Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
also how biking seems to keep the populace fit and good-looking.
Locals say Amsterdam's athletic clubs are more for networking
than for working out.
• After another block, the street opens onto a small square (understand-
ably nicknamed “Big Head” square), with fine benches for picnics. It's
actually a bridge, straddling the Singel canal.
Torensluis Bridge
With cafés and art galleries, this quiet neighborhood seems farther
than just three blocks from busy Dam Square. The canal today
looks much as it might have during the Golden Age of the 1600s,
when the city quickly became a major urban center. Pan 360
degrees and take in the variety of buildings.
The so-called
skinniest house in Amsterdam
is the red house
at #166. In fact, it's just the entryway to a nor-
mal house that opens up farther back. Most
Amsterdam buildings extend far back, with
interiors looking quite different from what you
might expect from the facade. Real estate has
always been expensive on this canal, and owners
were taxed by the amount of street frontage. A
local saying at the time was, “Only the wealthy
can live on the inside of a canal's curve” (where
they would have ma ximum ta xable frontage
with a minimum of usable space).
The houses crowd together, shoulder to
shoulder. Built on top of thousands of logs ham-
mered vertically into the marshy soil, they've
shifted with the tides over the years, some leaning to the sides.
Many brick houses have iron rods strapped onto the sides, binding
the bricks to an inner skeleton of wood. Most have big, tall win-
dows to admit as much light as possible. Mingled among the old
houses are a few modern buildings—the sleek, gray-metal, ugly
ones are part of the university. While these buildings try to match
the humble, functional spirit of the older ones, they fail. It's the
students they house who inject life into this neighborhood.
Tw o
characteristic bars
spill
out onto the bridge. Van Zuylen is
famous for its variety of beers, and
Vil la Zeezicht is popular for its
sandwiches and apple pie. Both are
great for their canal setting.
T h e “ b i g h e a d ” s t a t u e of f
Multatuli
(1820-1887) honors the
“Dutch Rudyard Kipling,” whose
real l na me was Edua rd Douwes
