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Our trip has come to an end.
Instead of writing a full blog about our final day, I've decided to reflect a little bit on a few of our favourite 'discoveries' here in Amsterdam - one of our new favourite places in the world!
Bikes: You have to experience this phenomenon in person to really truly understand 'bike culture'. They are everywhere. There are more bikes than people in Amsterdam. When crossing the street, you have to cross a sidewalk, a bike lane and a street, then a sidewalk and another bike lane until you're 'safe'. We were more afraid of death by bike than anything else! Although, we never did see any accidents. The sound of the city is not car horns or motors... it is bike bells and the sound of wheels pedaling. You can't take a picture without a bike in the background! They are literally a permanent part of the scenery.
Windmills: Not just a decorative icon, much more than that, they were a large part of the reason that the Netherlands encountered a Golden Age in the 1600s - leaders in productivity because of these giant pre-industrial 'machines'. They are also the reason why Holland has been able to almost double in usable land over the centuries - land is at a premium, and most of the land has been re-appropriated by drying up lakes to create farmland.
Canals (and water): The canal system in Amsterdam is quite unique. The city has extended into the water. You can go anywhere by street, or by water. You can even LIVE on the water, as seen by the numerous houseboats along the canals.
Architecture: All of the pictures you see of Amsterdam do NOT do it justice. Like Paris, we were struck with how consistently charming every street remained. Character row houses line every street, making every street we came across a photo-op. One of our favourite things to capture, was the quirky 'leaning' houses. Amsterdam is built on very unstable land - so over the years, the houses tend to shift creating this really interesting scenario where the buildings have an illusion of fluidity. None are perfectly straight up and down... some worse off than others!
Food: Holland is famous for cheese (Kaas). We saw cheese being made on our day trip to Volendam, but there are cheese winkels (shops) everywhere, with tastings of any kind of cheese you can imagine - old, extremely old, smoked, soft...
Language: Dutch is close to German, but the differences are many. We love the language, you can easily decipher words just by reading and putting words together. Here are a few of our favourites:
Kaas - cheese
Koe- Cow
Huis-house
Uitgang - exit
Ingang- entrance
Boten - boat
eaten & drinken - eat and drink!
gracht - canal
straat - street
...etc.
This trip was truly special. Once again, our eyes were open to a brand new culture. A culture of people who have experienced great success as leaders in exploration, navigation, water and land management, city planning, trade, feats of architecture, transportation, resistance and post-war restoration. The people are friendly, the city and countryside is breathtakingly beautiful, combined to make Amsterdam easily liveable.
Forever a place in our heart... Goodbye to Amsterdam.
C+J
*we have started an album of pictures, be sure to check them out!
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