Day 18-19 July 29-30 2014 ~ Amsterdam Netherlands

               Bright lights in view close by out the cabin window. Smells like an oil refinery.

We are showered, shaved, and in the Crow's Nest with coffee at 3:30 am for a ride in the early dawn light. We had to go thru 1 set of locks this morning but it was so dark it was hard to see. The banks are lined with industrial stuff like refineries, wind farms, tank farms, etc. It's a beautiful ride before sunrise, with a bigillion lights. It's almost like Disneyland after dark.

After about 3.5 hours going up the canal we made it at day break to the passenger cruise terminal. We spend all day riding the canal boats and taking way too many pictures.  By noon the sun came out and was quite warm. 

The many traditional houses along the canal are narrow, 14 to 20 feet wide, mostly 3 or 4 stories tall. Typical depth is said to be 60 feet, for a typical footprint of about 1000 square feet. With four floors, this grosses out to 4000 square feet. They are said to sell for upwards of a million dollars. At $250 per square foot, that's not too different from typical US values. The older canal front homes are sometimes tilted, like the leaning tower of Pisa, because the entire city is built on wet soil, similar to Venice. A shortage of housing leads to numerous floating residences.

Most canal front homes have a traditional beam at the peak. When these homes were used for commerce, this beam was used to hoist goods to the upper stories, which were used as warehouses.

Cargo Hoist is Typical of Most Canal Front Homes in Amsterdam

Seven Bridges Canal

yep its a boat...

        Line up to view Ann Franks house.  This is booked up weeks in advanced

The Ann Frank House and Museum

A highlight of the canal cruise was a trip by the Ann Frank house, where a diary written by a young Jewish victim of the Nazis was found after the war, by the father and sole survivor of the Frank family.  It was a very moving place.  We came back for dinner and was totally pooped.  They are showing a movie tonight called Ark with Russel Crow starting at 10:30  I am going to try and make it. 

To be continued tomorrow...