AMSTERDAM

On the way up from Brussels, we made a quick tour of Antwerp. After Antwerp, it was on to Amsterdam. We arrived here, at Centraal Station, near the heart of the city.

Be forewarned, I am extremely partial to Amsterdam. It is the city that my grandparents left behind to come to America. We still have some family living here. I find it to be one of the most picturesque cities that I have ever seen. So if I ramble on and on about it, and include way too many pictures, well, at least you'll understand why.

Centraal Station was designed by the same architect who designed the Rijksmuseum. That goes a long way in explaining why the to buildings look so much alike. I'll keep looking for a picture of the Rijksmuseum.

One interesting feature of the station itself is the tower seen on the left hand side. At first I thought it was a clock. Take a close look at the dials. I didn't pay a lot of attention at first, but notice that it has only one hand. Instead of having numbers on the face, it various combinations of the letters, "N, Z, O, and W." I also noticed that the hand moved back and forth, especially when the wind was blowing strongly. "N, Z, O, and W" of course stand for Noord, Zuid, Oost and West. The device, as you've probably figured out, is a wind vane.

Did Somebody Say Bikes?

The area in front of Centraal Station is certainly one of the world's largest collections of parked bicycles. Thousands of people ride their bikes to the station to board a train. There are bikes for about as far as the eye can see.

Most of the bikes look nearly identical. Pretty much all the same style and color. Occasionally you might run across a big that is painted purple or pink, as an aid in assisting the owner in easy identification. On second thought, looking at a few of the paint jobs, it might just as well be a method of theft deterrence.

The Venice of the North

Some people refer to Amsterdam as "the Venice of the North." The old section of the city of Amsterdam was built on a series of concentric canals. The city is actually built on hundreds of islands with numerous interconnecting bridges. Most of the buildings within the old city are located on, or near a waterway.

The stately old homes along the canals provide for numerous picturesque views.

(Consider yourself as lucky that I haven't put all of my canal pictures here!)

Drawbridges are still used to allow river barges to pass gain access to certain areas of the city even today.

Westerkerk

One of the city's better known landmarks is the West Church, or Westerkerk. It is the principal chapel of the Dutch Reformed Church in Amsterdam.

Interesting Housing Alternatives

In the 1970's Amsterdam experienced an acute housing shortage. This lead to people finding some innovative places to live. One of these was the houseboat. In some parts of the city there are hundreds of houseboats which are permanently moored (more or less) along side the edges of canals and rivers. People have been living this way for decades.

These houseboats have drinking water, sewer, electricity, and natural gas supplied to them, just as would any other house in the city. Their numbers though peaked many years ago. The city no longer issues new permits for houseboats, mostly out of safety concerns expenses associated with connecting the various utilities to these floating structures.

Another interesting housing alternative is the pakhuis. These were once warehouses, which have been converted into apartments or homes. They are now very chic, attractive living spaces.

Amsterdam 1, 2, 3

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	Some people refer to Amsterdam as "the Venice of the North." The old section of the city of Amsterdam was built on a series of concentric canals. The city is actually built on hundreds of islands with numerous interconnecting bridges. Most of the buildings within the old city are located on, or near a waterway.

The stately old homes along the canals provide for numerous picturesque views.	(Consider yourself as lucky that I haven't put all of my canal pictures here!)
Drawbridges are still used to allow river barges to pass gain access to certain areas of the city even today.

	In the 1970's Amsterdam experienced an acute housing shortage. This lead to people finding some innovative places to live. One of these was the houseboat. In some parts of the city there are hundreds of houseboats which are permanently moored (more or less) along side the edges of canals and rivers. People have been living this way for decades.
These houseboats have drinking water, sewer, electricity, and natural gas supplied to them, just as would any other house in the city. Their numbers though peaked many years ago. The city no longer issues new permits for houseboats, mostly out of safety concerns expenses associated with connecting the various utilities to these floating structures.

Another interesting housing alternative is the pakhuis. These were once warehouses, which have been converted into apartments or homes.	They are now very chic, attractive living spaces.