Europe 2026 – Day 6 – Amsterdam

We split up into three groups today. David and Dayle and Wayne took the train to Alkamaar for the cheese auction. Dayle guest blogs about their day at the Alkmaar cheese auction.

Alina and I rented Dutch bikes from the hotel and did a 44 km ride exploring greater Amsterdam.

Cindy and Mark explored Amsterdam on foot.

It was quite simple to rent the bikes. It’s a rental company that keeps their bikes at the hotel where we are staying. We went down and scanned the QR code which opened a webpage. I was able to order bikes for both of us. The reception desk received the order and provided us with keys for the frame locks on the bikes.

I couldn’t find the bike they assigned me so traded it for another. But then the second one had the seat tilted up and my Allen keys were not the right tool to adjust it. So they gave me a third bike. The seat was better, but not perfect, but I didn’t want to waste any more time so I took it. I did end up a bit sore by the end of the day so I’ll make sure the seat is perfectly adjusted when we do the Bike and Barge part of our trip, which is six days of writing for a total of about 280 km. I attached my Quad lock phone holder to the bars so I could consult the map hands-free and have it easily accessible for taking pictures. 

Before we left this morning, I dropped a dozen or so points of interest on a Ride with GPS map and then had Ride with GPS route us between them.

Shortly after leaving the hotel, we saw someone having something delivered using a crane.

Except for in the very small brick surface central Amsterdam streets, which were shared by cars and bikes, we had separate cycling infrastructure most of the day.

Our first stop was 9 streets. It is a series of nine very small streets in the historic area in the central Canal belt (a UNESCO world Heritage site). These streets connect the Singel, Herengracht, Keizersgracht, and Prinsengracht canals. 

We used the frame locks, and a cable lock I brought with me, to lock the bikes up. There are bikes everywhere in Amsterdam. We found a spot where we could leave them, but it was right next to a urinal. Amsterdam outdoor urinals., colloquially known as “Pee curls“ for the shape of the screen. They take back to the end of the 19th century. There are somewhat controversial because no facilities are provided for women.

Our walk took us past the Lego store again, so this time we went in. The staircase was an homage to Escsher‘s Relativity.

As we walked in the door, we were handed an egg shaped made out of Lego, which opened to reveal a chick.

We saw more Lego replicas of Dutch work of art and other fabulous sites for an AFOL (adult fan of Lego) such as myself.

We passed the tram that was passing under tree canopy, and over grass. It was such a beautiful scene and every time I see this in Europe I question the way we’re building light rail in the GTA.

We passed an evocative sculpture of an elderly couple entitled Living to the Last: Stay Close.

We parked our bikes across from the palace at Dam Square to take some pictures. We just use the café locks and set them near a lamp post where we thought they would be out of the way. Five minutes later, we returned to a notice hanging from our bars explaining that we were in a no parking zone. We were more careful where we left our bikes, the rest of the day.

We then took some pictures in front of the narrowest facade in Amsterdam. The house was designed this way to avoid taxes which were based on the width of the façade. This caused people to build houses with narrow façades, but that were deep and widened as they went back.

Our next stop was De Poezenboot (The Cat Boat). It is a floating cat sanctuary on an Amsterdam canal. Unfortunately it didn’t open for another hour, but there was already a line forming. A local woman in the line told us that if we wanted to get in, we would need to line up. We decided to continue on our way.

Amsterdam has been a global centre for diamond trading and polishing since the late 16th century. Alina suggested we visit the Gassan factory and store. 

We joined the tour in progress, unknowingly skipping the security part, but the tour guide allowed us to tag along regardless. We learned that they get all their diamonds from South Africa, and that Canada recently shut down a large diamond mine in the Northwest Territories.

We were shown five diamonds and learned about how they’re graded. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed. The most expensive diamond we saw was 1.7 carats cut with Gassan’s patented 121 facets, priced at €24,000.

The guide was very open that the reason for the tours was to generate sales, but she was very welcoming despite the fact that we said we wouldn’t be buying. The tour was free, and they also had free bathrooms, which are in short supply here, and free coffee.

We passed over one of the many lift bridges on our way to the science museum for lunch.

