Amsterdam..

Hello Again!
Welcome to Amsterdam :)

Sorry for the delay in the posts, I've been sick with a cold and had to opt for sleeping over typing. But here I am, on the mend - and here is the next post.

Amsterdam (all of Holland really) seems to have been build around water and the management of water. Apparently, Holland would only be 40% it's present size if the country hadn't been controlling the water levels - in fact, even their main airport is 4 meters below sea level and Holland's highest ground lies a mere 300 meters above sea level.



Below are some photos (with related captions) of some of the interesting things we saw while there.

House Boats - once a cheaper way to live, it is now just as expensive as all of these houses now pay taxes and are hooked up to the utility grids. Kinda neat, but you REALLY wouldn't catch me living in one of these!

Typical houses along a canal - this particular canal used to be the last one before the open North Sea before the major land re-claimation projects of the 18th/19th centuries in Amsterdam. Note the slightly tilted clock tower - this was the clock tower which was built straight  but due to the sand/silt based land which Amsterdam (almost half of Holland) is built on - it began to fall over. It was corrected and today only slightly leans. This was were the men (and the women who loved them) said their goodbyes and left for sea.

Merchants, rather than titled families, ruled Amsterdam in it's "Golden Years" and therefore there are some 'houses' which were actually not houses, but warehouses right within the old city center. The two houses in the picture above with the window shutters were originally built as warehouses since the shutters would help keep the place cool and dark for storage. Another interesting thing was the gables (the white 'I' beam looking things on the very top of each building) they are used to haul things up to the higher floors as the staircases in these houses are NARROW (we stayed in one, and they aren't lying - the stairs are freakishly narrow and steep!).

The Dutch also are HUGE advocates of universal, free education for everyone. The picture above is from the lobby of the largest Library in Holland, the Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam, which is beside the main train terminal in Amsterdam. The building houses 10 floors of books, manuscripts etc. all free to the general public with a membership. This particular section is a corner of the children's section.

Last, but not least - here is the photo of the red light district of Amsterdam:

Here is the beginning of the red light district - obviously no photos once you are in it. Frankly, aside from the live shows - I thought it was pretty tame. Although the men walking though the district remind me of women browsing in the grocery store which was almost better entertainment than the women!