Blaak Railway Station, Rotterdam

Rotterdam Blaak Station is the intercity train station nearest to my hotel. Above ground it has a flying saucer-like canopy.

It is a station situated below ground for the national railway network but not part of the Rotterdam metro system. The metro stop also named Blaak is next to it. Confusing isn’t it, unless I misread the maps.

While waiting for a train to take me to Schiphol Airport, I snapped these pictures in a quick burst before my train arrived.

To me, the station is an exercise in De Stijl (and perhaps a bit of Constructivism).

De Stijl was founded in 1917 in Leiden which is only 2 stops away from this station.

Having 4 platforms, the station was completed in 1993.

The blue/green neon-ish lights and transparent glass bricks do remind me of some MTV music videos of the 80’s.

Sections of the roof is wavy.

Simple arrangement of tiles to depict train carriages.

Sculptured underside of the landing and walkways … it echoes the graphical lines on a transport network map.

A hint of surrealism with these framed mirrors.

Notice the optical illusion at the feet of the white-tiled pillars.

Since this is not a major stop, many trains dashed past passengers on the platforms at high speed without slowing down.

My train arrived on time. It stopped at Delft, The Hague, and Leiden before the airport which was about 30 minutes away.

 

 

Cube Houses and Markthal, Rotterdam

Cube Houses (Kubuswoningen) are a set of residential houses designed by architect Piet Blom and based on the concept of “living as an urban roof”, i.e., high density housing with sufficient space on the ground level. It is built in the late 70’s over Overblaak Street between Blaak and Oude Haven.

Blom tilted the cube of a conventional house 45 degrees, and rested it upon a hexagon-shaped pylon. The walls and windows are angled at 54.7 degrees. The total area of the apartment is around 100 square metres (1,100 sq ft), but around a quarter of the space is unusable because of the walls that are under the angled ceilings.

His design represents a village within a city, where each house represents a tree.

The cubes share a common area with no traffic which presents a nice atmosphere of a community. They reminded me of the heads of giant anime robots – mecha – think Gundam, for example.

There are 38 cubes and two large cubes, all attached to each other. There is a museum of chess pieces in one of the 38 cubes and a hostel in one of the larger cubes.

An apartment is opened as a museum –  Kijk-Kubus  – but it was too crowded and I did not bother to get inside.

Just across the square from the Cube Houses is Marthal. On 19 November 2009 work began on Marthal – the first covered market in the Netherlands. It was officially opened in 2014.

Its design is unique in that apartments are draped over the daily market in a horseshoe shape. It is spectacular given the scale of the whole structure.

The main hall houses the market itself, shops and restaurants, a supermarket and a 4-storey car park underground. It was a very popular location for locals and tourists alike.

There is a Chinese grocery store – Wah Nam Hong – which has a “restaurant”. The store is well stocked but the menu is however very limited. I tried but would not recommend it. If you want Asian food, the all-you-can-eat sushi chain restaurant is much more attractive and extremely popular.

The artist Arno Coenen created the Horn of Plenty, the biggest work of art in the world. Its bright colours cover an area of ​​11,000 m2.

While I was there, the weather was quite miserable – wet and cold. This marketplace is the perfect antidote to the grayness outside and to fill up with foods from the world.

One stop shopping for all of one’s culinary needs.

Wish there is one in Switzerland.

Rotterdam is a fun city.

Margreeth Olsthoorn on Schiedamsedijk, Rotterdam

Witte de Withstraat (click here and here to see earlier posts) – probably the coolest street in Rotterdam, starts actually as Schiedamsedijk from the east near the Maritime Museum.

Margreeth Olsthoorn – a designer fashion store has a prime location here. I have never heard of this name before.

It is located on the corner of Schiedamsedijk and Westersingel.

This store likes to spread its fashion beliefs and philosophies on its awnings. It also like to put the designers’ names on its windows in “The Matrix”‘s style and on the pavement in front. These statements in English probably sound less pretentious to local Dutch ears.

“Fashion is a language”

“The difference between style and fashion is quality” …

… Maison Margiela

“Elegance doesn’t mean being noticed, it means being remembered”

“Fashion is architecture: It is a matter of proportions”

“Style is primarily a matter of instinct”

“I wear lots and lots of sunscreen”- I doubt if this piece about wearing something is made by the store but it stands right next to the store. See the tiny plaque at the bottom ? Behind this piece is a gallery NL=USart. Parody ?

