A place where I like to go for a walk is the Amsteldijk street. It’s close to where I live and among the first places I discovered and claimed as “mines”.

There is a bench there that I call “my bench”, where I sit when the weather allows, watching the seagulls and thinking about all the changes happening in my life at the moment.

Walking or jogging along the Amstel river, with the breeze in your face, can be very refreshing (and you will see many people doing their jogging routine here). I like to watch the boats, the seagulls, the sun and feel like I’m at the seaside. The photos from this post are taken in the Amsterdam Zuid area, between the two bridges: Niewe Amstelbrug and Berlagebrug, on the left bank of the Amstel river. Both bridges can be opened to allow large boats to pass through. I don’t know when this happens, I have to find out somehow, because I would really like to see it — and waiting on a bench for hours for a large boat to come doesn’t seem like a good idea.

It’s not only the river you can admire here; the architecture of the area is also very interesting, there are a lot of beautiful houses to see on the streets nearby.

Interesting facts: the Amstel’s name is derived from Aeme stelle, old Dutch for “area abounding with water”, and Amsterdam took its name from the river. (wikipedia)

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