For our July adventure, we made our 2nd trip this year across the big waters over to Europe, this time to the Netherlands, Amsterdam to be more precise.
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| Flying from SLC, the flight is about 9 1/2 hours going over Greenland and Iceland |
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| The only 2 non-stops from SLC to Europe is Paris and Amsterdam, so we try to do those flights to save time. We left at 9pm and got there at 2:30 in the afternoon |
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| We stayed at Hyatt Regency Amsterdam where they welcomed us with chocolates and an upgraded room |
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| This was part of our expansive breakfast buffet every morning. Normally $40 per person each day, but of course our price was $0 |
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| After checking in to the hotel, we went to the "canal district" and took a guided canal tour of the city |
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| We came very close to some of the tunnels |
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| We had the pleasure of Shauna & Don (Shelley's sister/husband) come with us! It was great having them along |
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| After the canal tour, we walked around the city |
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| Be aware of your surroundings! The trains and trams and busses come very close to the sidewalks! |
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| We came across this very big candy store. They had everything |
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| Amsterdam is the largest city in the Netherlands, and is the capital of the Netherlands, with a population of about 1.5 million. Dutch is the official language, but most residents are pretty fluent in English. We've been to a lot of large cities and Amsterdam is extremely quiet (and clean). It's so quiet because a majority of the "traffic" is bikes! They are everywhere! Amsterdam one of the most bike friendly cities in the world. On average, each household owns 2 bikes. The bikes always have the right of way and you wait for them like you wait for normal car traffic. There is the normal road, then a bike lane painted red, and then the normal sidewalk which is the lowest priority. You do not dare walk in the bike lane either or you will get run over. Most of the cars, trains, trams and busses are electric so very little traffic noise and the trains, trams and busses are far more common than cars. |
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| This an entrance/exit to an underground mall area and you can see along with steps, are grooves for you to push your bike up/down the steps |
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| Shauna has the bull by it's horns! The Amsterdam stock exchange is the oldest still-functioning stock exchange in the world |
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| The next morning we took a walking tour around downtown |
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| Amsterdam used to be part of the ocean, but way back when (around 1275), the land was reclaimed from the ocean and marshes. Windmills were used to keep the water out of the city. All the downtown buildings and any buildings by the numerous canals, were built on large wooden poles -11 million of them, most which are still the original ones. But over time, the poles can sink and shift right/left. To minimize this, all the buildings were built connected, so they are connected to the buildings on the left/right which helped stabilize and prolong the shifting of the poles. Now, all these hundreds of years later, you can see the shifting in many of the buildings like this one here - it's "crooked", but still safe and held in place by the buildings on either side. |
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| Look very carefully at the tops of these buildings - you can see a hook or ring at the top. Every building has it. Back in the 1300's when these buildings were all built, they were taxed on how much land they took up, because that helped pay for all the wooden poles needed to support the building. They were also taxed on how many windows were in the building. So, to pay the least amount of taxes possible, instead of taking up a lot of land, they built up. There were no elevators however, so at the top of each building, were these hooks/rings that were used to hoist up supplies, furniture, groceries and anything those living above the ground floor needed. The stair cases inside are extremely steep and only wide enough for one person, so that wouldn't work either. They were pretty smart too - what would happen if you hoisted heavy stuff up several stories? It would sway and hit the side of the building or windows. To compensate for that, each building was built tilting out - towards the street, so when items were lifted up, they wouldn't hit the building. |
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| This picture really shows how crooked most of the buildings are - look at the windows. Don't worry, it's safe. If the buildings lean, they just lean into the ones on the side and they are all supporting each other |
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| See the hooks/rings on each building? |
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| This is the narrowest building in the city - they paid the least amount of taxes |
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| Here you can see better the hooks/rings at the top |
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| We stopped in at the huge city museum - the Rijksmuseum |
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| We went to the largest farmers market in the city and got some authentic stroopwafels - very different than the ones you get from Costco |
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| It was warm, sticky, gooey and yummy |
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| How about some regular waffles? |
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| Or many different kinds of edibles? |
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| Bike parking is everything, and usually completely full. Here you can see the tram/bus lane, then the reddish bike lane and next to that is the walking sidewalk |
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| SO MANY of these kinds of bike. Used to deliver stuff, groceries, but mostly kids sit in these - sometimes 3 or 4 kids in one |
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| You can see the bike lane is as big as the bus/tram lane! |
The next day, we headed out about a 45 mins bus/train ride, to Zaanse Schans which is a super popular tourist area, so if you go, go early! It's an Amsterdam heritage site where a large collection of windmills used to be to pump water out of a large area turned into farmland. There used to be 1000 windmills in the area keeping the farmland free of water back in the 1500's, which is now the oldest industrial area in the world. Around 1920, there were only about 20 windmills left (with only 13 remaining) which have been preserved and all still work. Each windmill had a purpose - a saw mill, a flour grinder, a spice grinder, one that made colorful dyes, one that made ground mustard, another for cheese, one that made oil and others. There are also some original houses, buildings and some museums on the site. They also made lots of cheese here and wooden shoes and you can watch demos on how those were made. Of course you can buy lots and lots and lots of different flavors of cheese and buy your own real wooden shoes.
