Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Dekker. His autobiographical
novel,
Max Havelaar
(1860), fol-
lows a progressive bureaucrat's
f ight to improve the lives of
Javanese natives slaving away on
Dutch-owned plantations. He
was the first author to criticize
Dutch colonial practices—very
bold back then.
Amsterdam's
canals
(roughly 50 miles of them) are about 10
feet deep. Back when the canals also functioned as sewers, they
were flushed daily by opening the locks as the North Sea tides
came in and out. You can glimpse the locks in the distance at the
north end of the Singel canal—the white flagpole thingies sprout-
ing at 45-degree angles (beyond the dome) are part of the apparatus
to open and shut the gates. The Dutch are credited with inventing
locks in the 1300s. This single greatest invention in canal-building
allows ships to pass from higher to lower water levels.
The historic Singel canal was originally the moat running
around the medieval walled city. The green copper dome in the
distance marks the Lutheran church. Left of that is the new city—
reclaimed in the 1600s and destined to be the high-rent district.
To the right is the old town.
• Continue west on
...
Oude Leliestraat
Consumers will find plenty to consume on this block of shops and
cafés that runs Amsterdam's gamut—Puccini's bonbons, Grey
Area's marijuana, Foodism's vegetarian fare, Zool's traditional café
fare, Cafeteria's lamb
shoarmas,
and more
.
Grey Area bucks the trend of typical coffeeshops. While most
cultivate a dark, exotic, opium-den atmosphere, this is small, clean,
and well-lit. The green-and-white decal in the window identifies it
as #092 in the city's licensing program. This esteemed coffeeshop
was a recent winner of Amsterdam's Cannabis Cup, a high honor.
(For more on this and other coffeeshops, see page 190.)
• The next canal is the...
Herengracht
During the Golden Age boom in
the 1600s, Amsterdam expanded,
adding this fine canal named for
the
Heren,
or wealthy city mer-
chants who lined it with their
mansions. As the city was anti-
royalty, there was no blue-blooded
