Amsterdam – Roaming Potpourri

The Adventure Begins

Amsterdam is a bustling city, teeming with locals and tourists, most in a hurry to get somewhere but there are = just enough aimless « selfie-takers » and construction projects to impede a purposeful walk.

However, when you have the opportunity to cruise on a canal, the entire city slows down. The landscape softens and the buzz of traffic and the chatter of 177 nationalities fade away. Time on the canal is blissful.

There are more bicycles, 23M, in the Netherlands than people, 18M. Only the Uber wealthy and expats live in central Amsterdam. The city is full of parks, museums and bike paths. Pedestrians aren’t allowed on bike paths and most bikes will not yield to a pedestrian. Bikers don’t wear helmets and the preponderance of bikes are simple one speed models with a cushioned seat. Thankfully, non of the bikers wear latex. Boulder, by contrast, is full of aging, latex clad cyclists on 24 speed bikes who spend the majority of their workout sipping espresso in local coffee houses. But I digress.

Kimberly, Dan and I had a great tour of the Van Gogh museum. The guide’s premise was that much of Van Gogh’s appeal is a result of the myth created about his life after his death. She could be right. The Netherlands is a country full of traders and salesmen.

In addition to marketing prowess, the Dutch excel at major civil projects. The canals in Amsterdam were built in the 1500 to 1800’s. A land reclamation project started in the 1920’s, not only virtually eliminated flooding, it boosted food production. The Netherlands is the major food exporter in Europe.

The country, which is a bit bigger than Maryland, has become the world’s second largest exporter of agricultural products by value behind the United States. It is among the largest exporters of agricultural and food technology. The Dutch have pioneered cell-cultured meat, vertical farming, seed technology and robotics in milking and harvesting.

Netherlands is Europe’s biggest meat exporter. But it also provides vegetables to much of Western Europe. Their greenhouses can grow in a single acre what would take 10 acres of traditional dirt farming to achieve. Dutch farms use only a half-gallon of water to grow about a pound of tomatoes, while the global average is more than 28 gallons.

Dan and I were able to travel outside the city. Our first stop, for my old Velcon friends, was Zaans Daam. An important area in the Dutch and Spanish war and more recently, the city where Twin Filters is located. The village is a short train trip from the main station. There are windmills, a cheese shop, wooden shoe factory, and serene bucolic views.

After Zaans, we headed to the number one tourist destination in the country.

Geithoorn is popular with the Dutch, other Europeans and intercontinental tourists. It’s a village that gained notoriety after a 1958 Dutch movie, Fanfare. The village is also another great example of how aggressive marketing can create a brand and an audience. The Sleepy farm village of Geothorn was transformed into a very wealthy tourist destination with canals, trendy restaurants and beautiful Dutch homes

Interesting Facts

Napoleons brother ruled the Netherlands from 1806-1810. He introduced street numbers and last names. Many Dutch made up irreverent last names, the PG rated names include:

Gekkehuis: madhouse. Hoogenboezem: high bosom
Paardebek: horse’s mouth. De Keizer: the emperor (mocking Napolean)
Rotmensen: rotten people. Naaktgeboren: Born naked
Zeldenthuis: Hardly at home. Scheefnek: Crooked Neck

And there are also many x rated names.

The Great Amsterdam Fire, 1452, destroyed the city except for one home which is still preserved. The population of Amsterdam at the time was about 3,000.

This preserved home is in a wonderfully tranquil spot in the city between two churches. All buildings after the fire had to be built of brick.

At the end of the 1200s any practice of religion was forbidden, but the restriction was lifted in the 1300’s

The Netherlands was the leading producer of lumber until the invention of the steam engine. Windmills were specialized for lumber, grinding grain, and even preparing paint pigment.

The Victoria Hotel, which opened in 1883, was the first city hotel with electricity. It’s was also built around two individual residences as the owners refused to sell.

About 65% of the country would be under water at high tide if it were not for the existence and the country’s use of dikes, dunes and pumps. Land reclamation in the 20th century added an additional 1,650 square kilometers (640 sq mi) to the country’s land area.

This is polder land, once covered by the sea, was encircled by dikes and dams and then drained. To pump out all that water, the Dutch used their windmills.

A major reclamation project started in the 1920’s focused on providing fertile farmland.

Since the land was a seabed, the soil was very brackish. The salty seabed soil — with a mix of rain, sunshine, and clever crop rotation — became extremely fertile. The polder land is particularly well suited to flowers.

The dikes are monitored by microchips but maintained by goats. The goats trim the grass and do a great job at properly and continually compacting the soil

The first stock exchange in Europe was in Amsterdam in 1602. An actual piece of wood was used to represent shares in a company. The Amsterdam exchange had a primary purpose of funding the Dutch East Indies Company. Commodities and other stocks were also offered. The Exchange was the backdrop to the Tulip Mania, 1634-1637. This was the first recorded speculative bubble. Individual bulbs were selling for more than the cost of a home. Many Amsterdam natives lost their savings and others were forced to sell or rent out sections of their city homes.

The three X’s on the city crest stand for three disasters that Amsterdam has overcome, Flood, Fire and Plague.

A greek geographer while touring the Low Countries in 325 BCE noted that more people were killed by water than by man.

Catastrophic floods were recorded as early as 800. Floods in the 1200’s killed 60,000 and reshaped the country. The St. Lucia’s flood occurred 14 December 1287, the seawalls broke during a storm, killing approximately 50,000 to 80,000 people in the fifth largest flood in recorded history. In 1530 a flood destroyed much of Zeeland and the
loss of life was 100,000.

The oldest pub in Amsterdam, Café Karpershoek, is right across the street from our hotel. The beer was good, as was the cheese and sausage. It’s been serving beer since 1606.