The Other City of Canals

We awoke in Zagreb and headed to the airport to return our rental vehicle and board our flight on Croatian Airlines to Amsterdam.

The airport in Zagreb is not very big or modern. There are no jetways at the gates. When your flight is announced, they scan your boarding pass and you exit onto the tarmac to board a shuttle bus that takes to the parked plane. You then climb a portable stairwell attached  to the back of a truck to enter the plane. Once on the plane, it was like any other flight, except for your snack of goat cheese and olives in olive oil.

Due to severe winds at our destination, the flight was delayed about an hour. After an uneventful flight, we cleared customs and took a shuttle to our hotel near the airport. We checked in, dropped our bags, and headed for Hoopdorf Station to catch the train to Central Station in Amsterdam.

When we emerged from the station and into the afternoon sun, we were greeted with instant chaos as hordes of pedestrians and bicyclists were competing with cars, taxis, buses and trams (street cars) in the public right of ways. And the bikes are everywhere in the congested core of the city. Not just those being ridden but countless bikes parked  up and down streets and along the many canals. As a pedestrian, you are more likely to be hit by a bike than a car.

We quickly found our way to a pedestrian mall full of shops and retailers, and of course the McDonald's, Burger King, and Subway. We eventually found less crowded streets along the canals to explore the central part of the city. We wandered for a couple hours, taking in everything and weaving among throngs of people around every turn.

We ended up in Rembrandt Square with a statue of the master and several statues of Dutch soldiers from the same era. The square was full of vendors representing several countries selling food, sweets and other wares. Just off the square we found a restaurant to enjoy a nice meal (and a Heineken) to savor our last night in Europe.

We barely scratched the surface in Amsterdam,  but we were impressed with what we saw.