Tuesday, July 20, 2010

One final glimpse of Amsterdam...for now


Since it is now July, and we went on our trip in May, I think it is time to wrap up my recap. Above, some of the wonderful roof lines of Amsterdam. I don't know how nice these houses are inside, but outside they were so much fun to look at.

The totally awesome Amsterdam Public Library - free internet for everyone! The library building is fairly new, and has great views, cool architecture, and as I said, free internet. Who needs an internet cafe when the library is available? And it wasn't being abused, like some libraries in the United States that I can think of... Anyway, we didn't really explore the library too much, but we did like what we saw.


I think this is the same view that is on the cover of our Rick Steves guidebook. A canal in the Jordaan neighborhood, complete with bikes, canal boats and a lovely sky. Ah...

That little building in the middle is reputedly the narrowest house in the Netherlands. It is full-sized farther back, but narrow at the front, because there used to be taxes based on how much canal frontage your house had. So, to avoid paying an exorbitant tax on a wide house, this builder just put most of the house off the canal. Sneaky.

The Anne Frank House Museum. The line was around the corner of the building, and we had already seen so many museums (including the Amsterdam History Museum, which is enormous), so we skipped it. I assume the house is somewhere behind that facade.

Enlarge this picture to see the lovely way the Vondelpark rules are spelled out. What I don't understand is why trumpets are allowed, but not drums. Must be anti-hippie or something, since the Vondelpark was overrun with hippies in the 70s...

And thus concludes my tour of Amsterdam, Delft, Brugge, Brussels and points in between. I hope you enjoyed it. We shall be returning to normal, somewhat boring, Arkansas in your next post.

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