A rainbow over a canal greeted us to Amsterdam.
Picturesque canals through the city by night.
And the city from our hotel.
Hooks on the buildings allow people to bring things into their apartments that don't fit the stairways.
Polishing diamonds and selecting ones for purchase.
On to a small cheese manufacturer where this young lady explained the process.
In the workshop next door they made wooden shoes.
This windmill was used to pump water up a few feet from one canal to another.
My great grandfather (x 8) was from Hoorn 22 km from here.
A very pleasant town accessible only by driving along the crest of a dike.
It was a one way road, in for one half hour and then out for the next.
The Zuiderzee (literally the southern sea) became the IJsselmeer lake when a dike separated it from the North Sea and it has slowly changed from salt to fresh water.
A few of the pleasure and fishing craft that ply the lake.
Back to Amsterdam
Construction in front of the Amsterdam Central Station precluded getting very close.
A couple of early video games in a store window.
Blip was actually a mechanical simulation of Pong and dates from 1977.
Lynx was made by Atari. It was much more recent (1988) and had the first color display in a hand held game.
I really didn't know what to think about this apparently Soviet submarine in one of the canals.
The way most folks get around it city.
A hurdy gurdy leaning against a park bench.
I guess the musician was on a break.
Many apartments have small courtyards behind.
The plaque over one of the doors probably announced the profession of it's original occupant.
And what would a visit to the Netherlands be without some tulips.
These were in one of the courtyards.
The chimes of the Westerkerk (1631) clock were mentioned frequently by Anne Frank in her diary.
A statue in her honor stands nearby.
One of many delicious dinners we enjoyed on this trip.
Because the land is slowly and unevenly settling, with time the buildings will take on strange inclinations.
And we couldn't pass up an evening stroll through the red light district.
There is something there for every imaginable taste (and some you probably never imagined).
And here is the first "coffee shop" in the district.
It helped get the joint rolling in Amsterdam when it started selling marijuana in 1975.
There are two older shops elsewhere in the city but this one is possibly the most famous.
