Rhine River Rafting Adventure – Day 7

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Day 7 is Amsterdam. We left the ship at 8:00 to begin a walking tour and canal tour of Amsterdam. I did not realize that Amsterdam was a canal city. Of course it does not have the canals that Venice does. Some of Amsterdam is built on ground, and some of it is built on reclaimed ocean land for expanding useful land space.

Because some of the land is not sufficient for a foundation, they used logs for piers beneath the building. Well, some worked, and some didn’t. There are buildings that lean left, or right, or even out over the sidewalk. The problem is if the house is leaning, you can stop the lean, but can’t fix it. So, spending a chunk of change, and you just get a kitchen, bedroom, all rooms, still leaning. They just won’t lean any further.

Because land is so scarce for building a living space, folks took to houseboats. The city stopped handing out permits to dock along the canals because they were running out of space to dock a house boat. So they capped it at about 3800 permits, and if you decide to leave your spot along the canal, you can sell it with the permit to someone else. Of course, supply is pretty limited, and demand is very high, so permits are several hundred thousand Euros. And, as you can see from the pictures, not all the homes are “fancy”. Water is very important for the land that surrounds it. If the water was to be drained, the land would sink. It is a type of floating bog. They discovered this when some of the canals were drained and the land beside it sank.

They now have trees planted along canals to keep the land and water together. The trees hold the land, and use the water. There are certain types of trees that do it better than others.

You can use a boat to get around, but most of the places you need to go to are on land. You can use a car (but where do you park it) or a bicycle. The most common method is bicycle. There are plenty of places to park a bike. Anywhere along the canals, at the train station, offices, just about everywhere has a bike parking lot. Some are many stories tall. People also spend as much on locks to protect the bike as they do for the bike. It is not uncommon for folks to spend $70 for lock and for chain to lock the bike to its spot. You secure the front wheel AND the frame to the immovable object. If you don’t, there is a good chance one will be missing when you return.

After the canal tour, we could do a walking tour, or visit a diamond factory. We selected the diamonds. About 10 of us went to see people making diamonds, how they make them, the tools they use, and how precise the tools are. Think about 121 facets on a rock less than 1 carat in size. But, they are very beautiful. And, when you are selling something, and have people present to watch, of course you need to give them an opportunity to buy something. While it first reminded me of a time-share presentation from the 70’s, they really have some beautiful stones for purchase.

We were then taken back to the ship just about lunch time, and ate, then got ready for the 1:30 tour of the Holland village, which is a restored village, put together in the 1970’s to help retain the history of how things were done in the 1600’s. Wooden buildings, wooden windmills and hand crafters making everything, out of wood. Also there were candy shops, a cheese making demonstration, with taste testing of course. No beer making just barrels here.

There was a wooden repair shop, which repaired anything wooden, and manufactured wooden barrels, for their beer production. Some type of wood they ground up, and it made a red powder when ground, which was used with linseed oil to make paint. The grinding was done, of course, in the windmill. They ground limestone, also to make paint, but another use is to mark the soccer fields

Lots of walking today. Fitbits were all happy. After we got back to the boat, Rick and I wanted to shop some more, and the train station was just a 10 minute walk along the water. There are a bunch of shops. But, not having a store for what he was looking for, we decided to check out one of the restaurants in the station. They serve beer too. We were going to heat in 45 minutes, so let’s just have a local beer.

We were at the window and could watch the people coming and going. It was 5:30, and people were moving through the station. All coming to catch the ferry to cross over the water to the other side, others coming to catch a train, get off a train, and catch a ferry, just moving. Bicycles were really everywhere. There are paths marked off for bikes, and skateboards, motorcycles, bicycles of every type, were using the path. I did see a few riders actually use a hand signal to turn left or right off the path, but out of the hundreds, 3 is not a large percentage. You don’t want to walk in that path. The youngest rider we saw had to be about 3, riding on a little two wheel with mom and big sister, on regular bikes. You don’t see multispeed fancy bikes. Plain, pedal break, maybe hand brake, but no multi-gear bikes were noticed. We also saw a girl, about 14 maybe, on a skateboard, riding ahead of mom and big brother or dad headed for the ferry to cross over. Men and women dressed for work riding bikes home. We saw a lot in the morning, but from the station, there were thousands coming in and out. And, yes, women wear dresses and ride. Some were in pants, but a lot were in dresses. It looks like business casual is not so casual in the town of Amsterdam.

After we got back to the boat, we had our final evening meal on the boat, after a good-bye cocktail, and farewell by the Captain and crew. Back to our rooms to pack for early departure in the morning. Breakfast at 6:30, bags at door for pickup by 7:15. Bus ride to airport at 8:00.

Day 8 will probably be a non event, since all day will be in airport, plane, and back home.



Those of you that have read, thank you, and may your travels be safe and enjoyable as ours was, no matter where you go,

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Photos

Before house numbers.
Before the French came and started using house numbers, homes were identified by a picture and name of the owner.

How to cut diamonds
The history of cutting diamonds, how it is done, the tools used, and the current state of the business.

Car2Go
You can rent these little cars, use them, and then hook them back up to charge, like charging your phone.

Forgot to lock wheel
The owner didn't lock the front wheel so, it is gone. A handicapped person can get a permit for the little car shown behind the bike.

Leaning houses.
No, he camera wasn't crooked.

More house boats, away from town.
We saw these on the way back from the Windmill Village.