Scribbling Lau: Bulbs, bikes and bridges: Amsterdam in photos

In Amsterdam, as with everywhere, the cliches exist for a reason. Bikes zoom skillfully in and out of tourist crowds, and there really are tulips on every street corner - at least there were during our spring visit. Take a look:

The Dutch will squeeze flowers in anywhere there's space.

A typical Amsterdam canal scene on Prinsengracht, with traditional canalside townhouses.

Here's a closer look at one of those houses - notice how wonky some of the windows are. Subsidence is a big problem for property owners in the city.

A wall-mounted box of books, free to take, on Witsenstraat

I love this pyschedelic canal boat, moored up on Witsenkade

A no-alcohol zone - ironically, just across the canal from the Heineken brewery.

Even the roundabouts are the prettiest I've ever seen. Evidently these ladies think so too.

Canalside views.

I loved this beautiful old-fashioned letterwork above one of the shops in the central district.

A typical Amsterdam view. The greenhouses to the right of the shot are the rear of the floating flower market on Singel.

There really are tulips everywhere in spring.

With pedestrians, bikes, trams and cars, there's so much going on at ground level, it's easy to forget to look up.

This floating display was part of the Tulip Festival. Very clever marketing to put such an Instagrammable display directly in front on the IAmsterdam sign. The building in the background is the impressive Rijksmuseum