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Amsterdam – A Cosmopolitan Meltingpot

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The phrase ‘cosmopolitan melting pot’ is often used carelessly for cities around the world but it is appropriate for Amsterdam, which has always enticed migrants and non-conformists. Despite (or because of) this transient mix, people accept each other as they are and strive to be gezellig, a nigh-untranslatable term that means something like ‘chummy’ or ‘convivial’ a mood often experienced by people warmly chatting over a drink or two in a cosy ‘brown’ cafe.
The whole city is ‘gezellig – buildings are attractive, intimate, very rarely imposing, and pleasantly balanced by tree-lined canals and scattered parks (Amsterdam is Europe’s greenest capital city). Everything seems designed on a human scale. The city is compact and easily explored on foot, with frequent and efficient public transport to and from the central canal belt.
The rest of the country is compact too, and is serviced by an efficient train network. Within an hour you can walk along the beach and through magnificent dunes; explore old fishing villages along the Ijselmeer; visit small but proud cities such as Haarlem, Leiden or Delft; admire Europe’s most beautiful sculpture garden in the forested Hoge Veluwe national park; shop along the refined streets of The Hague; tour the busiest harbour in the world at Rotterdam; or cycle through endless, brightly coloured fields of blossoming bulbs.
On these sorts of trips you’ll realise that Amsterdam is unique even within the Netherlands, with a mix of old and new, moral rectitude and sleaze, and traditional and alternative cultures that visitors both Dutch and foreign find baffling and delightful.
This book provides background reading, advice and tips, but a lot of things happen in Amsterdam that guidebook researchers can’t always know about. Go out and discover the place for yourself: few cities are more rewarding.

Source: Lonely Planet Amsterdam, by Rob van Driesum and Nikki Hall, Lonely Planet Publications, Footscray, Victoria, Australia. 3rd Edition – March 2002. See the current, updated edition written by Andrew Bender: Lonely Planet Amsterdam

Lonely Planet Amsterdam, by Rob van Driesum and Nikki Hall, Lonely Planet Publications, Footscray, Victoria, Australia. 3rd Edition – March 2002. ISBN 1 74059 092 9 [back]