The Adventures of Mike and Janice: AMSTERDAM

Back to Amsterdam! According to the tourist guides, Amsterdam has more bridges than Venice, and is subsequently called the "Venice of the North".

The canal houses fascinated me. They are very tall and narrow -- the wider the house, the higher its taxes. Height doesn't matter, depth doesn't matter , just the width. So as we cruised and walked down the canals, we could look around and see who the wealthier residents were. Below you'll see some skinny houses, and some wider ones.

The entire city is built on reclaimed land. Wooden and cement pilings are driven deep into the sandy, mushy land to hold the buildings up. The canal houses are all squished together, and some are leaning over since their foundations are sinking. It looked like this to me: if the solid house on the end fell over, the rest would go too, like a row of dominoes. Some were so crooked that you could feel the slant (a lot!) when you were inside. We noticed this when we were in the Anne Frank. Below you will find a good example of a home that is really leaning! Notice that the house to the right is straight. Good thing!

Most houses come with a "hoisting beam" at the very top of the gable. The guide told us that because the stairways are so steep and narrow, there is no way to get furniture up or down the stairs. All furniture moving is down through a window, while using this hoisting beam:

You can also notice some of the houses in the above picture tilting forward. Our guide said that sometimes, not always, they are built this way on purpose, to give more room inside the house. Below you'll see a rare sunny moment while we were on a canal cruise:

All over Amsterdam there are little fast food restaurants that sell only one item: fries! They are called "Vlaamse Frites", or Flemish Fries. They are thick fried potato pieces, served with a variety of sauces. One place had over 20 types! The most popular dipping sauce is mayonnaise, but gravy is a popular second. They must have been able to tell I was American, because she said, "Do you want ketchup?" For those of you that know me well, you know the anwer was yes! Here I am with a paper cone full of Vlaamse Frites, hoping my Weight Watcher's leader doesn't check my blog page!

Our next stop was the Van Gogh Museum. Mike wasn't sure about this one, but he ended up enjoying it as much or more than I did. We stood outside in the snow, and waited about 30 minutes to get in.

Just so you know -- I was a good girl and didn't take pictures inside the museum. The pictures of his paintings were taken by someone else (that disobeyed the rules) who posted them on Webshots. I have pilfered them for your benefit! This is Van Gogh's painting of his bedroom in Aarles, France:

This one is one of several self portraits that he did:

That night, we discovered another Dutch food that turned out to be our favorite -- the Dutch version of thin pancakes, or crepes. Of course, it is somewhat of a favorite of ours at home, too, Mike makes them. He is not nearly creative with his "big pancakes" as the Dutch are, we may take some of their ideas home to try. The "Pancake Bakery" was a delicious place to have dinner.

They make the pancakes, and then top them with an entire menu full of choices. The first time we went, I tried ham and cheese -- not so good. The second time, I tried pears, ice cream, whipped cream, and chocolate sauce. MMMMMmmm...good. Much better. Mike got apples, ice cream and whipped cream each time we went.