Canal Bus & Cycling in Amsterdam
Visit the Attractions of Holland's Biggest City by Bike or Boat
The secret to getting round in the capital of the Netherlands is travelling by a boat, such as the Canal Bus, or bike.
It only takes about half an hour to become a total bundle of nerves. They come from absolutely everywhere; roads, doorways, pavements… and quite possibly out of the canals as well.
Amsterdam prides itself on being a cyclist-friendly city, but the cyclists themselves are anything but friendly. If you’re on foot, it’ll take roughly half a day before they go from being harmless eccentrics to vermin on a par with pigeons and sewer rats. Biggest city in Holland and tourist icon it might be, but the streets are absolute chaos.
They follow a pattern, a canal down the middle, flanked by two tiny lanes, which are patently not suited for 21st century traffic flows. The result is that cars hobble along as if they’ve got diesel mixed in with the petrol, and the cyclists swarm everywhere. The pavements are almost an afterthought, generally used as somewhere to plant trees or, more predictably, place bike racks. With all these pedestrian perils, it’s no wonder that people cocoon themselves away in the city’s infamous ‘coffee shops’ looking for something to help them mellow out a bit.
This is definitely an if you can’t beat them, join them scenario, and a quick visit to one of the many bicycle hire shops can save an awful lot of pain and stress. Alternatively, they can be avoided entirely. If the whole city’s going to be riddled with canals, then it’d be extremely rude not to use them.
Luckily, most of the major tourist attractions are by the water, so a canal cruise that you can hop on and off allows you to get around and see everything without the stress of dodging rogue pedal-pushers.
The first thing you notice once on board is that it takes considerable skill to steer these barges. The waterways are very narrow, and the tiny bridges they pass under are barely bigger than the boat itself. The slightest distraction, and there’s going to be an almighty crunch between bow and brickwork.
When you’re not ducking under bridges, though, you can see the many flavours of Amsterdam. There are the cramped terraced houses, so indicative of an over-crowded country, and then there are the cafes, sprawling across small plazas.
The Canal Bus operates between 10am and 7pm every day. Tickets can be bought on the day at the kiosk outside Central Station. More information, including hotel bookings, is available on www.holland.com.
