Amsterdam, Clogs and Coffee Shops
Well I am back from Amsterdam and I guess that I brought the cold weather back with me, sorry about that depending on your perspective. The weather over on the continent was very hairy to say the least, added to the fact I find driving in europe can be eventful even on the best of days (Belgian drivers I am talking about you).
Amsterdam is such a cool place to be, I enjoyed every frost bitten minute of its 17th century subsiding architecture and atmosphere. On the first day though I rather naively wandered into a coffee shop and ordered a coffee (who would have thought) only to be greeted with very odd looks indeed. As it turns out, a more detailed look at the guide book reveals that in Amsterdam a “Coffee shop” is not a place you go to drink coffee… a rookie mistake but a good anecdote. Bizarrely though although there is a smoking ban in the Netherlands, as long as there is no tobacco in your roll up you are free to keep on smoking inside. Surely the air quality is affected the same way albeit a bit more hazy! Worth a mention now that I am on the subject and in order to move past the cliches of the city, the red light district. Taking a stroll through on the first night I was intending to get a few images however this is not a good idea apparently, or face the wrath of the prostitutes who will make their annoyance known to anyone who tries. I did (subtly) manage to shoot from the hip and grabbed a couple blurry offerings (below) This is the original vice city then, but I already knew that.