Belgium and Netherlands

I decided to join a "free" walking tour around the city to help get direction on what to do. It cost €6 to book and then I tipped €20 at the end as the guide had been quite good.
It was a drizly day but not too heavy to put a damper on the walk, just made you damp.

One interesting fact was about the old church being in the red light district. It was mostly sailors who would live a dangerous life and come back and want to sleep around hence the prostituting but they were also religious and didn't want to go back to see without absolving their sins so they would visit the church. They even optimised it to the point you could pre absolve your sins for the next two days so you could go to the church during the day, have your fun then head out to sea in the morning.

Everything is made out of bricks as there was only river clay to use. There are a few wooden building left, we stopped past one built in 1580.

The attic church held 150 people and was illegal but tolerated. Napoleon was catholic and then allowed it. People would complain about the singing on Sunday but the police said they didn't work Sundays and go on Monday and it was fine.

St Nicolas was the patron saint of children, sailors, prostitutes and brewers which was quite fitting for Amsterdam and all going on.

Only since 2000 they legalised prostitution because before this it would happen but they were under age and worked up to 14 hour shifts.
There was too many people in the area more recently so they banned tour groups, stopped drinking and smoking in the area. They used to have a guys section as well but there wasn't the business for it.

The old city gates had been turned into a guild house from the markets. There was a blacksmith and others but at the top was the surgeon guild who got their body's from the market square hangings and executions. This is where Rembrandt did one of this first famous paintings of the anatomy lesson.

The dark history of Dutch people ratting out Jews because they would then get a house and there was much famine and cold. They chopped every tree in the city and burnt all wood they could find in the second world war. This destroyed alot of the city that it looked like it had been bombed.

It is expected that your bike will be stolen. To live here you need to know a junky that you can then buy another bike from.

The open curtain living comes from a history of being prodastant and showing you are living well. And just inherited from there.

They were taxed by the width of the house, hence them being so thin. The smallest one was 2.02 meters wide.

They have some stumble stones but only one company makes them so they are on backorder and not found as often here in Amsterdam.

I then asked Jonny as the tour wrapped up where to go next, to get a herring and a good place for dinner. He directed me on for all.

The herring was actually quite pleasant and I would have gone back for more given the time.もっと詳しく