Amsterdam the city

The Netherlands is of course a land of canals.  There are canals almost everywhere one goes - town, country, small hamlets - in fact anywhere.  The reason for this is that the country is very low lying with some of it below sea level.  The canals are a way of managing the water and they are built so that water can be pumped out to sea by the use of windmills.  The canals in Amsterdam are very picturesque but almost all other cities in the country also have canals flowing through.

We took a canal tour after visiting the two museums.  This was a 75 minute ride with commentary through ear phones in any language you cared to choose.  Our Bluebird canal boat is on the right in the photo below.

You need to click on the photo below to enlarge it and see that it encompasses a view of 7 bridges on the Amsterdam canal on one stretch.

We only managed to capture the tower of this church along the canal route where Rembrandt is buried in an unmarked pauper's grave.  In spite of success in his lifetime and also marrying well, he nevertheless died a pauper.  His son Titus is also buried in the same church.

I am always captivated by beautiful buildings.  As we were walking back after our big day out I glimpsed it this one above and I thought it was too beautiful not to include in the blog before I realised that it was the cenral railway station again.  But it presents a different view.

These are buildings along the canal.  Notice the hook on the top of the building below just below the gable?  The building is a former warehouse, now converted into one or possibly several apartment.  The hook was used to lift heavy items for sale in its warehouse days.  Nowadays, when people move house, furniture and larger items are lifted using that hook.

The church in Dam Square in the centre of Amsterdam next to the Royal Palace.  King Willem-Alexander was recently crowned here.  He also married his lovely Argentinian bride Maxima in this church some years back.

Bicycles left at the train station in Heiloo.  Apparently there are nearly 600,000 bicycles Amsterdam on any one day, almost as many as people.