Amsterdam- Canal Cruise

This morning we trained from Arnhem back to Amsterdam for the rest of our vacation. This is the train station (built in 1889).

We arrived at the hotel early in the day and neither room was ready so we got some lunch. Finally, our rooms were ready.

K's room was more of regular room. We got this very interesting room - 2 floors. The "bedroom" was on the second floor. The stairs had thick ridges on the outer edge so slippers were required to navigate the steps because they were painful on my bare feet. In the middle of the main area was some sort huge metal thing that looked like it might have been part of a weaving machine or a piece of farm equipment. We really have no idea.

We signed up for a boat cruise of the Amsterdam canals in the afternoon.

We learned that many of old houses are sinking. They were originally built on wooden pilings in very soft substrate and so they are sinking. They've been sinking for hundreds of years. It's more obvious on some houses than others.We saw the most narrow house in Amsterdam, we saw the outside of the Anne Frank house, we learned all about the hoists that were installed on all of the houses. The reason? The buildings so the hoists were used to bring in heavy items. They are still used today to bring in furniture, etc. In the second half of 17th c, rear houses were often built behind the main house. This is the type of house that was used by Anne Frank and her family during WWII. We saw quite a few houseboats and lots of bridges crossing the canals. We traveled past the most exclusive neighborhoods where some houses were built on 2 lots and seemed huge in comparison to the standard single lot homes. Early first lots may have only been about 16 feet wide.

This is the house labeled the narrowest house. It's actually the back of the house that's so very, very narrow. The front facade is wider. Location: Singel 7.The rear facade is 3 ft 3 inches wide by at least one source. It's about the width of a window plus a little bit.

Almost all of the buildings had these hoists installed on the gables during construction. The buildings and the staircases were very narrow and it made it difficult to haul goods up and into the structures. The hoists were used to bring things to upper floors. Today they are used to bring in furniture, etc.

Lots and lots of houseboats.