The city itself it full of more people than I've seen since New York. There are 4 bikes for every single person. 
The bikes are absolutely everywhere. At the beginning of the day you see the bikes and you think, "Ah, how nice they ride bikes instead of taking cars around the city," by 3 hours in you are cursing the inventor of the bike and trying to devise a way to somehow walk down the road without being ran over by one of the stupid things. In Amsterdam you have the street that cars attempt to drive down, you then have a wide bike path and then the walking path. Bikes however seem to believe that they should and will drive in any area they darn well please and they do just that. You have to look both ways, cross your fingers, pray to the patron saint of not getting smashed by 2 wheeled monstrosities, hold onto your belongings and run across the street before another gang of wandering bikes comes by to try to use you as a human speed bump.
The first thing we did when we got to the city is head to the Flea Market. I had heard that the flea market in 
Amsterdam is one of the Top 10 shopping streets in the world. It was a lot of fun walking through and seeing all the goods for sale. They had everything from cheese and olives, to bra's and panties. Shoes and purses and tons of flowers. We picked up a few things but mostly we just walked around and did some people watching. It's also a great place, as our tour guide on the canal ride pointed out later, to buy back your stolen bike at very reasonable prices.
We hopped back on the bus and headed back towards the city center. We got off near the Waterloopian Flea Market. It had a decidedly different feel than the first flea market. The first flea market had things that the every day person in Amsterdam needed to live. The Waterloopian flea market had tons of African/Caribbean items for sale, lots of Rastafarian type things, bongs and pipes (again, Benjamin just ignore that) and then lots of yard sale type items. I don't think we actually purchased anything there.
From there we started walking all over the city. We decided that instead of spending our time going through museums we were going to just walk around and get a feel of the city. If you've ever been anywhere with Kyle (aka, Mr. if there is a sign you must stop and read it, re-read it, re-read it a third time just to make sure you didn't miss anything, memorize it in case there is a pop quiz at the exit of the museum Kohlhaas) you will see the wisdom of my suggestion that we skip museums. The man can spend 2 hours at the base of the arch which everyone else would be bored in 30 minutes tops and that's if you've never left your house before. So we walked. . . .. . . . .and walked. . . . . . .and walked. We sat at an outdoor cafe and had a couple of drinks then we walked. . . . . .and walked. . . . . . .and walked.We took a nice relaxing hour long canal tour all through the city. It would be very nice if the seats reclined. Since you are in a boat in the canal and the buildings are very tall your neck is killing you by the end of the ride just from looking up all the time. The canal ride was one of the best parts of the whole day. It was relaxing, my feet got a nice rest from the walking. . . . .and walking (yeah, I think you get the point) and a nice view of a lot of different parts of the city.
The day was quite cool and it sprinkled on us a few times despite the fact that Weather.com claimed we had no chance of rain that day. It was a high of about 65 and really windy (or perhaps that was just from all the (*&%(& @#*&#@%$^ bikes speeding past trying to mow down innocent walkers). I lost my jacket a few days ago and I was really glad I grabbed a sweater before leaving home.
We walked around forever trying to find a restaurant with an open table outside so that we could sit and eat and watch the freaks. .. I mean people walk by. It's kinda funny that in all the cafes with outdoor seating the chairs are all on the same side of the table facing the sidewalk. The restaurant owners realize that you want to watch the people walking past.
After dinner I would have been fine to just go back to our hotel but Kyle, being the red blooded American man that he is claimed that as an American tourist in Amsterdam it was his obligation to walk through the red light district. He said there is a major fine for Americans who visit Amsterdam and do not walk through the red light district. I checked the guide books and I couldn't find that listed anywhere but he insisted that it's a little known fact and the authorities supposedly have a secret way of checking to see if you actually fulfilled your legal obligation of gawking at the women who are innocently selling their wares.
The most surprising part of the red light district was that the girls, who were dressed rather modestly in bikini's were all very very good looking. There was one girl that was very obviously a man, a couple of kinda scary chics but the rest of the women were youngish (20-30) gorgeous, girl-next-door looking women.
I hear there are cigarettes and other smokable things for sale legally in Amsterdam as well. I did learn that last weekend was the last grand hurrah for pot in The Netherlands. As of July 1st there is a smoking ban in all of the Netherlands. Marijuana isn't exactly legal in the Netherlands. It's simply tolerated and not prosecuted. As of July 1st all smoking must be done outdoors and the police may start cracking down on it. At least, that's the rumor on the streets. So, the last weekend in June would have been a good weekend to be in Amsterdam, if you are into that sort of thing.
After about a hundred miles of walking, and dodging those dang bicycles it was such a relief to get back to our hotel. We got to the train station about 5 minutes before the last train of the night left the station. We walked around the city for about 14 hours!!! It was crazy, insane, wild Amsterdam. I woke up Sunday morning realizing exactly how old I really am, and that I'm just too dang old for Amsterdam.
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