Right outside the oldest church in Amsterdam. This 'statue' randomly showed up one day. Its of a hand holding a breast... with a lock to nothing. No one knows how it got there and the symbolism is up to you to decide what it is.
This is just a picture of the hook that's on all of the houses! Its how people move in. Still. To this day, they still move in using that hook.
This was where all of the guilds used to meet. Its right by where they hung all of the people where were sentenced to death by hanging. They also did 'autopsies' in there and one of the famous artists that lived in Amsterdam painted one of his most famous works in this building. And see the side with all of the fake windows? It was for the stone masons guild. It was really prestigious, so to get in you had to make a window... The ones that aren't finished were ones that just plain weren't good enough.
This is the GIAGANTIC house of the guy who owned the east india company. Houses we heavily taxed, loosely based on how wide they were. So this guy was just flaunting that he was rich...
The narrow white house? Yeah... NOT the most narrow house in Amsterdam... its about half as wide. Story with this one though! See the giant house above? This was the house of... his door man or butler or something. He was quoted as saying, "I'd be happy with a house as wide as your door." So that's what he got.
Dutch East Indies Company!!! Now its just a university...
Just a normal scene of Amsterdam. Yes, the whole city looks like this. More or less.
On the top you can see the symbol of Amsterdam. On the bottom you can see my tour guide, Neil. On the middle? It used to be a men's work prison. Where they drowned a guy- the guy didn't think they'd actually kill him for not pumping water out of the chamber he was in... but then the water filled the chamber... When the prison was closed, it was turned into a swimming pool... Now, as our tour guide put it, its a different kind of prison for men: A shopping center!!!
Hidden Catholic church. This one is special though! This one's mission is to keep the miracle of Amsterdam alive!!! What is the miracle of Amsterdam? I'll tell you. Apperently, its famous among Catholics. So, this Catholic guy, I don't remember if he was important in the church or not... asks for his last rites as a Catholic. But he was very, very ill. So, he gets fed the Eucharist (the piece of bread)... but since he's really sick, he throws it up. The cleaning lady comes in, and cleans it up... Throws the vomit in the fire... Only... when she throws it in the fire the bread floats and hovers above the fire... Unburt, unchewed, unharmed. (the other version says that the guy died, they cleaned out the fire, and found the bread there, untouched.) Either way, the preist man comes and gets the bread and takes it home for observation or something along those lines. The preist goes to sleep... wakes up the next morning... The bread is gone! It had vanished... and reappeared at the house where the guy had died. Then, a few years later, the house burns down and everything is destroyed... except the bread. The house is rebuilt... then the same thing happens. The preist decides this is very special bread that reaffirms the entire Catholic faith, and takes the bread to the church where it is kept in a very special silver box. Every once in a while, the bread is taken out of the box and paraded around town... Then, one day, some guy comes and robs the church, takes the silver box... Opens it. Wonders why theres bread in it... Chucks the bread in the canal and takes the box. He's later arrested, and the box is given back to the church... But the bread was never recovered. This church, its mission is to keep that miracle alive. It has paintings depicting the miracle. You can go in and see them.
Bad picture. Funny story. Back a couple of decades ago, they asked Dutch people what their biggest pet peeve was- the government was going to try to remedy the situation. Biggest pet peeve was... Public urination by foreigners. So, they put pee-sheilds on the houses, so if you pee on them it just bounces back at you and they put electrified metal rods by some doors... and gave men little public urinals- green little curli-cues where they can watch people walk past as they pee. So... this was in the 70s or 80s... When everyone was all about women's rights. So, some women decided THEY wanted public restrooms... But for women, the restrooms were much more expensive. So, the government said no. The women protested... 200+ women went to a bridge outside city hall... and they all peed on the bridge. They said if they didn't get their restrooms, they'd do that on every bridge in Amsterdam. So they got their public toilets, pictured above- the round cement building. Only, these were then used by homeless men as shelters from the rain and then had to be locked a few years later. Now, they're just used as places to put advertisements.
Another shot of Amsterdam. Its pretty!
The windmill we visited!!!
The cheese and clog factory...
With lots of cheese inside!
And lots of clogs!!!
Look! Its me on the reclaimed land! I'm about 3 meters below sea level here.
Amsterdam Hilton! You can see the writing on the windows of the balcony 3rd from the top. Theres a better picture of the balcony in the photobucket where you can actually see it if you look at the picture full size...
Fancy columns with latin phrase on the top, "homo sapiens on urinat in ventium." Translated? Smart men shouldn't urinate in to the wind...
Rijks Museum!
Door to Anne Frank house. Not the entrance to the museum, but the door actually used during that time.
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