We took a water cruise today, Sunday. Here are some shots from the cruise. A neat draw bridge.
Locks to help control water from the North Sea. Amsterdam is three feet below sea level.
This is the Sinta Claus parade. We happened to pass under this bridge just as the parade went over it. Pretty good timing considering that the folks on the bridge had waited about three hours, in the cold, to see it.
Sinta Claus' helpers are known as Zwart Piet (Black Pete) because they're covered in soot from chimneys. However, they may also be Moors since the story of Sinta Claus dates from the middle 19th Century when the Moors invaded Spain (Sinta Claus comes from Spain). Because of this, Zwart Piet is no longer politically correct. To some Dutch, that grew up with this version of the story, the removal of Zwart Piet is a bit of a bitter pill.
Zwart Piets can be seen below tossing tangelos to children along the parade route.
These buildings are known as the Dancing Buildings because the drilling of the metro tunnel, below their pilings, has caused them to lean some and become a bit unstable. You can really see this as you're directly abreast of them.
Amsterdam has some really neat draw bridges (not unlike Chicago).
More scenes from the cruise.
Our tour guide, Mark (left) and our boat's captain whose name I do not recall.
This is the building that housed the headquarters of the Dutch West Indies Company. It's now part of the University of Amsterdam.
If you don't see public works workers, you've got eyesight issues.
Back on dry land, we wandered the oldest parts of Amsterdam.
Here's the first bridge we saw on the cruise.
This building is known as De Waag. It's about 500 years old and has been used in several different capacities. There's a restaurant in the bottom floor now.
This is the opposite side of De Waag.
We're entering one of the more (in)famous districts of the city. See if you can guess what it is.
If you didn't guess, it's the Red Light district. Taking pictures of the girls (or trans-gendered guys) is strictly forbidden. However, they're right in your face as you walk along the streets in the district. If you're interested, they simply open the door and you walk in. I guess the next step is deciding what to do and how much it will cost. The average fee is 50 Euro.
Moving on....
This is the National Monument to those who gave their lives resisting fascism during World War II.
This was some interesting art work we saw during our walk home.
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