I noticed that in Rotterdam, English quotes are very popular so much so that many of them, literally writings on the wall, are used as decoration on buildings.

Here is an example: ” in the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes” by Andy Warhol on Witte de Withstraat.  May be it is a Dutch thing which could also explain the “fashion statements” I showed above.

At the other end of Witte de Withstraat just before the road continues into Museumpark stood this artwork on top of a building of the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen.

“Breathe Walk Die” by Ugo Rondinone

As it has been said in earlier posts including this one here, the whole area is worth a lot of exploring.

Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam

This museum is the most unexpected place I visited in the Museumpark area. See earlier posts here and here about this area of Rotterdam.

This is not a destination museum for me as I (Chris) have not heard of it before.

The entrance courtyard is stunning  – boldly marked by zebra stripes producing an optical effect.

The stripes and how they curve around objects reminded me a little bit of the zen gardens of Kyoto in Japan … the patterns formed by raked sand.

Apparently, the museum closes at 5pm and the last 30 minutes is free. And I happened to arrive at 4:20pm and they told me if I waited for a few minutes, I could see the exhibits for free.

Thank you very much !

The museum’s official web site is here – it is well organized and inviting. Quite a bit of its collection are online – I think they publish a book catalog with similar content. Some of the writings below came from it. See also the video below to learn more the musuem.

A guard told me I could enter the metal cage in the courtyard. I found two soccer balls inside. Are the zebra stripes a part of the work ? It was certainly amusing and it is enigmatic. It worked as a piece of art for me.

“Parallel lines” seems to be their graphic language – it is consistently deployed in their logos, publications, etc.

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is one of the oldest museums in the Netherlands. In 1849 the lawyer Boijmans left his art collection to the city of Rotterdam. With the acquisition of the Van Beuningen collection in 1958 the museum got the second part of its name. This is the back of the museum as seen from Museumpark.

As the museum was about to close, I did not try the “cloakroom” service – if I am not mistaken – it seems that your coat is stored (and on display) hanging in a space hovering above the lobby. I stuffed my things in one of the small wired cages on the back wall (just visible below).

The museum houses a unique collection of paintings, sculptures, installations and everyday objects. The collection of prints and drawings is apparently one of the best in the world.

There is another courtyard, more traditional, surrounded by galleries.

The museum is built with unique, intimate spaces, some of which are connected, where pieces of the collection can be viewed together in a thematic context and at an appropriate scale.

I was surprised by how much household objects that are on display – “from medieval pitchers and glass from the Golden Age to furniture by Rietveld and contemporary Dutch design”, they have them all.

The museum proudly declares that it has been shaped by private collectors. The scope and diversity are the results of 1700 private collectors who have gifted no fewer than 50,000 objects in 170 years of the museum’s history. As a result, the collection spans centuries of human creation.

I never saw this Dali before, not even in print.

Keith Haring ?

An unexpected benefit for arriving just before closing was the freedom I enjoyed with the Yayoi Kusuma installation. There were no lines. I had it practically to myself.

‘Infinity Mirror Room – Phalli’s Field (Floor Show)’ was the first of a series of mirrored rooms that Kusama began in 1965. The work was included in Kusama’s solo exhibition ‘Mirrored Years’ at the Museum in the autumn of 2008.

The brick building that houses the original collection was completed in 1935, and a modern extension was added in the 70’s.  They have just started constructing a new building –  the Depot – right next to the museum which will store the entire collection but also allows it to be viewed by the public – a concept similar to that of the Schaulager (see our earlier post) in Basel. Apparently, only 8% of the collection is currently on view.

Construction started in 2017 and the Depot is expected to open in 2020. I am looking forward to its opening and seeing more of the collection.

 

 

Witte de Withstraat and Museumpark, Rotterdam – part 2

I(Chris) spent a day in Rotterdam and walked from the Maritime Museum to the Museumpark along the street Witte de Withstraat. Part 1 covers the shops, bars and restaurants on Witte de Withstraat.

Museumpark is an urban landscaped park located between the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Westersingel, Westzeedijk and the complex of the Erasmus medical center in central Rotterdam. The Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, the Kunsthal, Het Nieuwe Instituut, Chabot Museum, and the Natural History Museum (Natuurhistorisch Museum Rotterdam) are all located there and connected with each other by this landscaped park.

