A "Gezelligheid" Winter's Tale from Amsterdam

Keep reading to learn what "Gezelligheid" means! ;-)

Neighborhood in Nieuwendam, north Amsterdam, at sunset.

I was able to go to an SEO conference in Amsterdam this month, and since Shaun's school mid-
winter break coincided with my trip, we couldn't resist turning it into a mini-vacation. I was in Amsterdam from Wednesday through Tuesday, while Shaun was there from Saturday through Tuesday. Amsterdam is a beautiful, historic, and super bike-friendly city. Amsterdam is everything Seattle wishes it could be!

The weather in February was not the greatest - in fact it is a lot like Seattle in February. Locals told me February is the coldest month usually. When my plane touched down on Wednesday, there were bits of snow on the ground, but it had disappeared by the next day. For the rest of the trip, it was mostly cloudy with some rain in the mornings and sun in the afternoons and evenings. The upside was there are fewer tourists in the winter.

Riding the ferry across the IJ river. The cold doesn't stop the locals from biking!

One of my favorite aspects of the trip was the adorable apartment we rented through Airbnb. We stayed in a historic house on a dyke, in the northern part of the city. I chose it because I wanted to be close to the conference location. The apartment was on a bike lane, and next to a 16th century Gothic Roman Catholic church. Right outside our window, we could see bicyclists toting children, luggage, and groceries. Just across the street was a canal and beyond it, a park.

Shaun standing in front of our apartment, right before heading out for another day of exploring.

Down the street a few blocks was a historic Cafe 't Sluis'je, where we ate several times. The cafe was built over a sluice or lock, which let water through the dyke. The sluice and adjacent building date all the way back to the 16th century. It's amazing how well-preserved many of the buildings from hundreds of years ago - even some from the Middle Ages -- are, and often they were built on soggy ground. Many of the facades were made to look like stone, even though they are actually made of wood, because stone is too heavy for a dyke to sustain. Many of the buildings in the city are tilting due to uneven settling.

Can you tell how some of the walls are uneven?

I knew that Amsterdam is a bike-friendly city, but I didn't realize how biking really is the only practical way to get around. The buses, Metro, trains, and trams are alright, but to navigate within the city, the bike is really the best mode of transportation. Even walking is not all that efficient. I saw children, teens, people young and old on their bikes, and they all seemed to bike so effortlessly around - sometime with two people on a bike. Amsterdammers are habituated to bicycling as a way of life from a very young age. In fact, there are more bikes than people in the city -- the latest estimate is 800,000 people, and 1.5 million bikes. And the police fish out an estimate 8,000 bikes from the canals each year!

Everyone bikes in Amsterdam - even this old lady!

I found that I really like Dutch bicycles, because they are heavy duty, and made for commuting efficiently over flat terrain. The step-through top tube makes it easy to hop on and off, and there is usually ample room to adapt the bike to the rider's needs, like putting children's seats on the front and back, or extra bike racks. I also really like the beach cruiser style handlebars, which allow the rider to have an upright posture. Plus, the chain and derailleur are completely enclosed, and there are front and back fenders, so it's possible to bike to work in work clothes. I hardly saw anyone wearing special bike clothes. Some people have long coats to help repel the rain, but other than that, they were their normal clothes while riding. But that style of bike wouldn't work well with Seattle's hills -- there are only a couple gears.


Shaun and I went on a food tour and learned a lot about Dutch food -- and discovered that food tours are a really great way to explore a city. We'd never done one before, but I can't imagine why not! We got to try different foods, at "secret" spots that only locals know about. Plus, our guide gave us so much insight into the city, the culture and history - so it wasn't just a food tour. And it was great to meet others and get to share food and drinks with people from around the world. Some of our favorite foods were:
-pea soup (a popular winter soup) with rye bread sandwiches
-mini pancakes called poffertjes, sweet crepe-like pancakes with various toppings
-"stroopwaffles" which are Belgian-style waffles with syrup
-gouda cheese (and pretty much all cheeses!)
-bittenballen, which are like croquettes
-appeltart, which is Dutch apple pie
-chicken satay, skewered chicken with peanut sauce
-Belgian-style fries with toppings

Our least favorite was the herring... see picture below.

Poffertjes - mini pancakes for breakfast, yum!

Enjoying breakfast at the start of our food tour.

There is a buzz word going around these days, "hygee" which is Danish for "cozy" or "nice." It doesn't really have a direct translation into English but there are some popular books that try to describe what it means and what a "hygee" lifestyle in Scandinavia is like. Mostly, I think it's a coping mechanism for people who have to endure months of bitter cold weather. In the Netherlands, the same concept is "gezelligheid", and it was the perfect word to describe our breakfast spot.

Here is Shaun trying to pretend he likes the herring... but his expression gives away his true feelings!

We also really enjoyed the Van Gogh museum, visiting Anne Frank's house and museum, and the canal cruise. On my own, I also visited the Rijksmuseum and Rembrandt's House. The canal cruise was so relaxing, and it brought back memories of when I first visited Amsterdam. We went on the cruise right as the sun went down, so we got to see the canal houses and houseboats lit up at night.

The art museums were pretty impressive, especially the Van Gogh -- it's amazing to me how someone so young, and who painted for only a decade or so, could be so talented. Nearly every painting of his is an incredible masterpiece and so colorful -- I can tell why he was friends with Gauguin who also used very expressive color palettes.

Visiting Anne Frank's house was very moving. I read her diary a couple months ago, as well as Francine Prose's The Book, The Life, The Afterlife of Anne Frank. Prose dissected the legacy of Anne Frank, and added additional context to the diary, so I went to the museum knowing a bit about how impactful her story has been to so many people over the past 70 years. Prose argues in her book about how Anne Frank's diary is not just powerful because of the circumstances in which it was created, but because Anne Frank was an incredibly talented writer. I agree!

I hope to one day visit the Netherlands again, but to come when it's a bit warmer and spend more time outside the city, and to bike through the tulip fields and see the old windmills.