H. and I started our first full day in Amsterdam with a visit to a nearby street market (where they were selling lots of cool vintage clothes) and a vintage clothing shop. It occurred to us it might be a good plan, on a subsequent trip to Europe, to begin our travels in Amsterdam and arrive with a nearly empty suitcase. :)
Also we saw this dog...
Afterward we split up. I wandered around the neighborhood, then made my way to the ARTIS Amsterdam Royal Zoo, which was not too far from our hotel.
Whenever I have the time & energy, I enjoy visiting zoos in different cities. Zoos are often serene, shady, quiet, and they let me get a taste of the local atmosphere without being overrun by fellow tourists. If a zoo is a destination/draw, like the San Diego Zoo, this wouldn't be the case, but in most other places, I've found zoos to be a nice oasis.
I'd had both the London Zoo and the Paris Zoological Park on my "maybe" list, and didn't end up going to either. So Amsterdam was the first zoo I visited on this trip.
I spent a few hours exploring the zoo, then returned to our hotel in the late afternoon.
After regrouping, I decided to go rent a bike from the shop down the street. Rick Steves had made renting and riding a bike in Amsterdam sound both easy and necessary. So I thought, why not?
There was a bike rental shop just down the street from our hotel, and I decided I wanted to rent one for 24 hours. The lady running the shop was evidently not fluent in English, but she had perfected a speech for English-speaking customers, complete with printed pictures she could point to for clarification. She was amazing. She insisted I practice locking and unlocking the bike using a locking mechanism that's permanently attached to the bike. It was a bit tricky, but I managed it.
Then she asked me if I wanted a phone mount for my bike, and without really thinking about it, I said "no." So she wheeled away the bike that I'd been practicing locking, and brought me one without the phone mount.
In order to complete the rental, you must leave behind a piece of ID -- I left my driver's license, since I knew it would be easier to replace than my passport if something went awry.
Then I set off riding. I had wanted to check out
Vondelpark, so I headed in (roughly) that direction.
It only took me a few minutes to realize I should've gotten that phone mount. It would have been nice to be able to use Google Maps/directions while riding, as opposed to keeping the phone in my pocket and having to stop and pull over time I needed to check the map. Many of Amsterdam's streets run in a grid pattern, but a lot of them just go off in whatever direction they want. I definitely pedaled out of my way multiple times before reorienting myself. (I did try using the map audio/bluetooth headphones method, but I couldn't get consistent enough internet access for that to work properly. I also tried simply holding my phone, but that wasn't really feasible.)
My lonely, phone mount-less handlebars.
Riding around town was pretty easy. There are bike paths galore, and bike signals at intersections. There were only a few times where it got tricky, like near the tram tracks, because the bike paths seemed to disappear. I knew to only cross the tracks perpendicularly, but there was one time when I hit a track at a weird angle and did some wobbling.
I was also usually the slowest bike rider on any path, and on the busier ones, I got passed constantly. Luckily, most of the paths are wide enough for this to be done easily... if you're feeling nervous, just stay to the right.
Vondelpark was beautiful, and was currently being enjoyed by many. In addition to lots of green space, there were wide paths with plenty of room for bike, skate, and foot traffic traveling in both directions. Here, I did end up having to pass a lot of slower traffic, but luckily there were no mishaps.
After making a full loop of the park, I rode back to the hotel.
Then I had to attempt to lock my bike up outside our hotel. (There are plenty of bike racks all over town.) Even though I'd managed the task in front of the bike shop owner, she had switched the bikes on me, and this new one's lock felt slightly different. I kept trying to lock it, but the mechanism would snap back over and over. Fail after fail. At one point I just plunked myself on the pavement, determined I would get it. I think it took about 30 tries, but I finally managed to lock that bike!
That's when I realized I was at the wrong hotel.
...
Just kidding.
Things I learned today:
*Get the cell phone mount next time.
*Buy tickets online whenever possible (standing in the hot sun to get my zoo ticket was unfun.)
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