A Few Things About Amsterdam

I could write a novel about our experience in and our impression of Amsterdam. But I promise not to do that. I'll try to just capture the highlights. First, there is no language barrier here. While Dutch is the native language, English is spoken everywhere. In fact, it is mandatory in school here. The Dutch people are very likeable and very friendly. Also, they are taller than average. The average Dutch man is 6'1" and the average woman is 5'7". The city of Amsterdam, being on the coast, sits on a soft, silty surface, with sand further down. So everything - buildings, houses - are built on pilings, which are pushed into the ground until they come to rest in the sturdier sand. Also, there are laws against tall buildings, so the highest building is Westerkerk Church at 85 meters. Another interesting feature of the houses is that taxation is based on the width of the property, so the houses go up 3 or 4 floors, but are very narrow. On a canal tour, we saw the narrowest house in Amsterdam, which is only 5 feet wide. We were told it is worth $600,000. Since the houses are so narrow, which means the inside staircases are narrow also, it is impossible to get furniture to the upper floors. Therefore every house has a heavy beam protruding outward from the top, with a large hook on the end of the beam, the purpose of which is to hoist furniture up from the street and put it into the house through the windows - which are always large in order to accommodate incoming furniture.