De Lierhof

From De Lierhof

About 2 weeks ago, I moved into my new place in Amsterdam... it was hard trying to decide where to live. Living in the center meant that I could feel like I was in a city (since I've always lived in the suburbs), and live in one of these traditional Dutch apartments, but it also meant I had less space, and ladder-like steps if I chose an apartment above the ground floor. Since the Dutch buildings are so tall (and they're not very deep), you need some serious steepness to go up the stairs. Although you'd think that the traditional Dutch buildings are deep, there's typically a garden (or mini-park) behind the buildings, and you'd never realize this while looking at these tall buildings from the street level.

Or, I could live slightly at the edge of the center (still in Amsterdam), closer to the hospital, and a bit more space.


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In the end, I chose edge of center, which has been completely amazing. I have a tram stop in front of my apartment, it's 20 minutes by tram/metro to the hospital, or I can ride my bike, straight-shot, to the hospital, in... 20 minutes! And I'm really not that far from the center, I can reach the Leidseplein (main entertainment, restaurant area) in about 10 minutes by bike or tram. Plus it helped that this apartment already had a flatscreen TV, so I could hook-up my laptop to watch movies, etc.

And ironically, the owners of my apartment are actually living in the US now, in Georgia!

Photos under the Picasa album...(click top photo)