"sung by John Lennon & Yoko Ono 1969"
This, and next uploads, are about my trip to Amsterdam. That is Amsterdam the Netherlands. Not the 10 Amsterdam's in the USA, nor the 2 in South-Africa or the one in Colombia and sure not in Germany.
No this the real Amsterdam. Just a Dam in the river the Amstel. Home of the famous soccer team Ajax (even I heard of them and I'm no soccerfan). The smallest house only 2.02 meter (79,52 inch). There is an old Dutch children song that says "Amsterdam die grote stad, die is gebouwd op palen. Als die stad eens ommeviel, wie zal dat betalen" (Amsterdam that great city that is built on piles. If that city falls over who will pay)
Yes the (old) city is build on piles. Not that this is unusually for Holland. Especially in the western part because of the soft soil. Most of that land was water and it was a swampy area. But Amsterdam is one of largest (oldest) cities that is build with wooden piles. About 11 million of them. Everything is oke when those piles stay under waterlevel. Once above the waterlevel the piles start to rot and the houses will start to sink. Next uploads show how crooked some houses are like the leaning tower of Pisa.
The main picture is one of Central (train) station, of course, also build on piles. (about 8600 of them) they start building 1882 and finished in 1889. it was not an easy job. One of the reason was the soil (waterlevel) and the heavy construction. It took three years more than planned. Since 1889 it was renovated several times. Only a few years back they had a very big renovation. Now it's still a very old (looking) building with easy access to the Metro (Undergroud system) trains and busses..
In the next uploads I'll follow the route I took through the city.
Hope you have a sunny, loving day
Tags: The netherlands
Amsterdam
Landscape and travel
Canon eos 5D
Reeuwijk
Kuipjedebats
JC Kuipers
Voters:
,
cats_123, BillRookery, bobpaige1 and 17 more
