Amsterdam, The Netherlands – Little Houses

I took this photo at the Flower Market. They are little houses, like magnets. My favorites are the Flower Market in the center, the Bier Cafe, the Klompen [wooden shoe shop], the Dutch Rock Cafe, and the Hotel Rembrandt. I thought it was interesting because they have the different types of roofs on the houses you see there. There’s the headless neck gable on the tattoo shop, the step gable on the Flower Market, and the flat roof on the Bier Cafe. And you can kind of see the hooks they have for bringing furniture in through the windows because the staircases are too small.

I also like the tiny people sitting in front of the cafe and beer place, which was kind of like what we saw the people do there.

All of them are pretty typical things you’d find in Amsterdam. You’d definitely find a lot of coffee shops, flower markets, and beer places and cafes. And the Klompen are like tourist shops that you definitely see a lot of. The Klompen, they don’t really wear them, but they’re good souvenirs. I actually sat in a big one of those. That was funny!

Most museum-loving tourists who visit Amsterdam usually head straight to the Rijksmuseum or the Van Gogh Museum. But an American ex-pat living in Amsterdam we knew told us to go to the Canal House Museum first. We did, and it was a pleasant surprise. The museum is inside a 17th Century canal house facing the Herengracht canal. Once inside, you are guided from room to room, where models, projections, and narrated voice-overs explain why and when the city built the canals, how they built houses along them, and a bit about the architecture and different roof gables that The Kid mentioned in their photo. It was totally fascinating, and a great introduction to the city.

This is a detail of a large diorama of the city in one of the rooms during the tour. A colored light show in the room revealed how the city expanded the canals over time. We were able to walk all around this miniature model of the city, taking in all the details, from the different gables, to the cars and canal boats. It reminded me of a small set of European block houses I had as a kid, but much more complete!