After HOURS and MILES of walking around, it feels good to sit.
We are taking a one hour canal boat ride. Amsterdam, being built on a swamp and marshland, there is plenty of water to go around. Though not as many canals and bridges as Venice, it is none the less fun to cruise around the city. The canal is plenty crowded with tourist companies running everything from quick tours to dinner cruises and light-show tours.
We learned a lot about the city and of course the amazing architecture. We also floated by Anne Frank’s house. You can take tours of her house apparently. (the picture below is NOT Anne’s house, I just thought it was cool)
According to the designer, this building was not designed to look like a ship. He had some other very Zen idea about reaching high and not forgetting your roots. I don’t know, to me it looks exactly like the front of a ship. In person the building is green not blue. It is not a good day for pictures.
Amsterdam has about 200 bridges compared to Venice which has over 400. They do have some lifting bridges on the canal for some of the bigger ships that need to move around. They are mostly automatic but still require monitoring and maintenance.
Its really hard to tell in this picture, but there are seven bridges right in a row. This is not typical supposedly and is the shortest section with so many bridges.
The most fun for me was looking at all the houseboats. The city of Amsterdam granted permission for these houseboats after World War II because of the housing shortage. The are no longer granting permits for houseboats along the canal.
That being said, the price for one is quite high and the insides of the boats are decorated quite exquisitely. The disadvantage to living on one of these is the traffic from touring boats and the lively nightlife at street level.
Each boat has full-hookups so to speak. Water, electricity and sewer. Cool.
I like this one. A nice deck to sit on while you watch the world go by.
For others they are stuck with dingy sized water craft.
And so ends our trip through Amsterdam’s waterways
Since we met you at Anderson Cove, you have shared with us that which you have been doing. We have followed your moves, with great interest. Having crossed your path has been a blessing to us. We so admire the things you do, the places you see and the people you meet. We hope you will continue to share with us your travels.
Ron & Fred