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| He made a wooden shoe out of a block of wood VIDEOS making a shoe: |
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| The flour mill with HUGE granite crushing wheels. Don't put your finger in there! |
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| Everything is wooden - the moving parts, the "nails" and all still works |
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| In a few of the mills, you can go up top and walk around under the blades |
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| The saw mill - they still use it daily for paying customers who want original and precise cut wood for various things. The logs sit in the water floating, until they are ready to cut, when they are hoisted up the ramp by the windmill pulling it up through a series of winches and ropes |
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| The multi bladed saws stay in the same place cutting, while the log/wood moves forward at a speed that can be adjusted |
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| Since the wood is fresh and wet still, after it's cut, it's put outside for a few months to completely dry VIDEOS: |
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We were ready to walk back after seeing all the windmills and some guy, on the bike path, rode by and immediately stopped. He asked us if we were tourists from America and we said yes. We were actually walking in the bike lane to get around some slow walking people on the sidewalk, and I thought he was going to tell us we shouldn't be walking in the bike lane. Nope. Instead he told us to go back to the main area by going on a short hike through the wetlands and farms and pointed the direction where we should go. Of course, we heeded his advice! It was beautiful!  Along the hike, we got different views of the windmills and the surrounding farm land  There were waterways all over, with small bridges to get over them.  Under this bridge we found a geo cache  In some areas, the grasses were so tall, it felt like you were in a corn field maze   |
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| We had lunch at a small cafe nearby, and I got the "no crap" lemonade....well, it wasn't like the lemonade you're used to. It tasted like water with lemon squeezed into it |
We then hopped on a bus for about 20 minutes and went to a very small village called Edam. Edam was created when a dam (Edam= "the dam") was placed in a river creating a channel in the year 1230. At the dam, boats with supplies travelling to other places couldn't go any further because of the dam. So the residents of Edam, created a business of transferring the supplies from one channel to another on the other side of the dam, of course, charging a tax on the ships and boats to do so. This led to building several large harbors in the area, with Edam becoming one of the largest shipping areas in Holland and the creation of the largest cheese maker in the country in the 16th century and a very wealthy city. In 1544 however, large floods destroyed the city and they decided to build large locks to keep the water out and protect the city and harbors. Instead however, this caused the waterways to be filled with dirt and silt over the years and the shipping channels became unusable and the city went into decline. There are still many of the original houses, buildings and churches there today and the city has a population of about 7000.
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| We were there on a Saturday and it was very quiet. Like nobody there. There are several small canals going through the city and we knew you could take a canal tour, but we couldn't find anyone to ask. I finally found a museum and ask inside and was told they only do canal tours on Monday's (strange) but there might be an electric boat we can rent down over there (pointing somewhere around the corner). So I walked around the corner and found a sign advertising the boats to rent for an hour, but nobody was around. I went into a nearby bar that was open, nobody inside. I walked around and finally found someone and asked him and he said Yes! Let's go pick out a boat for you! |
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| Here we are on our way around the canals of Edam |
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| Cap'n Don was at the controls safely (mostly) guiding us around |
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| It was so peaceful and quiet and beautiful! |
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| Our fearless captain did us well. He said he worked on tips, so we tipped well 😁 |
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| Walking back to the bus station, we didn't see anyone else in the city. It was so quiet |
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| We found the pink chocolate store - there were lots of people in there! |
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And the "Instagram" pink bike After a few short days but filled with lots of things, we boarded a plane at 7am for the short 45 minute flight to Zurich, Switzerland |
