Analysing Amsterdam

Amsterdam is a city that constantly alludes me, a little like Brussels. As with Brussels, I've now been there three times, and I'm still not quite sure what I make of it.

Today it was very different than the other times I'd been. It's no longer Summer and it's no longer filled to bursting point with tourists who only go there, to put it politely, for the 'typical' Amsterdam things. Instead, the streets were almost empty and most of the people I passed were speaking Dutch rather than English. Everything felt much more relaxed and less rushed and I had a proper chance to just walk around the city. The main streets are much like any others, aside from being overly filled with conspicuous, loud and brash tourist shops. You don't have to go far though to walk into a completely different place. The canals in Amsterdam are, from my point of view, both a huge bonus and drawback for the city. Their advantage is that they largely keep the touristy bit confined to the very centre of the city. Their disadvantage is that they break up the city and everywhere becomes too small to fit into a whole. When walking around some of the farther out canals I was struck by how lovely and open it all was. And I think that's the thing, a lot of Dutch cities are simply lovely to walk around - I would go to see the city, not necessarily something in the city.

Amsterdam is also an amazingly multicultural place. Although today it wasn't so evident, I don't think I've ever been to a place where such a multitude of languages are spoken. Not only this, but there's an incredible amount of bilingualism as well, with many speaking a language with an accent which betrays their true nationality. It's all incredibly eye-opening.

So, where does this little ramble lead? I think I was a little hard on Amsterdam before and I certainly didn't give it a proper shot before - it has more to offer than I gave it credit for. It won't become my favourite Dutch city (that honour currently being held by Maastricht,), but I don't think its the worst.