March 7, 2023
Drizzly and grey
“In Amsterdam, the water is the mistress and the land the vassal.” – Félix Martí Ibáñez
Back when the DH was still working, he had to go to Amsterdam for a week to get a new office set up for Google, the company he retired from in 2015. And as often happened when he traveled someplace interesting, I got to tag along and play tourist all day. While he slogged away, I was wandering the cobbled streets of this charming city, visiting the Rijksmuseum, the fascinating Biblical Museum, and the Van Gogh Museum, weeping through Anne Frank's secret rooms in the Annex, taking a peek into the mind of a genius in Rembrandt's house and riding on the excellent public trams when I wasn't dodging the ubiquitous bike riders. Honestly, the Netherlands must have the most aerobically fit populace on the planet!
In that week there, I got a sense of how the Dutch people lived, what was important to them, and what cultural treasures they had to share with the world. Our visit today was, as my friend Kristy likes to say, "a sampler platter." You only get a small taste of what a place is like.
But it was a totally different view of the city for me because today, we took a canal boat tour! Move over, Venice! Amsterdam is the true city of canals and unlike its southern counterpart, which still doesn't have its sewage problems under control, this northern city is pristine by comparison.
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| Our long canal boat was surprising agile, easily maneuvering the tight turns from one watery "street" to another! |
Our guide explained that living on one of the long boats mooring along the sides of the canal was more expensive than having a home in one of the charming, tall and oddly listing-toward-the-street buildings that line the canals. The slight lean forward is intentional because the interior staircases are often too small to bring up large pieces of furniture. Instead, they are hoisted to upper floors from the street and taken in via the windows!
The canal homes run the gamut from aging houseboats to sleek new designs that, while beautiful, don't resemble a vessel at all. The boats and barges are all connected to the city utilities, including water and sewer. Every 4-5 years the steel boat style homes must go into dry dock to check for needed repairs to the hull. It was not unusual to see a small dinghy tethered to the bigger boats, an easy way for residents to travel the canals. Sort of like a Vespa on a rack on the back of a Class A motorhome.
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| I was surprised by the amount of traffic in the narrow canals. |
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| Another boat filled with looky-loo's like us! |
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| Sometimes, the oval openings between canals seemed so small I wondered if our boat would make it through! |
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| All the houses are tall and narrow. The white and yellow horizontal residence in the foreground is one of the "woonarks," barge-like iterations of the houseboat. |
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| You'll see a few cars in Amsterdam, but bicycles seem to be the main mode of personal transportation! |
