{"id":1101,"date":"2016-07-03T21:19:00","date_gmt":"2016-07-03T21:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sayjack.net\/?p=1101"},"modified":"2019-12-31T16:53:46","modified_gmt":"2019-12-31T16:53:46","slug":"in-the-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/?p=1101","title":{"rendered":"In the City"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>

Canal views are everywhere, this one at dusk (which is currently 9:30 PM at this northern latitude).<\/p><\/div>\n

Amsterdam is wondrous.\u00a0 It is a hub of 21st century human activity taking place in buildings old and new. \u00a0 As the densest city in the EU, it feels remarkably spacious because of the generous amounts of public space\u2014largely canals\u2014and preponderance of 4 and 5 story buildings.\u00a0 The interplay of buildings and canals create magical vistas every couple blocks.\u00a0 It is often referred to as the \u201cVenice of the North\u201d, but unlike Venice, tourism is not its life blood, and in fact Amsterdammers are studying ways to reduce tourists\u2019 impact on their daily lives, which may include ways to discourage tourists.<\/p>\n

\"More<\/a>

More modern Amsterdam, viewed across the IJ, hints of Vancouver.<\/p><\/div>\n

The only city as inextricably linked with water that I know, other than Venice, is Vancouver.\u00a0 Vancouver may be the most beautiful city in the world, but Amsterdam is a more complete city\u2014it has beauty, brains, dynamism, history and character.<\/p>\n

For all the density and bustle, Amsterdam streets feel comfy, not crowded, and the predominance of bicycles rather than cars brings a calmness, a quietude unknown to other large modern cities. \u00a0 The<\/p>\n

\"Bike<\/a>

Bike is the predominant form of transportation on Amsterdam streets.<\/p><\/div>\n

Dutch disposition may play a role in this as well.\u00a0 Loud conversations, shouting, and horn honking appear to be discouraged in favor of minimal gestures and a few mild words.\u00a0 Drunken group singing on Friday and Saturday nights is the one exception we noted to the general quietude.<\/p>\n

There is a multitude of sights to visit in Amsterdam, including museums, boat tours, and architectural monuments.\u00a0 The thing we enjoy most, though, is just being in the street, experiencing the people and life of the city.<\/p>\n

\"Bikes,<\/a>

Bikes, boats, trams and cars all co-exist and keep the city from feeling crowded.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amsterdam is wondrous.\u00a0 It is a hub of 21st century human activity taking place in buildings old and new. \u00a0 As the densest city in the EU, it feels remarkably spacious because of the generous amounts of public space\u2014largely canals\u2014and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[6,4,5],"tags":[49,50],"class_list":["post-1101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arch","category-cycling","category-fam-friend","tag-ams","tag-holland-cycling"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/IMG_3690.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3QqGi-hL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sayjack.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}