Photos of Amsterdam

Dutch aircraft

Dam square where we met up with another CouchSurfer Deniz 

Deniz and I hit it off right away.  Mainly because we both love chess!  He's from Turkey and was the 12U Turkish National Champion!  Plus, he actually played Gary Kasparov!  I guess he paid a visit to Turkey to play in a 25 simultaneous game demo.  Kasparov won 23 of 25, and the rest were draws.  Deniz lost, but he had one hell of a story to tell. 

This was from the breakfast window where Deniz and I met.  This woman had her 7 year old child in that cargo area up front.  She had pulled the tarp down and when she arrived he just popped out.  It was amazing to see the different ways the Dutch travel with their children by bike.

German chessboard in the museum

Chess museum has an outdoor board.  The chess museum was on Max Euwe Straat named after the Dutch GrandMaster.

Battle ship

So some artist named Vincent was kind of a big deal in the Nederlands.  This whole room was full of his paintings, Van G...something...I don't remember ;)

Mexico to Amsterdam - 48 hour travel day was awful, but the price was right!

Sunset somewhere over the US

I found a great deal on tickets and was able to get from PV to Amsterdam for under $1100.  In addition, I had to schedule a layover in Toronto so that I could go and pick up my bike.  I had previously boxed up my bike and sent it Purolator to Toronto, that way I wouldn't have to haul it around in Mexico.

This is outside the Amsterdam airport.  I packed all the tools I needed and I built the bike on the sidewalk.  You can see the bike box to the right.  I broke my record and had everything put together and panniers packed in 1h15m, this photo and the accompanying game face is the result of that effort.

This is where I stayed in Amtserdam, my Couchsurfing host has a place next to this clock tower.  The bells rang once on every half hour and then rang on the hour.  Which translates to 12 shattering ringing of the bells at midnight.  Amsterdam never sleeps they say...maybe that's why?

 I flew Air Transat, not the best choice.  There was very little, to no leg room at all.  It was a discount air line but I don't think I would fly with them again.  Although I did get a nice blanket, neck pillow and eye cover for 5Euro. 

This is the view from my window at Talia's place.  It was wild to connect with a Lithuanian.  I played professional volleyball there for a year, and we had much to talk about.  It was fun to try speaking the language again!

It's hard to find a Couchsurging host in Amsterdam.  As you can imagine it's quite a popular tourist destination.  For that reason, hosts in Amsterdam will routinely receive over 10 requests PER DAY!  Many of people I've heard back from won't even consider you unless you completely read their profile and send a custom message explaining why you want to stay with them.  This is always how I request couches, but when you're sending out over 15 requests in Amsterdam and you're getting nothing back, a little "copy and paste" happens now and again.  Talia said the only reason she accepted me was because I spoke Lithuanian.  Labai aciu Talia!!

More views

Houseboat on a canal somewhere in Amsterdam