Amsterdam. Amsterdam! Where the bicycle reigns supreme. I just love bicycles. It’s such a joyous way to move. The fresh air, the freedom of movement, the spontaneity, the more humane speed, the ability to interact with everyone in your environment, the instantaneous parking. It makes you want to sing. You almost have to ask what’s not to like? How about the inability to efficiently cover large distances, the danger posed by cars, the difficulty carrying stuff, and exposure to the elements. But what if everything is closer together (thanks, ancestors), cars are not welcome (thanks, strict parking policies and tariffs and whatnot), there are ingenious ways to carry goods and kids (the toddler bike seats have a little head rest for the nodding-off child), and amazing advancements in poncho technology (or just holding an umbrella while you ride). It’s flat, twisty, narrow, dense, and egalitarian – perfect for bikes. Perfect for us. We biked everywhere. All week. Kris-krossing town like the miggedymacs we are, getting all kinds of lost, seeing the whole magical city. It makes such a profound impression – worth a trip here just by itself.
Amsterdam. Amsterdam! Where people talk Dutch, which is my favorite language. It has the same music as English (as opposed to the staccato of Italian and the smoothly sanded French). Many of the words are pronounced the same. Sometimes you’ll be seven words into a sentence before you realize that someone’s speaking Dutch. But then they’ll launch a spray of achs and chuchs that knock you into the ever-present canals (consider that the sound above is not “ch” as in latch or cheese, but “ch” as in “oh my god I’m clearing the world’s biggest loogie from way deep in the back of my throat”. And it happens five times every sentence. Which, in little kids, is totally amazing, because they’ll be speaking in sweet trebly tones, and then rip off the chuchiest chuch to sound like the oldest gerspatzenwiesel in town (gerspatzenwiesel itself being a made up word (by me) whose meaning you get even if you’ve never heard of the word, which pretty much sums up how Dutch sounds, and maybe even how the Dutch speak to each other)). So you’re on the street, and you keep thinking you hear English, but then you see it written, and it’s completely alien and unpronounceable, because it is full of gratuitous ijks and euws and, like German, theystringwordstogetherwithrecklessabandon. And then add a “gracht” or a “straat” to the end of that, and you get the street names, which you can never remember because you are exhausted by the time you get to the third syllable (out of 12). Plus, the city curves in upon itself at all points like a fractal. No really, if you’ve never been here, it’s impossible to navigate until a route has been memorized. So you can see why every trip requires an extra 10 minutes if it requires more than one change of direction. Sober.
Amsterdam. Amsterdam! Where the whole center city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but there’s demand for growth, and desire to keep housing affordable. So they take old industrial areas and make beautiful new residential areas – converting old buildings, adding new buildings around and on top of the old. Or they build new land. (Seriously. They just make islands in their bay, and build housing on it. It’s at first ridiculous, and then genius, and then you realize that that’s how the whole country was made. The iconic windmill was all about pumping water up and away to create dry land). As a rule, the housing is well-designed, dense, served by transit and separated bike lanes. Really impressive architecture – it helps that you can’t build without the approval of a team of architects who review your design. And the housing is affordable, not just because the demand approximates the supply, but because the City owns the land, and can decide the kind of development they’d like. Can I restate that last sentence, because I’ve never seen anything else like this in the world – the City owns the land. They lease it out for 50 or 100-year leases, so people will invest. But it’s the City’s call on what gets done. If you don’t trust government, this is a nightmare. But if you trust the government to support other values in a society because greed – well, this can be a really powerful thing. They’ve been doing it for 100 years here, and it’s working. Quite well.
Like Torino and Lyon, I’m sad to leave Amsterdam. But I know I’ll be back. We’ve got great friends here (special thanks to Josh and his beautiful family for helping curate such an amazing week). This was my fifth trip over a 20-year span, and it keeps growing in esteem and wonder. It’s got the filthiest, raunchiest neighborhood you’ve ever seen. But you never need to go in there – and if you don’t, the rest of the city unfolds her secrets for free.
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