My Amsterdam

The amazing thing about Amsterdam isn't the hustle and bustle of the big city that is right on the water, but it's what runs through that city. The canals, intricate and genuinely beautiful, you can see the entire city on a canal cruise,  The old buildings with the amazing Gables, the  water splashing against the walls along the canals, seeing the locals taking a boat tour through the canals because they do not lose their excitement, and the house/river boats along the banks where people actually live. Amsterdam has a lot of people all over the place, it does have the red light district and people smoking pot everywhere and if you are not into that, I totally get it, but Amsterdam is beautiful as a whole and you can avoid the red light district and generally the marijuana as well. I learned some really neat things on my trip, like for example slowly the houses are decaying and tilting, and what they do, they drill holes in the foundations (logs) and pour cement in them to hold them up. I also learned that the front of the house is generally smaller than the back because they paid taxes on the width of the house, so people would build larger at the back. I learned that the 3 X's everywhere is in remembrance of the three large disasters in Amsterdam: three scurges that have hit Amsterdam in history - water (flooding), fire and the plague. There is so much to learn!