First, the establishments – the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen (see a dedicated post later)

Chabot Museum is home to one of the most important collections of Dutch expressionist painter and sculptor Henk Chabot (1894-1949).  The white villa was built in 1938 and represents a highpoint of the functionalist ‘Nieuwe Bouwen’ (New Construction) style of architecture. It was designed by Gerrit Willem Baas and Leonard Stokla in 1938 as a private residence.

Chabot Museum’s next door neighbor – there are a few more houses/villa that are built in this style in the area. But I couldn’t tell if it was built around the same time as the Chabot museum or it is a later emulation.

In Het Nieuwe Instituut – the Museum of Architecture, Design and Digital Culture – shows temporary exhibitions with a recurring theme of innovation. The museum examines the designed world and how it is constantly being changed by new technologies, new ideas and shifting social priorities. The concept is similar to that of the MAAT in Lisbon – click here for our earlier post.

Instead of a lawn, the institute has a pond covered in algae in front of it. Look carefully, it is green water.

The institute has a modern and comfy cafe

… but the bookstore (not so much a shop, but more like an open market) was closed. The stalls were all covered up.

The park was designed by Rem Koolhaas/OMA in close collaboration with the French landscape architect Yves Brunier and the designer Petra Blaisse.

The park has a very innovative design: four zones – a paved zone; a romantic zone with trees, flowers and a pedestrian bridge (just visible above); a city zone which is covered in asphalt and often used for public events; and a well-tended orchard area.

I used all my time in the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen so the Kunsthal was closed by the time I got to it.

Although it is not eye-catching like a work by Gehry, this is a masterpiece of architecture by Rem Koolhass –  read more about it here: https://www.kunsthal.nl/en/about-kunsthal/building/

One of the sculptures outside the Kunsthal.

The city’s Natural History Museum is next door.

As I walked back towards the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, one can see the other side of the museum where Claes Oldenburg’s Screwarch is installed.

I read somewhere that the ponds and fountains in this park are designed to act as buffers to prevent flooding of the city.

The green and built spaces around the park are really harmonious.

I will definitely come back to have a closer look at the museums and relax with a drink at the establishments on Witte de Withstraat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Witte de Withstraat and Museumpark, Rotterdam – part 1

I(Chris) spent a day in Rotterdam after a meeting in The Hague, which is only a short train ride away.

Rotterdam is actively marketing itself as a popular destination for international visitors, an alternative to Amsterdam. It was built around the river Rotte in 1270 and grew rapidly over the centuries but in 1940, during World War II, the entire city center was destroyed by bombs.

The city was rebuilt, opting to break from the past, and commits itself to contemporary architecture.

Witte de Withstraat is a street which connects the Maritime Museum (just visible in the photo below) with the Museumpark.

It is the cultural center of the city which is full of restaurants, bars, museums and interesting shops.

“Work hard, play here” at the Metropole Cafe

I was there in the afternoon so that the seating areas of the bars and restaurants were somewhat empty.

But one can imagine that the place must be really fun at night.

The street is the scene.

Somebody proposed to Sam with this graphics ? Cool.

And there is of course a Dutch “coffeeshop” nearby, this one with subway-style turnstiles ! (not clearly visible in the photo) and a sauna/massage salon next door.

These establishments are facing an open park, so it is not at all sleazy as it may sound.

This sculpture of Sylvette by Picasso marks the beginning of the Museumpark.

See part 2 for the next segment of this thoroughfare.

 

 

 

 

Donner Books, Rotterdam

Another bookstore … this time in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. This one barely survived.

Donner is located on Coolsingel, in a former bank building, all public areas on one floor. This bookstore and the pride of Rotterdam was swallowed up by a big chain store that unfortunately went bankrupt in 2014.

The Top 10 fictions and non-fictions.

Owing to a successful crowdfunding campaign that raised 250.000 euros, Donner was able to relocate to its current location.  It’s again a proudly independent and well stocked bookshop.

The number one fiction – “The Best Thing We Have” by Griet Op de Beeck.

A nice collection of Lovecraft stories.

Cookbook section

Calendars for 2018.

Like most bookstores these days, they sell a whole lot of other non-printed merchandise, such as collectible objects.

There was an event which just finished. A line of people was waiting for refreshments and perhaps a selfie with the speaker or an autographed book.

