Sombre Weed Tales & Champagne Boat Tours
In The City of Bikes
The first thing that most people do when they land in Amsterdam is smoke weed.
But after having a particularly unfortunate encounter with the herb in the past, I decided to give it a miss. The city has so much more to offer, and I wanted my adventure to be a little more unique.
So I was pumped when I finally touched down in bike city after it had been on my bucket list for literally, years. And bike city it is. I had trouble noticing the people when I first landed in Amsterdam – as the bikes were obscuring the vision. As a cyclist – I’d found my homeland.
There are estimated to be up to 60,000 bikes in Amsterdam. Some say it is closer to 100,000. Nobody really knows. What is known, is that there are more bikes than people.
The first thing I did when I landed in Amsterdam was I caught the train directly from Schiphol Airport to Amsterdam Central – which is located in the heart of the city.
As I crossed the road to jump on one of the ferries to my hostel, I dodged dozens of bicycles that seemed to come from all different directions.
After settling down into my hostel, I headed to my first attraction of the day: the Adam Lookout, which was situated just a few minutes from the hostel. Adam Lookout is an observation deck with a panoramic view of Amsterdam.
One of its defining features is a giant set of swings that gives tourists the opportunity to dangle more than 20 stories in the air while looking out over the city.
The lookout gives you fantastic views of Amsterdam’s historical centre, its port, the unique Dutch polder landscape, Amsterdam central station and of course, the famous canals, which are on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
When I first arrived in the building, I was given the opportunity to take a bunch of cheesy photos of me sitting on a bench with Amsterdam city superimposed in the back.
I was then guided into an escalator that featured a colourful light show as it carried us up to the sky deck, which featured a bar, an inside observation restaurant area, and of course, the famous 20-storey swings.
I’m a bit of a thrill seeker, so my first port of call was to purchase a separate ticket to jump on the swings. It was great fun of course – but the reality is, you only spend a minute at most on the swings.
To be honest, it’s more of a photo opportunity than a ride in the truest sense. Most fairground rides probably last a bit longer. The ticket has a 20 minute time slot printed on it, which can confuse some people into thinking they will spend 20 minutes on the swing. It felt more like 20 seconds. However, it was good fun nonetheless.