I love Amsterdam!

When l was on holiday in Amsterdam, couldn't get over how colouful the city was, compared to London. Even though it rained, the place felt happy because of all the colours and wonderful buildings surrounding me. Another thing that makes me smile a lot, is even their machinary is colourful!

As a child, l remember being told about Amsterdam but all l could remember about what l was told, was water and bikes and both memories live up to expectations. There are bikes of all shapes, sizes, colours and so many are decorated beautifully. Some are decorated with artifical flowers, toys and even photographs and some like the image below are brightly coloured.

Bikes and trams rule the roads and pavements, come to think about it! 

Bikes are also fitted with boxes for children, animals and luggage! I am not sure what else to call them, certainly not side cars and not fitted bike seats! I have actuallt started to see bikes like this over here in London. Health and Safety Officers would have a fit ..no seat belts and no helmets!Ha!

You will also see that Amsterdam is full of tourists, many on bikes too. Well it is basically flat, so even unfit people like me, wouldn't find it too hard! Although l have no intention of finding out!Ha!

The last image l have in this part of the blog, to do with bikes is a drawing. I found this poster stuck over a glass door. I do not speak Dutch but l think it may be telling people not to lean bikes against the glass! BUT..l could be wrong. I don't actually care, l just love the illustration!

Amsterdam is full of wonderful Art and many sculptures. I am standing by one of them, in the image below. It is a monument called "Homomonument" and celebrates being Gay, l suppose. but what made me giggle and l am being a bit naughty here. This sculture is hard to describe, it is made up of a raised stone platform and a line that forms a triangle! Anyway, if you need more info, look at a guide to Amsterdam! What l was giggling at, was the very well placed male toilet beside the monument, it seems part of the sculture! It is the green structure which is right behind the monument sign! As l took the image, a young guy came out of the loo, looked at me, shook his fist at me and walked away! Um!

For the life of me, l can't remember what the name of this church...sorry. Actually, it doesn't really matter, as the reason l wanted to show this image, was to show the size of some of the churchs in Amsterdam! The best way was l thought, to show a person standing by one of the pillars. Unfortunetly, the light was low and using flash would have been useless and l got it slightly wrong, hopefully you can still see what l was trying to achieve?

The next image is of an archway l just adore. It is full of interesting things to look at, read and most of all, history. I have also included a close up of the sculpture in the centre of the arch, which is so full of fun, colour and history. It is a pity in some ways, that it is so high up and out of sight from most people, unless they know it is there or like me, you have to look at ever thing! I stood there for quite a while, around about 30 mins and in that time, nobody looked up! Just look at what they missed!

If you go through this archway, there is some interesting art hanging from the ceiling. After the wonderful lady in the "Aussie" style hat, see another hanging behind that one, in colour and a well done painting. There are so many galleries and small shops dedicated to Dutch artists, you could have an overload of Art!

The last but one image, is of as wonderful cup of coffee we had, just after visiting "my arch"! See even the coffee cup and the coffee shop is full of colour!

As you can tell from this blog..l love Amsterdam!