 

Old books – several aisles of them.

High-end lifestyle magazines. They look like coffee table photo books without a real topic (except Nez which is a serious perfume magazine), and costs the same or more.

There is something about this bookstore, possibly its slight messiness in full view which made me felt like I was in a public library.

Hope this one survives.

Our trips 2017, part 1

Dear Readers, Happy New Year !

This is our first post of 2018. It is a tradition of this blog to take a look back at some of the places we visited last year. Overall, we traveled less in 2017 than 2016, at least in terms of distance traveled. We did not leave Europe after our Hong Kong trip concluded in January 2017. But we entered the Arctic Circle, visited the capital of Norway, England, France and Portugal.

Click on links, where provided to read more about the places of interest. There are usually a series of related posts per location, you can discover them easily in the calendar at the bottom of the post.

In reverse chronological order:

Oslo, Norway, December-January – Astrup Fearnley Museum

Tromsø, Norway, December – 350 km inside the Arctic Circle

London, December – overnight business trip

Paris, France, December – on the Grande Roue

Lisbon, Portugal – attended a conference at the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown

Rotterdam, Netherlands, in November – outside the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

Lucerne, Switzerland, August – with S&J + family

Panorama from Mount Rigi above Lake Lucene

Verbier, Switzerland in September for business

Aix-les-bains, France in July with friends

Travels in first half of 2017 to come in part 2.

 

Scheveningen Beach, The Netherlands

Scheveningen Beach (Strandweg) is Holland’s most famous seaside resort. And being only 15 minutes from the center of The Hague (Den Haag), it is being used year around by residents and visitors.

The beach faces the North Sea (which is generally not known for fine weather). I imagine it must be quite a change from day to day and season to season.

The water was probably too cold for bathing in early May when I was there.

Presumably, this was low tide. What a wide beach, see how much sand there was between the water and the umbrellas.

Beach club. The beach is at least 1 km long.

It has an abundance of attractions and beach pavilions. The Pier offers visitors a unique experience in a historical location. Scheveningen was mentioned in records as early as the 1200’s.

The Pier offers broad thoroughfares, both outdoor and enclosed, bars, clubs and traditional food trucks, a Ferris wheel, a zip line, a bungie jumping tower, and hotel suites.

From this photo, it looks like I was on a cruise ship.

At the end of the Pier is the hotel (De Pier Suites, I think).

The Ferris wheel is over forty meters high and has 36 closed gondolas with air conditioning (otherwise too cold and windy in the winter!).

Looks rather dramatic.

Visitors can zip line (side by side) down the 55 meter high Bungy tower on the Pier reaching a speed of 60-80 kilometres per hour. The total distance is 350 meters.

I can imagine this place to be packed and really fun and lively in the summer, especially in the evening.

Bungie jumping is facilitated by a crane which moves a cage that serve as a platform for the jump. There was an attendant manning the cage who probably whispers words of encouragement to those who become cowardly at the last minute.

We have been to two other beaches in Europe this year – click to see Biarritz and Arcachon (also has Ferris wheel on the beach).

 

Escher in het paleis, Den Haag

I(Chris) was visiting The Hague, Holland – in May 2017 and spent a few hours to see the Escher in Het Palais. The semi-permanent exhibition is held in the former Winter palace of Queen Mother Emma of the Netherlands – Lange Voorhout Palace, which was built in the 1700’s.

The regular exhibition features fantastic, mathematics-inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints created by Maurits Cornelius Escher (1898-1972). You would likely have seen his works before.

 

Escher’s art became well known especially after it was featured by Martin Gardner in his April 1966 Mathematical Games column in Scientific American.

While his works were well recognized, the art world did not pay much attention. Perhaps, because the works often reflected a mathematical-mechanical theme, his works are being considered a lesser accomplishment.

I first saw Escher’s art in the Douglas Hofstadter’s 1979 book Gödel, Escher, Bach. And later I collected postcards of his works (when I went through a phase of buying a ton of postcards after every museum trip).

Early in his career, he drew inspiration from nature, making studies of insects, landscapes, and plants, all of which he used as details in his artworks.

His work features mathematical objects and operations including impossible objects, explorations of infinity, reflection, symmetry, perspective, truncated and stellated polyhedra, hyperbolic geometry, and tessellations.

Here is an explanation of tessellation – the art of tiling a surface with repetitive irregular shapes.

