Touring Amsterdam

A speaker friend, Lenora Billings-Harris, and I spent the day sightseeing in Amsterdam on Sunday after the Global Speakers Symposium ended. We began with a canal tour.

Of course all the streets are very narrow, and since so many people bike, there is always a very narrow bike path on one side of the tiny streets which leaves even less room for cars. The canals, which are about 3 meters deep, were built in the 17th century, and as the city grew, they were built in semi-circles out from the center. One of the most interesting things about the canals was that in the 1960’s they finally built short fences on some of the canals (although the ones outside my windows have nothing between the street and the water). The guide told us that still at least one car a week goes into the canal!

Amsterdam is 1 ½ meters below sea level, so most of the houses are built on piles. (Schipol Airport is also below sea level…..) The reason the houses are so narrow is that they were taxed on their WiDTH, so they were all built long to the back. There are many different kinds of interesting gables, often indicating the wealth and status of the owners, and I was intrigued with the large hooks at the top of each gable. Because the houses and the stairways were so narrow, all the furniture had to be brought in through the windows, so the hooks were the first form of moving equipment! I took many pictures of the charming rows of house fronts along the canal, many former mansions.

We saw wonderful sights like the largest floating Chinese restaurant in the world, the “house with 1000 windows,” the “Crazy Jack” Tower, so-called because the clock could never keep the right time, and hundreds of house boats—some lovely with little floating gardens and others that looked barely afloat! Interestingly, they all have gas, water, and electricity.

After our canal ride, we went to the Van Gogh Museum, and since Lenora shares my penchant for shopping, the first thing we hit was the Museum gift shop….and then lunch in their garden cafeteria. The museum itself was very crowded, but we were able to see most of Van Gogh’s amazing work. I did not know that he only painted for ten years and then became ill and despondent and shot himself. Sadly, his work did not become famous until much after his death. There was also a traveling Picasso exhibit at the museum which we found quite interesting. He is so famous for his cubism that I was not aware of the many other kinds of work he did.
On our way back to the hotel, we HAD to stop at the Hard Rock Café for gift t-shirts and an empty Heineken beer bottle in Dutch!


We dropped off our purchases and then did a quick walk through of the Red Light district. My children had warned me NOT to go into a coffee shop ;-), so I had to at least take a picture in front of one.
Even though I had been there many years before, it was still a bit shocking to see all the girls in the windows, dancing, seducing, and nearly nude, and of course even the shop windows and all the “toys” available brought color to our cheeks! Interestingly, there were all sizes, ages, and nationalities of women – someone for everyone, I guess.

That evening Nicolette and Jelle entertained us in their lovely home. We were deeply touched to see that Nicolette had a framed American flag that had flown on a battleship in her living room. Their garden was extraordinary (we loved how many of the homes had small gardens either in their front or back yards), and they were the most gracious of hosts.

See earlier blog posts on other parts of the trip. To learn more about Barbara’s work, go to www.barbaraglanz.com.