We were starting to get hungry, so we didn’t delay on our way to the free-to-access rooftop space at the NEMO Science Museum. It was quite cold and windy as we climbed the stairs, but we found a bright sunny spot to eat the lunch we bought in the café.

The views were terrific.

There were many interesting sites between the science museum and a lift bridge that we had to cross over, despite the short distance

Our route, then took us over a swing bridge, which was open when we arrived. We had to wait several minutes for a barge to go through and the bridge to swing back into place. I thought I took a video of it, but it turns out I didn’t press the record button. Sigh.

We passed several places where there was bike parking in highway underpasses.

We had water on both sides of the cycling path here as we approached the Nescio Bridge (Nesciobrug) in Amsterdam. It is a 780-meter-long, curved suspension bridge exclusively for pedestrians and cyclists, completed in 2006. Spanning the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal, it links IJburg to the city center and is notable as the Netherlands’ first pedestrian/cycle-only suspension bridge, featuring a self-anchored design to manage soft soil conditions. I thought I had read that it is the longest in the Netherlands, but apparently there is an 800 m one Groningen. Nevertheless, it was a very impressive piece of active transportation infrastructure. Every bridge we’ve been on here that carries motor vehicle lanes also has separated, cycling and walking spaces.

We were heading to a new neighbourhood IJburg, built on reclaimed land in IJmeer, a lake near Amsterdam.  It is known for its contemporary architecture, sustainable design, and water rich environment. It has 18,000 homes for 45,000 residents. It also has tram access to the city.

The main reason that I wanted to come out to this area was to see Sluishuis. If there’s an apartment building OJBurg which opened in July 2022 and was designed by by Bjarke Ingels Group, an architecture firm based in Copenhagen, and in collaboration with Rotterdam-based Barcode Architects.

I was concerned that the most iconic view would be inaccessible to non-residents, but there was just a sign asking visitors to be respectful.

It is a sustainable building with solar panels on the roof which provided for the lighting, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning in the building. The courtyard has a publicly accessible jetty where boats can moor. It was the winning design in a competition held by the city of Amsterdam for an image defining building.

Our return trip on the north side of IJ River took us through some lovely Dutch woonerf streets. The street has shared space, traffic, calming, and speed limits for cars set at the speed of bikes. It was getting quite windy, but the narrow woonerf street sheltered us.

I had two final stops planned. The first was NDSM. By the time we got there, it had been raining for about half an hour. I was just going to take pictures of the outside of the building. However, a man (beckoning us from the doorway in the image above) who has been in instrumental in creating a vibrant, creative, cultural hub from a former shipyard that went bankrupt in the 80s, invited us in and told us about the space.

He was quite proud of it and, I think, would have talked to us as long as we were willing to listen. We chatted for about 15 minutes. He showed us his atelier where he creates custom jewellery, and told us about some of the other artists in the place and how are the nonprofit structures itself.

Rent is incredibly cheap for people who have little to no, income, but becomes more expensive as people become successful, or for those who decide to run a commercial business there.

He told us some artists would pay as little as €100 a month to rent the space while the restaurant and bar paid €24,000.

The space is so large that they have constructed buildings inside the building, and people working there bring in their motor vehicle vehicles and bicycles.

There was a festival starting at 10 PM this evening with up-and-coming music and dance artists. They tested the sound system while we were there and we thought it was a train running through the place. It was deafening.

Our final stop was STRAAT Museum, a street dart museum, which is part of NDSM, but we still had a 30 minute ride and the rain was continuing so we didn’t take the time to go in.

Ride with GPS rid of us to a ferry landing where I have been expecting a bridge. It looks like it was about to leave, and I called out to someone getting on board, where do we buy tickets? She said none were required so we jumped on board.

The ferry didn’t go where we expected it to go, but took a longer trip to Central Station so we had to ride a couple kilometres to get back on to our route. Perhaps the next ferry would’ve taken to where Ride with GPS had planned, but it didn’t really matter. From the ferry we saw this building and several others on reclaimed land.

The last three kilometres were through a lovely park that brought us out near the community gardens we explored on our first walk after arrival. The flowering trees were just beginning to bud. I’m hoping we’ll see some lovely displays of flowering trees, as well as tulips, in the coming days. 

Cindy made a reservation for across the street for our final dinner in Amsterdam before sailing tomorrow afternoon.