Last month I was on a week long trip to Amsterdam, as some of you (that follow me on Instagram) may know. An article about this city is now overdue. Everybody knows there's much to see and do in Amsterdam, but also around it; I took some day trips outside the city, one to Haarlem, which is a quaint little town, and one to Kasteel de Haar, close to Utrecht, driving past villages with pretty houses, canals and windmills. Authentic Dutch countryside. Loved it. If you're in the Netherlands during the tulip season (which is about now), you're even luckier than I am, as you can go to Keukenhof Gardens, which has around 7 million flower bulbs planted annually.
But Amsterdam itself is a hugely touristic city and there's countless blogs and websites to tell you where to go and what to see. I'll share the more rarely heard facts and stories that I learned, some of them during a free guided walking tour (thanks Sergio and Freedamtours for the lovely 2 hours and a half).
1. Tilted houses
The famous canal houses are built on stilts - this you may know - as a big part of Amsterdam was built on former marsh lands that were drained. Back in the day wooden stilts were used, now it's concrete, and they go at least 20 m deep. The wooden poles were not dug in so deep and they started sinking, which is why so many houses are tilted to the left or right. This building process is still difficult and apparently the real estate tax is calculated in relation to the number of poles that are used for a construction, and so most houses are very narrow and tall (2 or 3 levels). Because they're so narrow, it's difficult to bring in the furniture. And so, most houses will have a hook attached to their facade, so people can bring in the pieces through the window. And since pulling a wardrobe up to the 3rd floor is somewhat risky, many houses are also leaning forward just a tiny bit - enough so that the items brought up by pulley don't bounce around and hit the walls or windows on their way up.
2. Coffeeshops
Amsterdam has coffee houses and cafes like any other city, where you can go for coffee. Then it also has coffeeshops, where you can smoke and buy weed or eat space cakes (pot brownies). The smell and the smoke are very strong and you'll figure out, even before entering, whether it's a coffeeshop or a cafe. While hard drugs are illegal in the Netherlands, soft drugs like cannabis are legal for "personal use". That doesn't mean it's legal to sell them, but it's obviously tolerated. The policy comes from their idea that making soft drugs widely accessible will reduce not only the hard drugs consumption, but also the use of soft drugs themselves. And it seems to be working. Somebody was telling me how many Dutch kids smoke their first joint with their moms - and what better way to take the cool factor out of anything, than seeing your mom do it?
3. Prostitution and the Church It seems like a very unholy association, especially when you get in the infamous Red Light District of Amsterdam and, in the very heart of it, there's a church. In 1578 the Dutch revolted against the Catholic Church and switched to Protestantism, but up until then, De Oude Kerk (the Old Church) was a Catholic symbol, standing tall among windows that displayed sinful girls. The surprising fact is the the Catholic Church not only tolerated the business of prostitution, but also managed it. Why, you might ask? One, because it was good for protecting the maids of the city; hundreds of thousands of sailor would stop by in the harbor every year, and sailors had very few things in mind when on land. If there were girls available for them, the pure maidens were in no danger of being corrupted. And second, because it was good for business. After the deed was done and before they had to return to sea, these men would want to start a new trip with a clear conscience. After all, you never knew if you'd come back. Waters were dangerous. Forgiveness was necessary. And the church was right across the street, to provide it, for a small fee. The business became so lucrative, that there were soon not enough working hours in the day to forgive all the sinning. And so, one priest with entrepreneurial spirit apparently came up with the idea that for a slightly higher fee, men could repent and be forgiven for sins they were yet to commit. Win-win.
4. The first stock exchange in the world
The first company in the world to issue stocks and bonds was the Dutch East India Company, founded in 1602 in Amsterdam. The reason was simple: while other European nations had wealthy royal families that could afford to send ships and explorers to look for riches on other continents, the Dutch did not have a royal family. Because - guess what - for about 200 years (1581 to 1795), the Netherlands were a republic. Sending missions to the East Indies was an expensive, risky business; and even if they did make it there, many ships would be lost to pirates or storms on the way back. It was too costly for a single company to fund these exploratory endeavors. And so, the East India Company was founded (not the same as the British one), where investors could buy shares in several, smaller sailing companies. That way, even if some ships were lost, others would return and there would still be profit for investors.
5. More bikes than people
This one is probably not news and everybody knows the love of the Dutch for biking, but there's more bikes than inhabitants in Amsterdam. For 800.000 people, there's 900.000 bikes. Many bikes get stolen, lost or end up in the canals: around 10.000 are fished yearly from the water. Which is why apparently the Dutch take pride in how old and rusty their bike looks: it means it's been with them for a long time. And hopefully nobody would be interested in stealing it. People ride their bikes regardless of the weather, many times taking their kids as well, who just sit there, holding little umbrellas while their parents pedal on.