| To experience Amsterdam you have to know about | | | | dutch are famous for gaining land back from water |
| Amsterdam. If you have never been there then I do | | | | and building dam's ) they build a lot of water ways |
| hope this article will help you decide to eventually visit | | | | and dam's. Most of today's cities and villages in the |
| this wonderful city one day soon. | | | | western part of the Netherlands are below sea level. |
| I was born and raised in Amsterdam and lived there | | | | So what to see and experience? |
| most of my life. The funny thing about living there | | | | Well there is a LOT to see and experience. One thing |
| for so long is that I did not know all there is to see | | | | that most people know about the city is the so |
| and experience until I saw it from a visitors point of | | | | called "Red Light District" or "de wallen". The area has |
| view. A very good friend of mine who came to | | | | changed a lot since I was a kid, and to be honest we |
| Amsterdam and started living in the city, discovered | | | | lived very close to the redlight disctrict, even though |
| all kinds of places I had never even heard of before! | | | | it is very commercialized today, it still has a touristic |
| R&B, blues cafes, even museums that were | | | | attraction to many visitors. |
| there for a long time and I did not know about it until | | | | The beer brand Heineken is famous all around the |
| she mentioned it! So I appreciate the fact that I am | | | | world but few people know that there is actually a |
| able to share some more things for you to see and | | | | Heineken museum in Amsterdam, right at the old (still |
| experience in this wonderful city. | | | | used) brewery on the "stadhouderskade" a must see |
| What does the name mean? | | | | for any visitor. Other then the already mentioned |
| Amsterdam started out somewhere around the 13th | | | | places, there are numerous cafes,bars and |
| century (officially founded in 1275) as a small fishing | | | | restaurants. If you like to see live music then I |
| village, the city developed round a dam in the Amstel | | | | suggest you check out "Paradiso" and "De Melkweg" |
| river at the end of the 12th century (now known as | | | | anyone in Amsterdam will know what you are talking |
| The Dam Square, were the queens palace resides) | | | | about when you ask them the way to either one of |
| because most of the ground/land in The Netherlands | | | | these places. |
| was swamp and a lot of water (This is also why the | | | | |
