{"id":3687,"date":"2020-01-28T13:26:38","date_gmt":"2020-01-28T10:26:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.turkishairlines.com\/?p=3687"},"modified":"2022-08-07T19:32:48","modified_gmt":"2022-08-07T16:32:48","slug":"a-city-with-museums-and-scenic-canals-amsterdam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.turkishairlines.com\/en\/a-city-with-museums-and-scenic-canals-amsterdam\/","title":{"rendered":"A city with museums and scenic canals: Amsterdam"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-background is-style-wide\" style=\"background-color:#ebebeb;color:#ebebeb\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>I first came across the word \u201cAmsterdam\u201d when I was a child, in a book called \u201cMagic Shoes\u201d by Yalva\u00e7 Ural. The main character of the story, Abdullah, went to that city in pursuit of a diamond tulip and found it with the help of his magic shoes, in the garden of a house situated amongst windmills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Seeing Amsterdam, I added \u201cbicycle\u201d to the other images in my mind. \u201cThe Netherlands\u201d, meaning \u201cLowlands\u201d, and \u201cHolland\u201d in Turkish is made of mostly of plains. This geographical advantage, alongside attentive, law-abiding drivers, decent bike roads and traffic lights, allows efficient cycling, a pursuit that many of us haven\u2019t enjoyed since childhood. In this country many people, dressed up even in suits, go to work on their bikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large td-caption-align-https:\/\/blog.turkishairlines.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/iStock-530005604.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.turkishairlines.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/iStock-530005604-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Bicycle parking next to Amsterdam City Center\" class=\"wp-image-5462\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.turkishairlines.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/iStock-530005604-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blog.turkishairlines.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/iStock-530005604-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.turkishairlines.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/iStock-530005604-768x513.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.turkishairlines.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/iStock-530005604-696x465.jpg 696w, https:\/\/blog.turkishairlines.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/iStock-530005604-1068x713.jpg 1068w, https:\/\/blog.turkishairlines.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/iStock-530005604-629x420.jpg 629w, https:\/\/blog.turkishairlines.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/iStock-530005604-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/blog.turkishairlines.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/iStock-530005604.jpg 1254w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I don\u2019t know it\u2019s just because biking is so common, but bicycle theft is very common. Locks are never an effective solution. Bicycles are usually insured. Those that you rent as a tourist will also be insured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dutch people are generally exceptionally kind. They like to greet people they don\u2019t know, smile when you catch their eyes, help foreigners and never shy away from giving way in traffic or holding doors. They are by no means impatient and hasty. Almost everyone speaks English. When you ask for help in English, you easily find someone to help you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once you check into your hotel and rent your bicycle, start your day with the&nbsp;Rijksmuseum, the biggest history and art museum in Holland. If you someone who likes museums, make sure to spare more than one day for it. I recommend you join one of the tours accompanied with guides to explore different faces of the museum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another must-see museum in Amsterdam is the&nbsp;Anne Frank House. You get to find out a real life story, set up in Nazi-occupied Holland. When returning back home, you can read the Diary of Anne Frank. This way your impressions of the whole thing intensify. This museum-house is one of the most popular museums of Holland and gets visited by 1 million people each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large td-caption-align-https:\/\/blog.turkishairlines.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/iStock-930137908.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"616\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.turkishairlines.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/iStock-930137908-1024x616.jpg\" alt=\"I Amsterdam sign at Museumplein, Rijksmuseum\" class=\"wp-image-5459\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.turkishairlines.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/iStock-930137908-1024x616.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blog.turkishairlines.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/iStock-930137908-300x180.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.turkishairlines.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/iStock-930137908-768x462.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.turkishairlines.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/iStock-930137908-696x419.jpg 696w, https:\/\/blog.turkishairlines.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/iStock-930137908-1068x642.jpg 1068w, https:\/\/blog.turkishairlines.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/iStock-930137908-698x420.jpg 698w, https:\/\/blog.turkishairlines.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/iStock-930137908.jpg 1320w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are an art-lover, you should also see&nbsp;Van Gogh Museum. Afterwards, if it\u2019s not raining, go and sit in a park and enjoy the beautiful scenery afforded by the plains which are present in everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Spare one afternoon for the&nbsp;Jordaan&nbsp;district, walk through the streets and take lot of pictures. Or shop and take a seat in one of the caf\u00e9s, tables of which scatter into the street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Take a discreet look at houses\u2019 curtainless windows, fall in love with ornamentations. Get inspired by the gardens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Greet an old couple, they love to chat. You\u2019ll possibly hear the most interesting details about the city and Holland from them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Breathe in history and culture in the museums of Amsterdam, hang out in its caf\u00e9s, wander about along its canals, have a nice stretch in parks and breath in oxygen. Have fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>P.S.: Don\u2019t forget to take precautions against rain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I first came across the word \u201cAmsterdam\u201d when I was a child, in a book called \u201cMagic Shoes\u201d by Yalva\u00e7 Ural. The main character of the story, Abdullah, went to that city in pursuit of a diamond tulip and found it with the help of his magic shoes, in the garden of a house situated [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":5456,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[329,149,145,203,328,147,239],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3687","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-amsterdam-travel-guide","8":"category-crew-insights","9":"category-destinations","10":"category-europe","11":"category-netherlands","12":"category-trip-ideas","13":"category-city-vacation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.turkishairlines.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.turkishairlines.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.turkishairlines.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.turkishairlines.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.turkishairlines.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.turkishairlines.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.turkishairlines.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.turkishairlines.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.turkishairlines.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.turkishairlines.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}