Having a long layover in any major European city is a fine way to get a sense for the place. I had the opportunity to see London this way with my Uncle Lynn in 2004. Like having a single bite of the Crab Benedict from Pesos in Lower Queen Anne; it gives the flavor in lieu of the full dining experience of these epic places. Amsterdam defies description in many ways because it is unlike any city I have ever been to. It is coastal, yet not overly industrial, highly populated without feeling crowded, homogeneous in tolerance without losing or encouraging diversity, the people are productive without seeming rushed or overly stressed. However you are or would like to be, that is truly who you are invited to be in Amsterdam.
Many of my preconceptions about Europe must have come from my familiarity growing up with Disney cartoons. The cartoonists of those American treasures of art must have been inspired by cities like this one. Every street I saw, from any vantage point, would have made a fine image for a postcard. Amsterdam’s efficient and beautifully crafted city-center spills directly into neighborhoods built along canals where the row houses are reminiscent of the most charming dwellings in San Francisco, and the D.C. neighborhood of Georgetown. The light poles and hand-rails on bridges, fence posts and city trees are all crowded with bicycles. While walking I found myself most concerned with the warning chi-ching of a cyclist’s bell.
The air was clean enough to breathe.
Amsterdam was disorienting for me, a person who likes to capture what he can with my little camera. The problem was that I wanted to capture all of it, like a wedding photographer, which made it difficult to know which places to shoot and which to simply walk past.
Although I must have appeared a tourist, I wanted the residents to think I had more savvy than to be walking around ogling my black Sony rectangle all of the time. I wanted to belong. Like New York City, Amsterdam has the power to make you want to “be a part of it.” Healthy, clean and intelligent; that is what I found Amsterdam to be.
albaniacalling 