We Came, We Saw, We Went Back to the Hotel

It appears that the only thing square in Amsterdam is Dam Square. Today on a canal cruise, we discovered buildings tend to lean forward to allow a gable hook to clear the building when hoisting furniture. The stairs and doors are so narrow everything needs to go through the front windows. The buildings are narrow because width was the manner for determining the property tax. (Vietnam used to do this as well.) The narrowest house in Amsterdam is 1 meter wide. It's now a coffee house.

I had also noticed that a lot of buildings didn't seem to be square. It turns out, I'm right. The older buildings are on wooden piles. When the ground water level drops air gets in and starts the wood rotting, and sinking. The sinking isn't even across the building, so they start shifting their position.

Today was our chance to get out of the city. Our first stop was to a park where old windmills have been relocated, and rebuilt. This is an effort to preserve The Netherlands heritage. In this park we also saw how clogs are made and learned why they are worn. This is very wet soil. Clogs are waterproof. They're a very good shoe for a farmer to wear.

The village of Edam is famous for cheese. But I found its canals to be the source of my interest. I shot several reflections against the water. As I said, cheese is big here, so we were taken to a "cheese factory" although no cheese was being made. This was mostly a tourist trap.

On to Volendam which is on the largest lake in the country. The lake used to be part of the sea until the Enclosing Dike was built and sea water was allowed to escape at low tide. The river re-filled the area with fresh water. The real purpose of the Enclosing Dike was to create more farm land.

Amsterdam is very much like Venice in that most people who "live there" don't live in the city. They commute on the bus. Amsterdam is very expensive, and small villages like Edam are not only beautiful, they are cheaper.

We finally found the Red Light District. The tour guide had better directions than the hotel front desk. Fewer pot shops, more girls wearing day-glow bikinis in windows, and live sex shows.