Alankomaat

Last 2 days of Netherlands based myself out of southern Amsterdam in a lil suburb called Diemen-zuid (10th pic) about 25min cycle from city centre (which according to the locals is a lot).

Amsterdam:
- First things first in Amsterdam i rented a bike again because its about twice as fast as driving walking or taking the train.
- Legged it straight to my walking tour where again a lovely tour guide called Nick gave us a historical tour of Amsterdam mostly centered around the red light district (which was very filthy).
- Here i learnt that all items in the canals and houses are brought into the house through the hooks on the tops of the buildings poking out over the windows. A lot of the houses have a slight lean forward to prevent cargo bumping the building as it gets lifted
- Weed is not legal here it is instead tolerated, and no one knows where the weed sold at "coffeeshops" (coffeshops sell weed, cafes sell coffee. An important distinction i think) actually comes from, its believed that its all criminally supplied and the gov turns a blind eye due to the 2billion in taxes it creates each year whicu funnily enough is pumped back into anti drug campaigns
- Netherlands is only 14th in EU for drug consumption (Italy, spain, France are 1/2/3)
- the thinking behind tolerance of weed was that they would take the hit to solve the bigger issue of hard drugs. Amsterdam like most major cities in the 80s had a massive heroin problem which the tour guide showed us photos of, the same streets in the red light district we were walking down littered with junkie needles and prostitutes
- Covered the Dutch East Indie company which at its highest point was valued at a mere 6.7 trillion dollars (greater than all the top 50 companies in the world put together in 2024) which isnt that surprising giving it was based off slavery and colonisation. This company was the first multinational and offered shares to the Dutch people so that the Dutch people had the first ever middle class in history. Along with this in its peak the Netherlands average citizens worth was 4x greater than the 2nd richest country at the time (france). Learning all this made it difficult to feel too sympathetic for the dutch when learning about there WW2 experiences shortly and how they very abley assisted with herding up Jews
- they have odd names for lollie brands (2nd pic)
- awesome rubber ducky store (3rd pic)
- Overall i thought the touristy areas of Amsterdam were dirty smelly and a waste of time. After i left Amsterdam for the first time it was quite funny and validating to search up people thoughts on Amsterdam to which a lot of them said "best thing to do in Amsterdam is leave and go to another dutch city"

The Hague (Den Haag)
- The true capitol of the Netherlands, i took the intercity train (5th pic) into the haag from my little suburb train hopping on the metro, train line and tram line which was quite stressful at first as the transfer times were so short. If i didnt know where I was going i missed my tram/metro. Figured it out though and I was very impressed, puts sydney trains (shitty rail) to shame
- Chemists or drug stores of old used to have this open mouthed jester (6th pic) on the more fancy store as a sign that there was someone inside you was willing to taste your medicine before you took it to see if they got sick, similar to a food taster for a king.
- Visited the prime ministers residence and parliament which I have to say was gorgeous (7/8 pic), there was news crews there covering the elections and about 18 black fancy BMWs all identical parked out front with men in suits rocking (from my perspective) quite poorly concealed handguns and sub machine guns
- shopping mall for extremely expensive items (9th pic), the architecture was meant to invite and encourage people to stroll through the shops. This was built late 1800s, and is 3 stories tall, funnily enough most of the houses above the stores are empty which is odd because its central and very pretty right? Yes they are but the only entrance to the apartments are via the store below
- Den Haag was really nice and very pretty full of old buildings, a great middle ground between Amsterdam and Utrecht

On my last night in NL i had dinner at this cannibal themed restaurant (11th pic) which i wont lie was disturbing, luckily the ribs were well worth it. I went with a friend of Mums from work and having the local knowledge of food and drink spots made me think a lot more highly of Amsterdam.

Randomly cycling into Amsterdam about 20 ambos firetrucks and police went past slowly on the highway, but since the bikes faster i instead just had a 30min cycle into the city filled with siren noise

Most of the women cycle in heels!!!! CrazyLue lisää