The Amsterdam Travel
Amsterdam – Mai 2019
A long weekend for some public holidays was in sight and it was time again for a short trip. Due to the nice weather my mother and I jumped into the car and took a ride, 7 hours up to the capital oft he Netherlands – Amsterdam! I did not know anything of Amsterdam, only that it is a city with plenty of canals, bicycles and it is famouse for cheese, tulips or wooden shoes! First a little History… Amsterdam is the nominal capital of the Netherlands or as many people in Europe call it „Holland“, and it is located near the North sea. It was and still is a world famouse commercial city with a long and eventful history. First mentioned in the 12th century, fisherman settled there and the city developed more and more until the „Golden Ages“ in the 15th century. During these time Amsterdam was one oft he biggest market places oft he world. Ships sailed from the Amsterdam harbour to the Baltic sea, Africa and as well to places like India, Sri Lanka or Brazil, forming the basis of a worldwide trade network. The old city is built of wooden polest hat are placed 15-20 meters in a sandy layer, because it is about one meter below sea level. In the Old Amsterdam centre 165 canals, called „Grachten“, run in a circle through the city, flanked by narrow high houses. Many folding bridges span over the canals to connect the roads. So, there are 90 small islands, a little like Venice in Italy! The city centre of Amsterdam is verry crowdy. There is less car traffic, but thousands of walking people and really more than 1 million bicycles. Everywhere are bycicles! The famouse flower market exists since 1862 and it’s stalls are located on boats. Here you can by every kind of flowers, especially the famous Holland tulips. A lot of peoples also live in house boats in the canals. That are boats covert as apartements or a kind of samll houses on rafts. In Amsterdam you can find many flea markets like the oldest one on Waterloo Plain and many, many small second hand stores called „Vintage stores“ Here you can find nearly everything! It is also legal to by some Mariuana for smoking or even as cokies or lolli pops in shops all arround the town. Amsterdam has many famouse old buildings like the Royal palace in the city center, or the Rijksmuseum. But there are also modern buildings and architectural highlights across the big canal. In many museums you can see pictures from world famouse painters like Van Gogh, Rembrandt or Vermeer. There are a lot of art galeries and places to see modern art. Outside oft he city… But there is something near Amsterdam that is also world famouse. A lot of big old Wind mills! They are not like the small wind turbines in Texas for water extraction. Most are from the 17th century, arround 40 meters (132 ft) high and they were buildt to help the people with their work. With the wind from the flat land arround the canals grain was gronded to flour, they were uses to saw timber or fort he production of oil and paper. So, we drove to Zaanse Schans, where you can see the windmills working andcan go inside of some mills. They are run by volunteers now fort he tourists. There also is a old village with handcrafts from the old times like a cheese and dairy factory with handmade cheese or a tinware factory and you can see a lot of sheeps on the wide gras lands. My Fazit So,the trip to Amsterdam was a very cool experience! It is a living multicultural city, old and young in one! It is history, art, cuisine, and a lot of charme! And I will come back some day… |
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