We had a splendid visit to Amsterdam before our recent river cruise, spending nearly 4 days exploring the streets, canals, museums and shops of the city. I took a bunch of photos, and I am sharing a small sample of them here. I thought I would also share a few interesting facts that we learned during our visit.
Amsterdam has more bicycles than people. Estimates vary based on who is doing the telling, but the official people count as of June 2024 is 933,680 within the city proper. 63% of Amsterdammers use their bikes daily.
Yearly, over 100,000 bicycles get stolen. Approximately 25,000 are dumped into a canal, and of those, approximately 8-10,000 get picked out. There is a special boat for bicycle recovery.
There are more than 400 kilometres of cycle paths in the city of Amsterdam alone.
Amsterdam has more bridges (1,281) than Paris and more canals (165) than Venice. And over 11,500 bars!
The city of Amsterdam is located on 90 small islands and is a city which is built on poles. A lot of poles. In fact, the city is built on eleven million poles. The train station of Amsterdam Centraal alone needs 9,000 poles to be supported whereas a normal house needs only 10. These wooden poles of 15-20 meters are placed in a sandy layer which is around 11 meters deep.
Settlement causes many of the buildings to lean, as can be seen in many pictures of the city.
A lot of the houses in Amsterdam are quite narrow. This is because the amount of taxes people had to pay back in the 17th century was based on the width of the house. Because the stairways are also very narrow, many buildings have hoists on the outside of the building in order to get furniture and other items to the top floors.
The city has approximately 2,500 house boats.
Tap water is very clean in Amsterdam, and there are water fountains everywhere. Re-useable bottles are encouraged!
Monte Stevens
I’m aware of how bicycle friendly Amsterdam is from reading a book title Curbing Traffic. It seems they have adjusted to the insidious craze for automobiles and look to bicycles, walking and public transportation. I understand the air quality is much better than in the US. Great series of photos and I got a good giggle with your last image!
Tom Dills
They do a lot of things well over there, including bicycles. I’m also always impressed by the sensibly small size of cars there. Sure, there are the larger luxury cars, but the European car makers also make small ones, which unfortunately we’ll never see over here.
Glad you liked the sign! Whenever I have a good one I like to put it at the end as a reward! 😉
Joe
I loved Amsterdam. We had 3 days there. The canal tour we took was by “Those Dam Boat Guys” and the pilot was a Brit who did improv comedy. I’d go back in a second.
Tom Dills
I agree, Joe. We wouldn’t hesitate to return, or to book a cruise that departs from Amsterdam.