My initial flight on the afternoon of May 17 was from San Francisco to Seattle. Here at Sea-Tac, I waited to board my flight for Amsterdam. Mount Rainier looms in the background. My 11.5 hour flight from Seattle to Amsterdam was made more tolerable by the fact the plane was only half full.
Catching the proper train from the Amsterdam airport to the main train station in central Amsterdam proved way more confusing than I had expected, maybe because I was operating on about 1 hour of sleep in the past 24 hours. I arrived here at the Neo-Gothic Central Station just before 2:00 pm on May 18.
I was determined not to make the same mistake I've made on previous trips to Europe and take an afternoon nap upon arrival. Instead, I forced myself to walk around the city for the rest of the afternoon and evening. It rained for a short time in the afternoon, and then there was an intense short downpour with an early evening thunderstorm, but otherwise the weather was fine. I walked through the Jordaan Neighborhood, where my rental was located, and admired the canals.
In the evening I walked over to the "Red Light District" - the neighborhood famous for its legal prostitution on full display. I was expecting this to be a run-down and scummy section of the city, but it became obvious to me pretty quickly that there is no such thing as run-down or scummy in Amsterdam. The entire city is clean and well maintained. In fact, the Red Light District was every bit as scenic and clean as the rest of the city. And instead of drug dealers and homeless people, I mostly saw tourists.
A couple more photos in the Red Light District .
On the right is the "Old Church". This was the medieval city's original church, constructed over about 300 years, starting around 1300. Ironically, this church now sits in the center of the Red Light District.
Bronze sculpture embedded in the cobblestone right next to Old Church.
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