Amsterdam

Thursday 22nd September

We had a quick tour around the city first thing today, before boarding a glass topped flat bottomed boat for a cruise around the canals that dominate the city of Amsterdam. The first canal was built as part of the defence of the city and then others were built as the city expanded, until there were five major canals fanning out from the original city centre and these canals are now joined together. A distinctive feature on the canals are the numerous house boats which people permanently live on. As the land is below sea level and is quite marshy, building of houses is done in a similar fashion to Venice where wooden pylons are driven many metres into the mud to reach a sand base. Because of the tax system in the early days where landowners had to pay tax on the area of land that the houses covered, the very frugal Dutch people chose to build houses with a small base and four to five floors high. We saw one house that was a little over 2 metres wide and five storeys high. This was built by a very frugal Dutchman. Another interesting feature of the houses was that when the water level drops, the wooden pylon foundations rot and the house then develops a lean! We saw a number of such houses. It was quite fascinating going around by boat and out into the harbour to one of the busiest ports in Europe.

After the boat tour was finished we were taken to a diamond house, where they polish and set diamonds. We had a guided tour and were shown how the diamonds were classified and polished, then taken into a special room to see and try on some of their rings and necklaces. I offered to buy Jill a ruby ring and we found a really pretty ring with a ruby surrounded by diamonds, but the frugal Dutch in her made her reject my offer. I think she may have since regretted her decision.

We were then given two hours to do some window shopping before heading out into the country. Our first stop was at a dairy farm where they made sheep and goat cheeses. We were able to sample all their cheeses after a short explanation of how they were made and people who were able to purchase, did so. Then we set off again and stopped off at a nearby place where they made the traditional Dutch wooden clogs. Originally when these were made purely by hand it would take a minimum of eight hours. Now they have special machines that make a pair in just a couple of minutes.

Next stop was to see a 350 year old traditional Dutch Windmill. The mechanics of this were quite mind boggling as everything is made out of wood including the gears and roller bearings that allow the windmill to turn on its axis. The beams and the drive shaft are massive pieces of timber and the reason it is all preserved so well is because of the thatched roof which is a metre thick and is replaced around every eighty years. This amazing structure is able to pump tens of thousands of litres of water every hour. I climbed the steep ladder to the top to see where the windmill drive shaft comes in and connects with the main pumping shaft. As the wind changes direction and the windmill must face into the wind to work, the operator has a pulley system that allows the windmill to be turned rotating on perfectly round bearings. I think engineers today would be hard pressed to come up with a better system. These windmills are used either to grind grain or as in this case, pump water out of the lowlands which are below sea level.

After we had spent some time viewing the windmill we ventured further on to the picturesque town of Volendam, a fishing village that used to be situated on a bay facing the North Sea, but a thirty mile dyke has now turned it into a large lake and the water has been converted to fresh water. Here we spent one and a half hours window shopping etc. before going into one of the restaurants for a farewell dinner as most of our American friends were flying out the next morning. It was a lovely four course Dutch meal and everyone was in good spirits.

There is actually no country called Holland, as Holland is but a province of the Netherlands (which means the low lands). The name Dutch came from a very early king who ruled both the Netherlands and England and who had a name that caused the English to refer to the Netherlanders as Dutchies. As these people are renowned for their very frugal ways, the term “going Dutch” originated from these times. The Netherlanders were also ruled by the Spanish at one time and they had an eighty year war with them until they gained their independance and thereafter began to prosper. The Netherlands is one of the smallest countries in Europe, but is the most densely populated. One third of the country is below sea level and the terrain is very flat. The people tend to be quite friendly and most speak very good English because the Dutch language is so hard to learn.