A special exhibition entitled “Escher Close Up” was running. It shows for the first time, a selection of photos from Escher’s personal archive.

Three versions of the Metamorphosis, from the first small one, to the third, of 7 meters, shown in a circle. To appreciate it, you need to be there.

The exhibit is spread out on three floors, each room decorated with a chandelier made of crystals to form a shape (it has nothing to do with Escher).

In the atrium, a string of crystal artefacts were on display suspended from the ceiling.

The third floor of the museum is dedicated to optical illusion – many of which were featured in Escher’s works.

In this illusion, as you walk through the door way, there is a moment when you look as if you are inside the cube. There is a video monitor to show you the effect.

This illusion features an endless pit in the floor.

Very glad to have gone to visit the palace.

De Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam

The De Hortus Botanical Garden is apparently the oldest botanical garden in the world, being founded in 1638. It received many of its more exotic plants from the Dutch East India Company in the 17th and 18th century (this might explain the image of a ship on the shield, see left side of the gate).

It claims to house on its 1.2 hectacres about 4000 species (6000 plants), which is roughly 2% of all plant species known to man. Given the size of this garden which is not huge (and miniscule relative to the land surface of Earth), this could be the place on our planet with the highest diversity of plant life. Artificial biodiversity it is, but nevertheless an important one. There must be a lot more plant species that we have not yet recognized.

There are seven greenhouses and a shop. The main entrance to the garden and the shop are humble and un-commercial, a bit unexpected given the amount of touristy publicity it receives in brochures. They could definitely do better with the shop – there was hardly anything interesting to buy, unlike the Van Gogh museum. I do not remember seeing any crown jewels or any specimen of palm being marked as a crown jewel.

It was December and many of the plants had lost their leaves and resembled a scattering of dry brown sticks.  Some are not visible above ground, its presence only recorded by a plastic label next to a little disturbance in the soil. The pond was dark green – no sign of life. The giant leaves of what I presume must be lotus in the pond were used as ground cover to protect something. I can imagine what the place would look like in spring or summer.

For one of the critically endangered, it stays behind bars out of the reach of any rare plant snatchers or lovebirds who like to declare their affection on tree trunks. To the uninitiated me, it looked a bit like a Christmas tree or a source of palm fronds for Easter.

The greenhouses are wonderful. Below is the palmhouse.  This picture is taken from an elevated walkway inside the palmhouse. Many different sizes and shapes.

Another walkway, this one in the subtropical greenhouse.  My glasses and camera lens was completely fogged up when we entered the tropical greenhouse. The desert greenhouse was nice, dry and cool and it had the most unusual looking plants.  Some of them – I have seen in a greenhouse in Neuchatel where they had a special collection of plants from Madagascar.  I should do a post on these weird looking plants later.

There was a greenhouse full of butterflies. While there are lots of them, I can only see four different species.  I wonder if there is a biological reason for not having a greater diversity in the collection.

They are fluttering everywhere, feeding on flowers, cut fruits, or what I think must be some sugary water in little cups placed in the middle of a printed flower. I wonder if the butterflies are attracted (or fooled) by the print, or it is just really for the visitors.

This species is remarkable -part of the wing is transparent. Other than the lens in our eyes, I cannot think of any higher land animal whose body parts are transparent.

They also had a display case where they kept the caterpillars and rows of pupa.  I guess if the timing was right, we could have witnessed the emergence of a butterfly from its pupa.

I would like to revisit the garden in a warmer season. This place reminds me of Brooklyn Botantical Garden.  At its location surrounded by brick houses in a big city, this place resembles a cute neighborhood garden. The collection and its history has a lot of potential – it could use a bit more entrepreneurial spirit to make it an even better institution of the city.

Amsterdam’s floating flower market (Bloemenmarkt)

Amsterdam is historically famous for its tulips and it is one of the major centers of horticulture (which explain in part why the conference I attended was held here).  To extend the plant theme of my visit, but with very little time, we briefly visited the flower market (Bloemenmarkt) and De hortus, the botanical garden (next post).

The flower market opened in 1862, floats on the Singel canal between Muntplein and Koningsplein. The row of windows on the right bank of the canal above is the back of the market.

Unbeatable varieties, freshness and prices !

Riots of color.

I have never seen those green/purple flowers (below) before – they look like those decorative cabbages/kale that are planted in the winter, except that these are bouquets.

