Amsterdam: Transportation and Flower Market

We didn't drive around in Amsterdam because we weren't familiar driving on the other side of the road.

I saw this cute little car and wanted Chin Fei to open up his hands as a measure of how small the car is...

..and he did this:

LOL. I didn't think it would be that small that he just needed to stretch out one hand!

Besides, most of the places were easily accessible by trams. We stayed in a hotel in Amstelkade which was in between the city and the convention centre where the conference was held. It was just a 10-15 minutes tram ride to either the city centre or the convention centre and with a day or week pass, it was very cheap and convenient for us to roam around. :)

Waiting for a tram. Reminds me of the good old days in Melbourne.

In Amsterdam, there are many cyclists around. These cyclists seem to have a higher priority than pedestrians, unlike in Perth, because they will ring their bell and expect the pedestrians to give way. They do not even bother to slow down at all. However, in Amsterdam, you don't see many good bicycles, such as a hybrid, road bike or mountain bike or even a racer. You'll see so many normal everyday-bicycles, the ones you see old people riding to pasar (market) in the kampungs (villages). I guess the Dutch don't own such a good bike because the average duration of having a bike is 3 months before it gets stolen.

I don't think anyone is going to claim the ownership of this bike anymore

Bicycle dump

Bicycle tour

Since there are so many canals in Amsterdam, the tourism industry took the opportunity to provide canal ride tour. We wanted to join one but it was quite expensive and we didn't have the time as well.

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We also visited Bloemenmarkt (Flower Market) when we were in Amsterdam.

Apparently, it is the one and only floating flower market in the world because the stalls float on the canal, something like those floating markets in Bangkok. There we saw so many different types of tulips. They were selling the bulbs to prepare for next year's tulip season around March to May. There were stalls selling cannabis plants and seeds too, which was quite shocking to me. Hopefully the people who are growing them sell them solely for medicinal purposes.

Looks like onion bulbs

Take a pick of which tulips you want

Up next, last post on Amsterdam! Windmills and clogs! :)