Along the paths and canals of Amsterdam

The Begijnhof

One of the conference sponsors hosted an interesting guided walking tour of Amsterdam for 8 of us from Canada, US, India, Taiwan, Ghana, Africa, Australia and the Caribbean. My favourite part of the tour was the Begijnhof, shown above. After its long history as a Catholic almost-convent (the women took vows but were free to leave to marry), this beautiful peaceful enclave has 105 residents, all widows. After the bustle of Amsterdam, your heart rate responds to the serenity of the quiet closed-off courtyard. Amsterdam's oldest house is also found here.

The homes in Amsterdam are distinctive both for their gables and for how crooked they are. Sometimes this is because their pilings have deteriorated, but partly it's intended: the upper stories usually lean out to ensure the furniture which is to be brought up by that hoist on the gable won't hit the house, as dramatically shown down this little street.

Of course we walked through part of the Red Light District. Despite the early morning hour, there were a few women 'in the windows', extremely generously endowed as we were in the part that specializes in the extravagantly endowed. We didn't see any blue lights, which signal gay sex on offer. This trade is not restricted to one district as Wayne was to see more windows just by our hotel where he walked to take his bicycle tour. This is a shot of a day care centre wedged between the windows.

Our walking tour was followed by lunch and canal tour, another peaceful interlude. I tried to capture the view of nine consecutive bridges which you can just see peeking out from behind the first bridge in the foreground.

We caught sight if Amsterdam's smallest house,

As well as many other characteristic houses and houseboats. Here are some typical scenes.

I particularly enjoyed the many houseboats and how they squeezed little gardens into their space.

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Water, Water, Everywhere

Storm Surge Barrier at Maeslantkering near Rotterdam To tour the Netherlands is to marvel at Dutch ingenuity in water management. With one quarter of Holland below sea level and one half at one metre or less above sea level, the Dutch have lived with the threat of flooding for their entire history. The country boasts over 17,000 kilometres of dikes, along their rivers, intended to protect residents from flooding. But one night in 1953, the confluence of an especially high spring tide and a wind storm over the North Sea struck just after midnight and caused water levels to rise more than 5 meters above normal, breaching the protective dikes. Radio was off the air and government agencies were not staffed; there was no warning for the residents of low-lying land and islands. By 3 a.m., more than 1,800 people had lost their lives. The Netherlands decided to get serious about a new era of flood control water management. They wanted to have defences that would handle once-in-a-thous

Now there's a taxi

I remember how impressed I was the first time I came to Europe and saw Mercedes taxis. It was a huge contrast with the disintegrating rattle traps I was used to in Canada. Today I was startled to see many Teslas in the taxicab rank outside the airport. We rode in one to our hotel. Smooth ride. However Wayne was not able to sit in the back. Still, a Tesla taxi.

Kinderdijk

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Netherlands 2017

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