Amsterdam 08-29-08

Today, we got to visit Amsterdam, Netherlands. It’s another European city that uses bicycles as a major mode of transportation.

This is a downtown square in the center of the city.

Amsterdam has a lot of canals that provide alternative transportation for the citizens.

Looks like some suspects about to steal bicycles!

Here is a downtown church with a clock tower.

This is the entrance to Ann Frank’s house. We took a tour of the site and learned about her life and the history of Amsterdam during Nazi occupation.

This is a pedestrian shopping mall.

Europe has a lot of historical churches.

I’m not sure I could fit in one of these police cars.

Here is another shopping area along one of the canals.

This is the infamous “Red Light District”, which didn’t seem as notorious as its reputation.

This is a 400+ year old church that we stumbled across. It is now a museum and we took a tour of the bell tower.

These are some of the bells housed inside.

Lynda got to play the bells on this contraption, which is a precursor to the modern-day organ.

This is the main bell in the tower and weighs several tons. We marveled at how the builders were able to hoist it to the top of the tower in that day in time.

This is a view from the top of the bell tower. Down the canal, you can see a foot bridge with some people standing on it. Claude Monet painted this bell tower with the foot bridge in the foreground.

Here is the painting by Monet (1874).

This is how the bell tower looks today from that same foot bridge.
Here is a windmill off in the distance from the downtown area.

Amsterdam, like most of the European cities we visited, is using wind technology to produce electricity.

This is a little village we passed as our ship was headed out to sea.

Amsterdam is not on the coast, so you have to arrive and leave through canals and they use locks similar to the one at the Panama Canal to accomplish passage.

We witnessed a beautiful sunset as we bid Amsterdam farewell.