Candle Light Tour on Canals of Amsterdam

At 20:30, when we boarded the candlelight tour boat at Ronkin Centruum, there were 4 tables arranged each with a candle, three bottles of wine, two types of cheese, and some salty crackers. By the time we departed the dock at 21:00 as scheduled, two more couple came aboard and two more tables were arranged simimilarly. It was a very pleasant evening and a nice way to see the night lights of Amsterdam along the canal. Unfortunately, by the end of the evening, my camera hadn't the capacity to capture the lights while we were moving...the result is rather intriguing though. I took some notes of the guide's annecdotes and was able to glean the following:
- the year 1275 is the earliest date on documents refer to Amsterdam
- Amstel, the river from which Amsterdfam gets its name, is the natural canal in the ...all other canals have been dug.
- hand operated wooden locks are used to refresh the canals with fresh water from a Lake in Switzerland via the river Rhine and the old water is flushed to the north sea
- there currently over 3000 house boats on the canals of Amsterdam...they all have electrical power and water...house boat living started because of a housing crisis in the 1950's
- st nicolas used to be patron saint of city...the cathedral remained catholic after the reformation.
- Kuiper (?) was the Dutch architect who designed both the central station and the Rijkmuseum
- the dutch warship Amsterdam was built in 1729 and sunk on its maiden voyage off the coast of England...it has recently been rebuilt by unemployed persons over a 5 year period
- there are 8 day cruises from amsterdam to Basel up the Rhine
- step, bell, and neck gable ...3 types of house fronts...some gables were purposely built with a forward inclination towards the sidewalk in order to facilitate hoisting furniture from street level.
- there are four tunnels connecting North Amsterdam with the centrum ad there is a free ferry service for pedestrians and cyclists transitig from the north.
- there is a floating Chinese restaurant which is a reduced replica of one in Homg Kong...the one in Amsterdam can seat 800 (the one in Hong Kong apparently will seat a few thousands.

Zandvoort a Zee

The train ride from Amsterdam Central to Zandvoort takes about 15 minutes. A few minutes prior to arriving there, the rolling grass covered dunes appear. The train passes through Haarlem and some gentle countryside where lots of modern windmills have been planted. We saw one classic windmill in Haarlem. The Sunday noon time train was full to standing room only, and when we arrived, all we had to do to find the beach was to follow the long stream of people heading that way. The air was a little cool mostly because of the brisk steady breeze running from the south. Out of the wind, the air was quite pleasant which would explain the popularity of the wind tents available along the entire length of the beach. The sand is very fine and soft on the feet. We hadn't dressed for swimming as we weren't expecting that the water would be as warm as it is. So, we rolled up our pant legs and crossed over to the sand bar which rose above surf about 20 meters from the shore line. The fresh herring and kippeling served on the beach are great! Take a look at the Victoria hotel near the train station...when it was built, the owners of two homes on the street didn't want to sell, so the hotel owners built it around them. You can see the narrow part of the facade which is different from the rest of the hotel.

Amsterdam

We road the 08:00 train from Antwerp on July 23rd and arrived in Amsterdam at 10:06 right on schedule. We registered at our hotel which is virtually across the street from the train station and visited the tourist office where hundreds of people wwere waiting with queue tickets to speak with an information clerk. What a city...in whatever direction you walk, you'll find yourself on streets shared with amzaing harmony amongst pedestrians, cyclists, pedal taxis, scooters, cars and electric trams. Canals run around the city in fairly concentric circles with the train station more or less the hub. Each ring of canal shares connecting navigable tributaries, and the streets which ( for the most part) parallel both the concentric and connecting canals rise ever so slightly over their intersections with the canals just enough to allow the multidude of tour boats to pass silently underneath. Despite all the various modes of traffic, the city of Amsterdam differs from other large cities in that cars are not dominating the roads which makes life for pedestrians quite pleasant. You'll hear lots of bike bells and tram bells ringing to warn inexperienced pedestrians to get out of their way, but, for the most part, the roads are well divided, well marked, and a pleasure to walk upon although having a street map is a good aid to efficient navigation. The commercial streets are packed tightly with all sorts of shops, restaurants, and bar/cafes offering their wares and services to the steady and heavy stream of potential clients strolling and rolling by their doors. Most of the buildings appears to be 17th century many of which have shifted from the perfectly rectangular form leaning sometimes left or right and sometimes forward. In some buildings, the architectural deformations have required over the centuries to the placement of non-rectangular doors to properly fill the doorways. The Karpershoek (on the corner near our hotel) is the oldest pub in Amsterdam and serves De Konnick although not in the bollika...the bar tender told me that he didn't have the original glass (the bollika) but assured me the beer would taste just the same anyway....I think he was right.