The change in daylight has been everything I'd been told to expect. It's been quite dark out at 8:00am, and the sun has stayed relatively low above the horizon during the day. Cloudiness has combined with the low sun to make much of the daytime hours dark and gloomy, like a twilight that lasts for several hours.
The first part of the Dutch autumn has not been all gloom and doom, though. Gray and rainy weekdays have yielded to bright and crisp weekends, and consecutive Sunday runs with the Hash House Harriers have been very nice.
This part of the Netherlands is not known for its trees (indeed, it's popular to tell new arrivals that many parts of Amsterdam are located on former swamp and drainage areas). Nevertheless, the change in the color of the leaves has been nice at times, especially when bright sun pokes through leaden skies to illuminate yellow, red, and orange leaves. There's a subtle, stoic beauty in the way that steel gray skies frame Dutch apartments lining canals and rivers. And it's fun watching seeing the Dutch break out their fashionable winter clothing and embodying one of their favorite adjectives: gezellig (rough translation being “cozy”).
Bridges in Amsterdam often rise to allow boats to pass through. A house boat was being towed down the Amstel by another boat.
Just down the road from my office.
My street.
The four images above were taken around 9:00am in Beatrixpark, where I had my bike accident. 
The few remaining roses contrast with the fall colors and cool air.
A statue in the Artis zoo (picture taken just outside the zoo).
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