Amsterdam

Earlier in our trip, we were unable to visit Venice due to some travel booking problems, but Amsterdam actually has more canals than Venice (and I hear that it doesn't smell as bad), so this kind of makes up for it.

Amsterdam has a policy of tolerance.  Basically, they tolerate anything as long as it doesn't cause violence, doesn't draw too much attention, and is profitable for the city.  This may explain some of the things that you know to happen in Amsterdam.

We visited the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam as well, but don't have pictures as they aren't allowed in the house.

We were told that sometimes in the winter these canals freeze up and citizens can ice skate to work.

In Amsterdam, 40% of traffic is bicycles, and the bikes are king of the road.  We thought it would be the perfect place to do some bike touring.  It was a lot of fun, but there are so many crazy cyclists out there, we were actually more worried about getting in a wreck with another bike than with the cars.

You might notice that the houses in the picture below appears to be leaning forward.  Here is the complicated explanation for that: In Amsterdam, houses used to be taxed based on their width, which led a lot of people to have very narrow houses that are quite tall and long (the narrowest house is no bigger than the door frame).  Since the residents didn't want staircases to take up the entirety of space in their narrow houses, they built very steep staircases.  The canals used to flood frequently, but moving merchandise up the steep and narrow stairs was too difficult, so they used a pulley system to bring the goods to the attic.  With strong winds in Amsterdam, a heavy load that was being lifted up to the attic could easily smash some windows on the way up.  To counter this, the houses were built leaning forward, with a wooden door to the attic at the top of the house.  Then in the event of a flood or large home purchase, items were hauled up the pulley and brought safely into the roof.

You can see the leaning houses in this picture, as well as some pulley systems sticking out from the top of the house

These are the free shades I got as a prize from the Heineken brewery tour.

This is a photo from our evening canal cruise.