Amsterdam

I had only planned to stay a few days in Holland. At the wedding I met Barbara, who was appaulled that I should not see Amsterdam so took me there for the Sunday morning. She thought that the best way to see Amsterdam was via the canals. In Holland there is water everywhere and the cities are all surrounded by canals with usually a canal running through. Amsterdam has a series of concentric canals joined by other little canals with beautiful old houses . The canals go out to the river/estuary. The canals used to be so clean that the beer was brewed from the water centuries ago.People live on canal boats serviced by sewerage and other utilities Now not so but they do flush the canals out. There is, unlike France, a lot of modern architecture (think Mondrian and Mies Van Der Rohe) .