Dear Friends,
Well, if you have been following our itinerary, you have noticed that we arrived into Amsterdam on the evening of Aug. 6 at about 7:30pm. The sail in thru the canal they dug was beautiful. There is one lock we had to go thru near the beginning of the canal. The natural river, which was the way to the sea from the city of Amsterdam, was not straight so they dug a canal to provide a more stable and direct route to and from the sea. So you will see some photos of this sail in. There are many of the new windmills in Holland, some in farms off shore and of course the rest on land.
The Netherlands is a delta of Europe, located where the great Rhine and Maas rivers and their tributaries empty into the North Sea. Near the coast, it is a land of flat fields and interconnnecting canals; in the center it is surprisingly wooded, and in the far south are rolling hills. About half of the Netherlands is below sea level. As one of the smallest European nations, the Netherlands is also one of the world's most densely populated countries. Formerly home to the most successful seafaring merchants, tthe country is still one of the world's most important disribution and transport hubs, and the banks have invested this wealth around the world, as well as within its own borders. Because of its continual investment in culture and the arts, the Netherlands houses 10 major art museums and several smaller ones that together contain the world's richest and most comprehensive collection of Western art masterpieces from the 15th to the 20th centuries.
During Holland's prosperous colonial era, wealthy merchants dug the city's signature canals using proceeds from overseas ventures. Distinctive narrow side-by-side homes line them. Hooks on the top were used to hoist goods to and from the waterways. Known appropriately as "Venice of the North," Amsterdam's nearly 100 islands and 60 miles of canals are crossed by 400 stone bridges. There are also 2500 house boats along the canals. People live permanently on them and they pay taxes based on their dockage space.
As you may remember, in many cities we have taken the double-decker Hop on Hop off busses as our means of sightseeing around the city. Well, here in Amsterdam, we took the Canal-Bus which were the hop on hop off canal cruise boats. This was a fun way to see the city!!! We did get off at the Rijksmuseum/Van Gogh Museum stop. We didn't have a lot of time so chose to go into the Van Gogh museum which houses the world's largest collection of works by van Gogh, more than 200 paintings, including many of his very famous masterpieces. It was very crowded but we were able to get close to most of the famous paintings we wanted to see.
There were three different routes of the canal bus and we rode them all. We didn't have time to get off and go inside the Anne Frank house but I have included a photo of the outside. You can see the fairly long line to get in.
We really enjoyed the city of Amsterdam. It was so fascinating due to the many, many canals. Also, the huge number of bicycles was totally amazing. They had separate bike lanes which had their own traffic lights. And you had to really pay attention to the bicyclists and not get in their way or they might run into you. Everyone rode bikes everywhere - people dressed up going to work, women with high heels on, women with babies on their backs or in front pouches, etc., etc. Note the photo of the bike parking lots - thousands and thousands of bikes.
Our good friends, Wrenne and Ray Jakubiak, from Naperville arrived and boarded the ship in Amsterdam to sail the next cruise with us. Actually, Ray has to leave the ship in Helsinki to go home and back to work but Wrenne's sister, Dorothy, will be joining in Helsinki to sail the rest of the cruise with her.
Enjoy!
Jan and Dick
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