Amsterdam is a beautiful, big and touristic city. All the „grachten“ (canals) and bridges provide a fabulous and unique atmosphere.
The main traffic in the city consists of bicycles and boats. Every boat, private or public, was so cozy inside! All of them had at least pillows, table cloths, drinks and candles.
Houseboats are all over the place and each of them were surrounded by flowers and many other details that I couldn’t really identify.
And all these old buldings! Beautifully old, each of them with its own character. It was very hot weather during the symposium so I couldn't really choose my motives freely. I had to sit in the shadow and as we know: the sun is moving... so the time for a sketch was always limited.
I stayed in a small hotel just in the hottest part of the red light district. This was not a good choice for me. In the evenings the street was full of red light tourists, who where wandering up and down the street, watching the half naked women posing behind red lighted windows. In the mornings the street was empty of people but full of rubbish.
So I experienced two sides of Amsterdam and I guess that is part of the city too. Every morning I happily left the hotel to sketch beautiful parts of the city. And every evening I tried to stay as long as possible with other sketchers drinking & drawing, going back to the hotel as late as possible.
In these 4 days I got into such a sketch flow - it was wonderful and I hope to be able to keep it!
