Amsterdam In A Day (After A Visit To My Roots)

 I took a short train ride to Amersfoort. I have a relative on the Busic side who came from this town. Wolphert  Gerretsen Kouwenhaven was born in Amersfoort. He emigrated to the US in 1625  with the Dutch Trading Company. His grandfather was mayor of the city 1553-1575. Once in America, he managed several farms and was the first white man to build a house on long island. Garritsen Beach in Brooklyn was named for him.

All this to tell explain why I wanted to detour to Amersfoort when I got  so  close. 

This morning I took the train in and walked around the city. One of the streets I walked was Muurhuizen. It is the old city wall that was destroyed in the 1400. People then build houses on it, which still exist today. Its very cool to think that one of my relatives may have lived in one of the houses I walk by, may have gone to one of the churches that I walk by, and likely walk through the city gate (1425) that I walk through, and along the same street as me.'.eh

After my route of Amersfoort,  I headed to Amsterdam and the last stop before Tanzania.

I started on walk, and when Anne Franks House was over an hour wait and rain started, I caught a canal boat cruse. I leaned some investing facts about Amsterdam:

Saw smallest house in Amsterdam, likely Europe, it is only 6.5 x 16.5 feet wide.

There are 800,000 people and 1,000,000 bikes in Amsterdam

A bike will be stolen 4 times in its life. In order to find your bike, just go to the market and buy it. 

There are more bikes than cars because there is 7 year waiting period for a city parking permit, which costs $1200/year. That's in addition to the price of parking.
 5625 cars/year end up in the canal. It used to be higher. Insurance companies got tired of paying claims and had the city add lateral poles in front of canal parking spaces, but somehow cars still end up wet. 

Many houses have winches built into their gables. That is so they can lift furniture and heavy objects into upper stories (the stairs are to narrow to navigate). To further help, many windows can easily come out of their frame (also useful on hour, summer days).

Pictures of the canal: