MJ and I just got back from the trip of a lifetime to Europe, stopping by the City of Canals......and then moving on to the City of Canals again......huh?
Amsterdam, Netherlands was our connecting flight to Florence, Italy, and I was rather pleased to have alloted 7 hours between flights to just roam around the city of canals. Other than the fact many of Amsterdam's houses were tilted (how do they stand upright when living in their homes?) the most distinguishing feature was the intricate system of canals that criss-crossed through the city: essentially they ran along all the major roads and necessitated bridges to cross over them. I imagine a pain to plan out this city, but really idyllic to walk around on a brisk, cool Saturday morning. The city seemed hung over from a festive Friday night before (as evidenced by plenty of booze and cigarette butts lying around, something we'd get used to later on in the trip) and it was just beginning to wake up as we arrived. MJ and I were also just beginning to wake up after a long flight of practically no sleep (I was so caught up in the King Richard movie I couldn't get any shut-eye) too, but we managed to pass by the Anne Frank House, the world-famous Rijks Art Museum, and the appropriately-titled Van Gogh Museum (just all works of Van Gogh, all the time there). Plenty of college students and other twenty-somethings from America (indeed, we saw some from our flight) visit Amsterdam to use recreational drugs and other activities that run afoul of the law in other countries, but we did a tour of the city without needing to stop by the Red Light District or Chinatown. Oddly, there was a giant floating Chinese restaurant in the shape of a pagoda in the middle of the downtown skyline that seemed out of place in an otherwise European city, but aesthetically the city made up for it by providing large windmills, river views all over, and did I mention tons of canals? A geographic marvel of a city, an aspect of it that's often overshadowed by the drugs, tulips, and windmills.
The other city of canals where we did a whirlwind tour was the city of Venice, Italy, where canals are taken to the extreme: they're functionally the roads of the city, as they take the place of cars and buses, trains....none to speak of, the main transit line is a ferry line called the vaporetto that takes visitors up and down the "Grand Canal." I dont' read romance novels or get sucked into love stories, but something about canals is rather romantic, and the gondola services are right there to capitalize on any tourists' feelings of romanticism by charging like 85 euro for 30 minutes of work. In Kyoto, Japan, it's rickshaws, in New York's Central Park it's horseback carriage rides, and in Venice it's gondola rides: overpriced entertainment to let you experience something new that's not necessarily that exciting. And the gondola drivers don't sing! That'll be extra to hire a singer to join the gondola, and even more to get an accordionist. I don't blame the city for trying to capitalize off its unique tourist-friendly features, but personally MJ and I were turned off by the mass crowds: our philosophy this trip, especially since it was Memorial Day weekend in the U.S. and tourists seemed to flock into Italy (especially students who have the summer off and who have been itching to get out into the world) was to avoid crowds as much as possible, so even for the biggest attractions in Venice like St. Mark's Basilica, Doge's Palace, Bridge of Sighs, Rialto Bridge, we resolved to just breeze by, get a glimpse if needed, and watch the rest on high definition Youtube when we get back home. My favorite part of the "Italian" City of Canals was, as various guidebooks suggested, getting lost on the island/peninsula, stumbling onto plazas and markets, and suddenly happening around a cool art gallery that was trying to get noticed in one of the art capitals of the world. The Peggy Guggenheim museum was just awesome not only inside with its collection of modern painters, but the house's backyard was facing the Grand Canal......so close one could jump from the backyard into the water. And there's boat traffic on the Grand Canal! Waterways are no divided into clear lanes, so gondolas ride bumper-to-bumper (or is it stern-to-stern) with private boats, vaporettos, cargo boats, etc.... all trying to make their way down the canals. Quite a sight to behold, and now we can say we did it before the whole city sank (supposedly not for awhile, but who knows?)
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