one of the disadvantages of being an bike messenger in amsterdam is that you are constantly surrounded by water [bridges open at the most inappropriate times, you have to be careful not to fall into the canals when riding home drunk and you the direct route from a to b is almost certainly blocked by some kind of canal so you have to ride twice as far as in any other town i have ever heard of] when you are somewhere in the western part of town and you are headed for java- or knsm-island the water comes in handy: the transportation authority operates a little known ferry service from behind the central station to java-island. it runs every 20 minutes, costs nothing (pretend to live on java-island if you are asked for a ticket) gives you about 8 minutes of rest while offering spectacular views and if you know the schedule you can adjust your riding pace while heading for the boat so that you'll arrive just in time for the departure. the only problem with the boat is that, once you're on it your routing-options are limited. (so don’t tell your planner and be quick to catch the boat as this service will stop as soon as the bridge between java and the ostelijke handelskade is ready) if you work for swift bike-messengers (like i am) you will learn to appreciate this one: you got an envelope or five in your bag and you need to get em to stadhouderskade 79 (the building with the -by far- most annoying reception people in the entire universe) you have come down wilhelmsparkweg and crossed the museumsplein on the cobblestones that lead you from the backside of the van-goch-museum to the halfpipe. then you went along the fire station over the bride and through the 1e jacob-van-campen-straat and there it stands - right in-between you and your destination: the big red building that forces you to slow down file into the bikepath of ferdinad-bol-straat and possibly get stuck in the hordes of cyclists that wait to cross the stadhouderskade (there is also a pretty good change of being hit by a cab or a tram right there). but from now on you don’t deed to waist you time (and health) anymore: keep on riding straight across the heineken-plein and aim for those doors of the dirk van den broek. When you approach them they will open themselves giving way through the building and onto the 1e van-der-helst-straat were you arrive 5 meters to the right from the entrance to stadhouderskade 79. have you ever had the urge to swim across some stupid canal instead of riding miles around it when your drop-off is just meters away from you but on the other side of the water. well if you did, this is the perfect place to do it. you even get a package back to were you came from so that you don’t need to take your precious bike into the water. just leave it a amsteldijk 166 and jump into the river amstel, cross it (there are stairs at the boat-house on the other site so you wont have any trouble getting out. now drop your package at the phillips headquarters grab the return package and swim back to the other side. Its as easy as this! (just make sure that your bag is waterproof and ask for a towel at the reception of amstelplein 1)