This is the wall inside my hotel room.
Look! My hotel window is on the tour!
The Times Hotel, in the gorgeous Jordaan neighborhood.
Canals in Jordaan
There were several people on my flight on their way to the tatoo convention, but I didn't see masses of tatooed people. Maybe they were still conventioning while I was there.
Th Royal Palace of Amsterdam.
Hard to explain, but see how the building in the middle there is pitched forward? The buildings are built to shift on the soft ground.
How do you get a sofa into your 4th floor flat? By hoisting it up using a pulley and those hooks at the top of the building.
More hooks on tops of buildings. I also seem to recall something about them storing goods that came in by ship closer to the tops of buildings to avoid getting damaged in floods.
Laura the tour guide.
This is ... something. and also the top of St. Nicolaas Kerk. The church was the first Catholic church built in the 1800s after Catholics were once again allowed to openly worship.
When Catholicism was banned in Amsterdam in the 1600s and 1700s, "secret" churches cropped up. The top three blacked-out windows of this canal house are actually a church.
This is the Waag, or weigh station, where sailors would bring their goods to be weighed.
This colorful street was once part of the Jewish Quarter, which was largely destroyed in WWII. It was rebuilt in ... guess which decade?
This used to be one enormous house. It's now the Netherlands Academy of Science.
Apparently someone (a servant, perhaps) remarked at the size of the previous house to the owners, "Oh, I'd be happy with a house the width of a doorway." So, the brothers who owned the big house built the man a house ... the width of a doorway. (White house in middle.)
Inside La Place, Amsterdam.
If you're near Kalverstraat and need a place to eat, I recommend La Place.
This is the coffee shop featured in the movie Oceans 12.
Those metal things in the corners? Pee deflectors. Apparently public urination is a huge problem in Amsterdam. This building took matters into its own hands. Men who pee on these are in for a bit of a shower.
Harp player in front of a wonderful, wonderful art market on Spui.
This is ... something important. And those three X's are the symbol for Amsterdam. There are multiple guesses as to the origins of that -- one of which is that it's the old sailor's code for Amsterdam. Like an airport code, I suppose.
The narrowest house in Amsterdam, apparently.
The Westerkerk. Anne Frank writes about being able to hear the bells of Westerkerk from their attic home.
Some kind of guy gimmick, I guess -- they were all drinking giant mugs of beer and pedaling this thing along.
Mural on a building.
Always buy your magic mushrooms from a smart shop.
Inside the Begijnhof
The World Press Photo Foundation exhibit inside Oude Kerk
That sticker is basically the permit to allow the sale and consumption of marijuana.
The bicycle parking ramps.
