|
|
VIST
TO AMSTERDAM
|
Amsterdam is a province of culture and history dating
back to when the first settlers established themselves in the year 1200
their main source of income came from fishing. By the end of the sixteenth
century Amsterdam became the wealthiest city in Europe. Amsterdam is a
wonderful city to visit with plenty to see and do. It has 165 canals,
1300 bridges 2500 houseboats buildings dating from the sixteenth, seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries, also some of the most famous museums in the
world Rembrandt and Anne Frank Museum to name just two.
We arrived in Schiphol Airport after a short flight from Newcastle upon
Tyne, which the journey took about one hour fifteen minutes. We then took
the train in to Amsterdam Central Station. On arrival in the centre of
Amsterdam my first impressions were that this was one of the busiest cities
I had ever visited, after buying a tram ticket to last us the two days
in Amsterdam, we then took the tram to the hotel we were staying at, unfortunately
we had taken the wrong tram and had to get on another tram which took
us to where we wanted to be.
It took a little while for the group to find our bearing but this is all
part of the fun of exploring a different city and culture, which you have
not experienced before.
Amsterdam must have one of the worlds finest transport systems where every
part of the community is catered for, pavements for pedestrians, cycle
lanes for bikes and skateboards, tram lines and car lanes everything is
interlinked you get off one tram and on another, these trams run every
3 minutes so you do not have long to wait or a distance to walk or even
find out that the place which you want to get to cannot be accessed through
public transport or ceases to operate on Sundays or after a certain time
in the evening which sadly is the case in our area. Cost is another issue,
it can be expensive to use public transport in North Tyneside If the powers
to be who make all the decisions want the public to use public transport
and encourage car owners to use public transport which would be more environmentally
friendly by cutting down on pollution. I would think a visit to Amsterdam
would gave them an insight into how an fully integrated system covering
all forms of transport that communities need to travel in their own country
and to get abroad would be an excellent fact finding mission for the people
in power to help them improve the transport systems which we have operating
not only in North Tyneside but in the whole of Great Britain, Scotland,
and Northern Ireland at this present time.
< Back to Home PageSite Contents © 2005 Moor Park Community Group
Site Design By Rob Rolls © 2005