Amsterdam by day

The name Amsterdam evokes in the imagination a variety of images, all of which are true. It is a city of concentric canals, fearless cyclists, gaping tourists, open sexuality, and legal marijuana. All these disparate elements weave together an atmosphere that is vibrant and dynamic, yet comfortable and laid-back at the same time. Narrow 5-6 story buildings form a continuous but varied facade on most downtown streets, which date from the 17th century, I believe, and so are wider than the medieval streets of the Barrio Gotico in Barcelona, but narrower than the broad avenues of 18th and 19th century design. Museums, theatres, old churches, pedestrian streets, and open squares are sprinkled throughout the city center. Canals radiate down from the city center and intersect with other canals, forming a regular spider-web pattern, or, more precisely, the bottom half of a spider web, because of the open water to the North of downtown.

After a refreshing nap I had only a few hours to walk the city by day, so I had to complete my daytime sightseeing the following day. The weather on both my days in Amsterdam was chilly with sporadic sprinkles of rain, so I limited my walking time to only a few hours each day.

In addition, I managed a couple of chores as well. First, I went to a supermarket because of the outrageously pricy food elsewhere, and bought a kilo of Dutch cheese for 3 EUR, some 35 cent chocolate bars, and a bottle of decent wine for 5 EUR.
These, along with some tomatoes, spinach and rolls served me well for two meals and even bought me a couple of new friends at the hostel.

Second I discovered a massive English-language bookstore with free wireless access for my handheld, so I spent a couple of hours there uploading trip photos, and reading up on tourist books for my upcoming destinations.