this photo!
vanessa! i've been following you for awhile and i luv it. when are you going to make a trek to canada...even better, vancouver (where i live)?
ReplyDeletethe west coast here is soo lovely! espesh during the summer. we are having our annual fireworks where countries from around the world put on 4 times at the end of july. too bad you'll miss them.
anyway, if you come to vancouver i would be more than happy to take you on a tour or tell you all the funky places to go see and visit. :)
nikjillb.blogspot.com
@nik- hee hee! Oh wow, I would love to visit Canada! My mum has been before as have a couple of friends and they loved it. It is definitely on my "to visit" list while we are over here in the UK! Those fireworks sound incredible- I will have to google it now!
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