Amster-Amster-Dam-Dam-Dam!

On Friday night a group of people from Novartis (my internship company) asked me if I wanted to go to Amsterdam and I said "sure, why not?"

As a side note, Amster-Amster-Dam-Dam-Dam is a song my Mom used to sing with her classmates when she was little.  Probably so they could say Dam!

Amsterdam is about a four hour drive from Marburg Germany so we got up at 6 AM (I did not get to bed until 2 AM that night) and took the Autobahn to Amsterdam.  Driving on the Autobahn was pretty fun and it did not feel that different than driving on a US interstate.  We were traveling 150 kph (90 mph) and getting passed, but I have experienced that in the US as well...it was just legal.  A good portion of the road had slowdown areas as well (and even more for large trucks) and that helped keep people from going too fast in dangerous areas.  My only complaint with the Autobahn was when exiting or changing to another Autobahn.  The exits would not list which of the two roads (one exit ramp that split into two direction) went North and which went South.  The signs only listed 2 cities that each road went towards.  This makes traveling difficult when you don't recognize either city.

These are some fin shots from the road tip:

• Top and bottom left: A fun old fashion car (could not catch the make/model)


• Top middle: A windmill


• Bottom middle: A bathroom I had to pay to use, but that gave me a coupon for the store (I did not find out it was a coupon until it was too late.  Blast!)


• Top and bottom right: Wind turbines.  I'm not a big fan of wind turbines because they are not feasible solutions to the energy situation.  Sure, they collect free energy (wind) but there are so many issues with them (do not generate power all the time, many areas are not suitable for wind collection, etc.) that I think we could better spend the money researching other energy options.  Regardless of my feelings about wind energy, these things are massive and impressive to see.  The blades are so long that they are moving at incredible speeds.  Once again, I will defer to HowStuffWorks.com's articles.

The rest of these pictures are not in order of when they were taken, but they do give a good idea of what Amsterdam looks like and some of the sights I saw.

• On the left is the house that Anne Frank and her family lived as they hid from the Nazi's.  The museum there was excellent (though no pictures were allowed so all I have is this shot from outside) and you had the chance to walk around the rooms where she and her companions stayed.  They also had historical items such as the paperwork documenting when she arrived in Auschwitz and her actual diary.

• Top left: Once again, another tiny tiny car.  I do not believe that two typical Americans could fit in this car (the seats were smaller than an airplane seat or a wooden bleacher seat at Fenway)


• Middle and bottom left: We passed a band playing American Classic Rock (though they did not seem to know all of the words to some songs) on top of a convertible.


• Middle and right pictures:  Random pictures from the marketplace in Amsterdam that opens up on Saturday.  The line the streets with these wooden tables and people sell all sots of things.  This went on for numerous city blocks.  I had to get a picture of the flowers because they were everywhere.  All over the city were stores for growing flowers, flowers already cut, and many houses had flower boxes outside their windows.

• Top and middle left:  Look at how there are no railings next to the canals.  The top picture is a restaurant where the patrons sit along the edge and the middle picture is another restaurant and although you cannot see it in this picture, there are cars parked parallel to the canal just a few feet out of frame (you can actually see a car in the bottom right picture that was supposed to be a picture of a fun looking boat)...again, no rails so I hope you know how to parallel park really well.  You just would NOT see that in America.  Everyone (the city, the restaurant, the person walking by who did not warn you) would be sued if someone fell/drove into a canal.  I'm actually with the Europeans on this one.  Let the idiots get wet!

[caption id="attachment_1292" align="alignnone" width="89" caption="it took me about 1 second to find a picture of a car in an Amsterdam canal"][/caption]

• These other pictures in the collage are a number of different shots of the various canals I passed.  I knew Amsterdam had canals but I had no idea how many canals it had.  I also did not realize how planned out and structured the city was.  For an old city, the canals and roads are very straight and symmetrical.

Look at how straight the outer canals are! The engineer in me loves symmetry.

• One of the funnest looking sights in Amsterdam was the beerbike pictured above.  The vehicle was a movable bar that is powered by drunk legs.  The bartender has a PA system and people were required to sing karaoke as the group drank and drove.  All I know is that it looked like a ton of fun.

• More scenic pictures from Amsterdam.  I've seen this all over Europe but I wanted to point out the construction occurring on the train station.  You can see it (or "not" see it) in the bottom right picture.  If you look at the bottom half of the building you will notice that it is a mural painted to look like the building to cover up the construction that is going on at the moment.  It is a cool way to make construction to historic building look a little less unsightly.  I've seen the same thing in other parts of Europe, but I'm not sure I ever mentioned it in a picture before.

One of my favorite series of books is the Aubry-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian.  They made a movie out of called Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World starring Russel Crowe (very well done movie!) and ever since reading that series I have loved the old wooden ships (aka Diversity).

• Bottom right: I am sitting on the "throne of ease" aka toilet, but I am not actually using it.

[caption id="attachment_1293" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="If referring to an old wooden ship as Diversity means nothing to you: Stop! Put down whatever you are doing and go and rent Anchorman. You apparently have not memorized your lines."][/caption]

• And finally, the highlight of my weekend: urinating outside.  It's all legal in Amsterdam.

You may notice there are no pictures from the Red Light District of Amsterdam...well pictures are not allowed.  You may also notice that there are no pictures of a "coffee' bar...well, we didn't do any of that so :-P