At a higher price, you can have night cruises with an Indonesian dinner upon certain vessels.

Day or night, a boat ride gives you a different perspective of those memorable canal houses, from the narrowest sliver of a building to the grandest of houses on Herengraacht.

Spot your favourite type of gable and then enjoy the view from the water. Keep your eye out for quirky details on buildings and quick glimpses into canal house windows.

And that did it. It was Fear and Loathing in Amsterdam. I freaked out, climbed in in the boat, sat down, looked said boyfriend in the face, and firmly told him that I was going to die and that my heart was exploding. I put my head in my lap and cried. And off we went. . . Then just like that! Snap. I was floating. . . calm waters, beautiful views, slow, and serine. I was going to live. I sat up and smiled. Until tour conductor lady started talking.

She informed everyone that we would be on the little boat for an hour and a half and we were on a special tour of gables. "WHAT!" I shouted out loud to the dismay of tour conductor lady. My exclamation of "WHAT" had two parts to it. One part was Why! WHY so long? And the other was, What on Earth is a gable? Well, an hour and a half later I knew. They are the stupid things that stick out of the tops of the buildings in order to haul furniture into the thin Dutch houses.

I still have the photo the tour company took of everyone on that trip. At the end of the tour, all the photos are stuck up on this board. I saw mine and took it. I realized later that we had to buy them (dumb ass me), but the Dutch are too cool to go running down the street after some idiot American high on grass, lucky for me.

At least do this once. Do go. I do it every time I visit Amsterdam. However, there are several different companies doing this offering different styles and types of cruises. You run the gamut when you walk out of Central Station. What I do is look at all the brochures for the different operators in my hotel lobby. They all have them. And I chose that way.

Clear windows curve up to the roof. You can slide the glass back for an unobstructed view. Some boats have a small open deck in the rear.

There are some boat tours at night that serve dinner or wine by candlelight. Even if you have taken a boat ride in the day, it is worth doing it again at night, with bridges outlined by thousands of tiny white light bulbs.

We began the tour outside the Rijksmuseum. Another location where you can catch the boats is at the Rokin canal, a few hundred yards south of the Dam.

A number of companies near Centraal station and along the Damrak offer canal tours of the city. They all are similarly priced and the routes are all pretty much the same. All the boats are also more or less uniform, being long, low boats with glass canopies. The tours have recorded narrations of the sites you'll see, and the short descriptions are offered in Dutch, German, French and English.

Being as the canals are low to begin with and that these boats are pretty deep, you'll find yourself looking up a lot. Also unless you're on a water taxi (which isn't a tour), you have no chance to get out and look around. The canals only can get you so close to some sites, and therefore you don't get to see the likes of the Royal Palace or Dam Square.

What you do get to see however is the impressive artwork along the bridges, as pedestrians are not able to really appreciate. Also, these canals were the lifeblood of the city centuries ago. Back when shipping was the Dutch financial backbone, the canals were used to transport things products to and from the docks.

Because of the design of the city, there are no bus tours of the city. The canal boats are the best alternative. And it offers some insight into the past. As the saying goes, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." So when in the Netherlands, take an hour to do as the ancient Dutch did.