Tulip bulbs are sold with a picture of the color of the flowers – wow, the famous Black Tulip !

Just imagine if the signs are misplaced or the bulbs are mixed up by accident. It would be a surprising mess for those who plant their garden by color. May be that is the reason why they put  these “Don’t touch” warning signs in five languages at the very front – perhaps the market owner is really worried about mixing, and not people dropping or damaging the bulbs. Or may be the oil on our fingers will stop the bulb from germination, I don’t know.

Roses are red …

Amsterdam by night

Continuing with our weekend tour of Amsterdam – which is well known for its nightlife.  Above is the largest department store (De Bijenkorf, literally the beehive in Dutch) in Dam Square, across the street is a performer swallowing flames in front of a Christmas tree and a crowd of tourists.

There are apparently lots of South American steak houses in (at least) the touristy areas of Amsterdam – mostly Argentinian. I wonder why we did not see any Dutch steak houses – after all, there must be lots of cow here given the amount of cheese the Dutch produces.

The South American influence continues … there was even a Chinese-Surinam restaurant!  I would like to have tried it but ate dinner already when we walked past the place. This place is near the beginning of Warmoesstraat.

The Chinatown of Amsterdam is central, old and inhabited mainly by Cantonese.  This restaurant Wing Kee on Zeedijk was written up by a local Chinese newspaper as an old stand-by for Chinese settlers and visitors. We had some noodles there before leaving for the airport.  The staff and ambiance definitely reminded me of those eateries that I frequented in London during my student days.

Next to Chinatown is the red light district, famous for the scantily-dressed girls who offer themselves in neon-lit windows.  Below is Casa Rosso on OZ Achterburgwal, the default safe-for-tourist erotic entertainment establishment of Amsterdam.  There seems to a crowd outside of it, the few times we walked passed.

A weird sight in the red light district is the swans and ducks that loiter in this section of the canal. Presumably, they know there are lots of visitors in this part of town at night or the water there is warmer, who knows.   But no one was feeding the swans – after all who will bring bread crumbs at night to the red light district ?

This is the entrance to the red light district, looking down Oudebrugsteeg. We stayed at the Radisson Blu in the red light district – it is on a quiet street but the location is really excellent since every thing of interest in central Amsterdam is within walking distance.

Another famous thing about Amsterdam is the coffeshop, which is not to be confused with a  cafe.  They do serve coffee but most patrons go there to consume cannabis and mushroom which are openly sold.  The varieties and accessories on display and the subculture – is unique to Amsterdam.  Below is the Greenhouse Effect coffeeshop on Warmoesstraat.

The red light district felt somewhat safe with bright neon everywhere, almost carnival-like and not seedy – despite the abundance of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll on offer.

A popular chain of late night fast food stores – Chipsy King. Haha.

Amsterdam by day

We spent a weekend in Amsterdam in December last year after my business meeting.  Neither one of us had visited Amsterdam recently and with only 2 days – we started with a canal boat tour of the city – the best way to see this place properly and leisurely. It was sunny but much colder than we expected.

We started the tour near Ronkin, headed down river Amstel (Binnenamstel), and turned into the canal Herengracht.

One of the “skinny” footbridge – a look alike of the Magere Brug.

Near the “Golden bend” at Herengracht where many of the houses had a wider facade facing the canal. Compare these with those below.

I hear that on average, one car per week plunges into the canal. I can imagine someone doing parallel parking in the dark and misses … (on certain stretches, there are no curb!)

Because the buildings are narrow, the stairs are even narrower, the hook at the top of the buildings is used to hoist furniture up and deliver it through the window.

There are bikes everywhere and they are a menace to pedestrians. It is a bit like having NYC messenger biker multiply by 1000’s on narrow streets a few feet from water.

The facades of the buildings are so varied and appealing to look at – if I have the time, I would photograph or even draw all of them (comme Michel Delacroix) – someone must have done this for the entire Amsterdam before.

House boats.

Our tour boat ventured out to the harbor via the Central Station, pass the custom house (see above) and the VOC ship. Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie – the United East India Company is reputedly the first multinational that issued stocks, it had a 21 year monopoly on Asian trade (this ship is a replica).

Just to the left of the VOC ship in the photo above and in the photo below (please ignore reflection) is NEMO, a science center built by Renzo Piano.