Amsterdam, Netherlands

Goedemorgen vanuit Amsterdam!

For most our trip, we've been pretty lucky from a weather perspective (unless you consider a heat wave in Italy and Switerland unlucky). Even Scotland was relatively clear skied. In this leg of our trip our luck caught up with us. As you will see from our pictures, Amsterdam was mostly rainy the entire time we were there.

The name Amsterdam means Dam on the River Amstel (maybe that's common knowledge, but it was news to me). It's extensive canal system has garnered it the nickname the "Venice of the North." This canal system is also a UNESCO heritage site. Founded at the confluence of 3 Rivers, Amsterdam is naturally a swamp (before human intervention). Waking around you can spot a few buildings that are tilted. That tilt is not always from a bad foundation though. Many of the houses built along the canal were originally warehouses. Goods were never stored on the bottom floor for fear of floods. So most had a pulley system to raise goods to the top floor. Leaning the house forward made it easier to raise the goods without taking out a window by accident. However we did see a fair amount of homes tilted every which way which was referred to a bad tilt due to the unstable soil.

Amsterdam was a beautiful city and one of our favorites.Read more