Amsterdam

Last week I had a layover in Amsterdam, with the whole day to explore the city. It is very easy to visit downtown if you have a few hours, as the train from the airport to the central station is only 15 minutes long, leaving every ten minutes or so. They have a tourist office right in the airport and also right outside the central station once you are downtown, so you can pick up a map and find out where you want to go. As I´d already been to the main museums last time I was there, I just went to the train station, bought my return ticket from the automatic machines, hopped on the train and found myself downtown less than half an hour later.
It was still early, about 9 o´clock, so the streets were deserted and none of the stores were open yet. I wandered around a bit, looking for a picturesque location to get a coffee and breakfast and somehow managed to stumble right into the red light district. Most of the neighborhood characters were still asleep from a late night, though, so trying to look as best as I could as if I knew where I was going, I got myself back to the main streets and finally to a place where a girl could get a coffee and croissant and watch the foot traffic outside. On a quest for a caffine pick-me-up, you have to be careful in Amsterdam as "Coffeeshop" has an entirely different conotation than it does in the States. I don´t know, maybe they do sell coffee there, too, but being alone and already woozy from the jet lag and lack of sleep, I didn´t really want to find out.
It was kind of hazardous walking around the city, as you have the cars in the road, the trams on their rails, also on the roads, the bikes in their lane, and then more cars on the sidewalks. No kidding. It was a miracle I didn´t get run over by something. Maybe Amsterdam is not the best city to visit when you are disoriented from travel and lack of sleep. :)
It was chilly all day- just above freezing, so after wandering around for a while, I went to the historic museum to learn more about the city. I always try to visit a museum about the city I´m visiting, as you can learn about its evolution and history, and they are usually fun- with diaramas of building layouts and examples of clothing and food throughout history. After that, I was pretty well beat, so I headed back to the airport.