Amsterdam is not an especially large city, but I have yet to go to explore several parts of it. I decided to go to the Westerpark area, which is about three miles northeast of me. It is on the other side of the Center, and on the opposite side of Amsterdam from my office.
This is approximately the route.
The trip took me through the Center and, specifically the Jordaan, a very nice area of Amsterdam. It contains shops that sell pretty things like flowers.
There was a small park with a basketball court, a skateboarding/bmx area, and playground equipment for children. It was apparently warm enough for the teenagers playing basketball to wear short sleeves. Despite their clothes, they played a real game.
A warning for "DNA Spray."
The area adjacent to the "park" part of Westerpark contained several brick facade buildings with cafes and shops inside.
Westerpark is close to Central Station, and the park is bordered by rail lines to the north. The train on the top is headed toward Central Station; the train on the bottom just departed.
There were several sculptures in and around the park.
The park itself - meaning the area of grass and lakes and walking paths - was smaller than the other parks I've visited in Amsterdam. But it had many of the hallmarks of Amsterdam parks. There were middle aged men drinking beer out of large cans and smoking on benches. There were women walking with their children, or pushing their children in strollers. There were plenty of dogs, and lots of birds, including geese and cranes. There were young people being affectionate, and tourists riding around on their rental bikes.
And the ride home gave me the opportunity for an obligatory canal pic.
I really like all the public art in your pictures. It's impressive that the Dutch seem to realize that it's worthwhile to spend the money to put a cool-looking bridge in a place that would otherwise be relatively unremarkable. (Or maybe you just have an exceptional eye for the interesting spots). It would be very hard to test but I suspect that those touches improve people's quality of life quite a bit.
ReplyDeleteAmsterdam is the most beautiful city I've ever visited, in my opinion. And policy decisions surely have a lot to do with that. I am not sure how much of it is a collective superiority in aesthetics, a vocal and productive minority, a greater prioritization in funding aesthetics, or some combination of these. I do know that the Dutch painters are/were brilliant, and that the arts were very well funded. In the last year or two, though, the arts budgets have been slashed in the name of austerity, and with the higher proportion of right wingers in the government. I'm not sure what the consequences of this will be, but I think it's been a pretty big deal in the local art community.
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