Amsterdam

This is central Amsterdam right next to Centraal train station. The volume of bicycles in this multi-storey bike park indicates how commuters do it over here.

The Dutch have no need for 24 gears or fancy mountain bikes, they just have to keep a lookout for traffic and errant pedestrians. Traditional bicycles rule.

Herons aren't usually encountered beside city streets but the canals provide good fishing for these and other birds. This one is perched on a houseboat.

Street performers are often seen in this square but on a damp evening such as this, most people are inside the famous Bulldog coffee bar.

'Lousy Food & Warm Beer' proclaims Mister Coco's big sign, next to a shop selling cannabis seeds and hemp products.

As advertised on the official City Map for tourists.

Another source of information as well as clothes made from hemp. You are invited to visit the garden inside.

As seen from the boarding point for the canalbus tours. I liked the 9 large photos on the hoarding. The tram terminus is just behind it, in front of the station building.

Cigar stores used to have wooden Red Indians standing outside their shops; this is the 21st century Amsterdam equivalent, a caricature figure of a happy Rastafarian standing outside a head shop.

Many canal trips start by passing below the train lines over the end of the Singel canal to explore part of the harbour before returning to the canals via Oosterdok. Canalbuses now have multi-language commentaries controlled by GPS.

On the other (north) side of Centraal Station to Damrak, are these ferries which carry traffic across to the Noord district. The IJtunnel takes most of the traffic but isn't suitable for cyclists, pedestrians and others who prefer to travel by boat.

No visit to Amsterdam is complete without a visit to Nemo. This can be on top of it, or inside it, or preferably both. More about Nemo later...

It looks as if number 151 has sunk slightly relative to 155. 153 is hopefully wider than its front suggests

Another view of the cycle park at the top of the previous page, this time from the canalbus.

A picturesque view, typical of Amsterdam.

Another coffee shop had a Doors theme. It had a very amateurish likeness of Jim Morrison. This one is at the edge of the Jordaan district.

Historic Haarlem is not far away from Amsterdam and has some interesting buildings.

A swanky-looking establishment with posh cars and uniformed staff.

A less posh hotel, possibly with a Scottish connection. Maybe the staff uniform is a Jimmy hat like those sold in tacky tourist shops in Edinburgh.

More architecture from the town. At one of the old town squares the presence of a branch of McDonalds made us head back to the railway station with unpleasant thoughts about globalisation.

The view from the Nemo pier across Oosterdok to Dijksgracht and IJhaven. The whiteness of the Costa Europa cruise liner makes sunglasses a must for onlookers.

There's some great views from the top of Nemo. This view features St Nicolaas Church at top left, and the Sea Palace floating Chinese Restaurant and the Amstel Botel, both moored in Oosterdok. Centraal Station is partially visible at the right of the picture behind the below-water-level building site.

The S116 road leads north from Valkenburgerstraat and ducks under Nemo and into the IJtunnel before emerging again in the Noord district. Prins Hendrikkade is the road at the back of the picture.

You can sit here on the Wim T Schippers Upperdeck to admire the view, or you can have a coffee in the café at the top.

A closer look at the cascade of water running down the roof. Underneath is the interactive Science Museum where 'You can experiment with technology, science, ICT and bio and behavioural sciences'. The building was designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano.

Another view from the pier at the north end of Nemo. Two people are fishing in the fresh water which fills the docks and canals. A double-decker train is passing in front of the glass passenger terminal for cruise liners like the Costa Europa, moored here.

It's better to come down here after an expedition starting at the Departure Hall and visiting decks 1, 2, 3 and 4. Nemo describes itself as a voyage of discovery between fantasy and reality.

This bird had only just taken off, possibly startled by a noisy motor scooter.

More wildlife, but this time in the Amsterdam Botanical Garden. The transparent butterfly posed just long enough for me to take the picture. Its wings are closed together here, almost touching as it rests on the leaf.

The Hortus is much smaller than Edinburgh's Botanics but is worth a visit and dates from 1638. The butterflies here are in the educational house. This species of butterfly was more plentiful than the see-through ones.

This is the actual dress worn by the woman botanist who wore it in a hot, humid environment as reproduced in this greenhouse. I took several pictures and had to wipe my steamed-up lens for this one, photographed from a little wooden bridge.

No particular reason for my choosing this picture, I just like the unpretentious boat and its fishy name.

Homes like this could provide an idyllic Bohemian lifestyle. Who needs a car when you can pop off to the shops in a small boat instead?

A peaceful scene beside the locks across the Amstel river.

A beautiful Art Deco building in Reguliersbreestraat between Muntplein and Rembrandtplein. It's a busy picture house / movie theater / film theatre nowadays.

Zoomed in to show some details of the craftsmanship involved.

The Jordaan district (a corruption of jardin, French for garden) is where the artistic and creative people live. There are jazz cafés and bronze statues of musicians.

The shops in Jordaan are sometimes more like art statements in themselves. There are collectible items and antiques galore, as well as sculptures and paintings. The elderly Underwood typewriter in this window has a cow for company.

This shop window features colourful collectible wind-up toys, which although old, are in excellent condition.

A complicated 8 storey construction festooned with pictures of kittens dominates the pottery on display here. Ornate detail decorates every surface.

Mature trees line the sides of these quiet backwaters. Tall, narrow houses are squeezed in shoulder to shoulder.

This part of the park is about halfway along the southern edge. Hundreds, maybe thousands of cyclists travel through the park every day.

A number 5 tram heads into town along Leidsestraat about to stop on the canal bridge over Keizersgracht. Leidsestraat is single-track but widens to double-track on the bridges.

The Nemo building dominates the landscape and, of course, resembles a boat or ship. To its left is the Stedelijk Museum, now housed in the former Post Office Headquarters. The arched bridge behind Nemo's ramp is where the next picture is taken from.

This footbridge carries pedestrians and cyclists from the walkway past the floating restaurant and botel from Centraal Station area.

If the two towers each had a tree planted on top then they would resemble vases of flowers. the sloping building has not, despite appearances to the contrary, sunk into the sand at one end. The swing bridge remained open all the time we saw it, with lots of harbour traffic passing either side.

This picture, taken from beside the Stedelijk Museum, shows the metal barrier keeping the water out of the building site in Oosterdok. In the unlikely event of it collapsing, the botel guests would have a rude awakening.

Part of the walkway between Stedelijk Museum and the floating restaurant, looking south across Oosterdok to Prins Hendrikkade.

Giant 3D letters spell out the invitation MARK ME inviting graffiti artists to do just that. Two young women are sitting in the sunshine. Blue cables snake along the rusty steel piles that keep the water out of the building site next to Stedelijk Museum.

Green copper oxide, red/rusty steel, shiny painted steel, and shiny aluminium decking are the metals in this strange townscape.

In this photo the foreground is near the Amstel Botel. A tiny human figure is in the centre of the dried out site overlooked by the Stedelijk Museum and the railway lines. A yellow double decker train is coming into Centraal Station.

This east-facing view from Oosterdokskade looks over the top of a homely looking houseboat to the the Amstel Botel featuring bathroom, TV, internet and free in-house movies from 84 euros for a double room.

At the corner of the road called Prins Hendrikkade and the canal called Waals Eilandsgracht is this interesting building which may be GVB offices.

The view north west along Oude Schans, the main waterway from Oosterdok to the River Amstel.

Oude Schans gets narrower at its south west end and provides some space for walkers to rest awhile. The cyclist in the foreground was accidental but I prefer this photo to the one I took after with no cyclist. Montelbaan Tower is in the middle distance.