Amsterdam - Useful Info

Hi guys, what's up? :)
Welcome to my next article. You already know what you shouldn't miss while visiting Amsterdam. Let's take a look now at some more useful info that may come handy later :)

The official language of Amsterdam and the Netherlands as a whole, is Dutch. Even though most of the Dutch people actually speak at least to some degree English, this language does not stop fascinating me. Just take a look at some signs and actually, if you know some English and German, I think you will get by just fine for at least the written form looks like englanised version of german. :) Have fun with all these signs. But first let's check how to get to the city.

Being one of the most important European travel hubs, there are basically all major transportation possibilities here. Most tourists probably arrive by plane. In this case, you will end up at the Amsterdam Shiphol Internation Airport that places usually among the ten best airports in the world. To get to and from the airport, you may take the service of the Dutch Railways or, if you are on a budget, a bus to the city center. An alternative is provided by the Uber app or a Taxi. You can also rent a car, but be prepared that the city center is mostly pedestrian and parking lots are waaaay too expensive.

If you choose to arrive by train, you will most likely end up at the Amsterdam Centraal Train Station, perfectly situated right in the city center, just 15 minutes walk from the Dam Square. There are multiple speedtrain routes going through or ending in Amsterdam, namely Brussels, Antwerp, Paris, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Cologne and there are also some night trains to certain east and central european cities like Warsaw, Prague, Minsk, Zurich or Moscow.

Most international bus routes are operated, like in most European cities, by Eurolines .These usually terminated at the Coach Park Duivendrecht. Other possibility is the German carrier Flixbus whose buses terminated at the Sloterdijk Bus Terminal. These bus stations are fairly further from the center, but are easily accesible by tram within a half an hour.

Speaking of which

While getting around the city, you may take one of the four lines of metro, a tram, bus or one of many free ferry services across several of the Amsterdam's canals.

There are 4 lines of metro that run mostly on the surface (with the exception of a short part in the center) so one may consider it more as a suburban train for it services mostly suburban areas of the city. If you intend to get around the city center, you may want to choose a tram instead. There are 16 lines of a tram and will take you basically everywhere. Whenever you board a tram, you need to check in your chip ticket in this little machine and when you leave you need to check out, even if it¨s only a ticket for one ride. It also kind of open the barrier in front of the doors. Don'T forget this especially when you have a time ticket for if you do not check out, the time is being consumed from your ticket even after you left the vehicle. So beware.

You may also consider not using the public transportation at all. The city center is fairly compact and you can walk from one side to the other within 30 minutes. And even if you wanna go further, you are in Amsterdam for crying out loud. The one and only form of transportation you should wanna try, is the bike. It is for rent basically everywhere. Sometimes I feel like there are more bikes in Amsterdam than people. It is so heavily imprinted in the city's culture, that one can hardly imagine Amsterdam without its thousands bikes and cyclists. So join them :)

And that would be all for today.

Thank you and see you the next time :)

Lex