We had a great time taking a  waterway cruise when we were in Amsterdam. There are approximately 1,500 bridges and over 100 kilometers of waterways,  which made it a great way to see the city.

We boarded the tour boat and we were met by a very colorful Captain called “Rudy”. He welcomed us on board and explained the history of Amsterdam.

Captain Rudy was very funny and entertaining with some interesting stories.

We began our boat tour in the main canal and saw some of the iconic buildings.

The tour then headed down some of the smaller canals in Amsterdam.

There is lots of boat traffic on the canals and it is used as another form of a roadway. It was interesting to see the system they had for when going under a narrow bridge opening. The Captain radios on a common channel to say what bridge and direction they are heading. If someone is coming the other way they would arrange for what boat had priority.

Some of the canals we went through were very narrow and the bridges were quite low.

Sometimes the cruise boat would hit the side of the canal wall when making a turn to go under a bridge.

We enjoyed the two-hour cruise looking at the unique building throughout Amsterdam. Some of the buildings are built on pylons and have shifted and sunk over the years, making the buildings lean sideways.

There were some buildings built on the very edge of the canal making access to the building easy by boat.

We enjoyed the boat cruise and saw some interesting buildings from the canals. Our Captain was very entertaining and made the cruise even more enjoyable.

“Tot ziens en een goede dag”