Since Amsterdam draws over 4 million tourists a year, I will spare you the usual red-light/”coffee shop“/Anne Frank details because I am sure you have heard it many times before.  Instead, I thought I would share some things I never knew until this past weekend:

* Because the Dutch surrendered to the Nazis after Rotterdam was destroyed, much of Amsterdam’s architecture and old buildings survived the second World War (according to the Dutch friend we stayed with).  So I was absolutely charmed by Amsterdam’s buildings, in all of their leaning and crooked glory.  You really get a sense of what the city looked like hundreds of years ago — unlike many German cities that were completely leveled during WWII and then reconstructed.  And because in the old days property taxes were paid according to how wide your house was, people built homes that were narrow, tall, and deep.  This makes for extremely steep and narrow staircases, and requires large furniture to be moved into and out of buildings through the windows using an old-fashioned rope and pulley system (you can see the rope hooks at the top of all of the buildings).

* 750,000 people and 600,000 bicycles.  This makes for an interesting bike culture and for a high rate of bike theft.  We noticed some pretty heavy duty bike locks, and sometimes more than one per bike.  At a party on Saturday night, one Dutchman explained it like this, “I always make sure that my bike is better locked than the one next to mine, that way they will steal that bike and not mine.”

* To me, the Dutch language seems to be a fascinating combination of German and English.  And to my surprise, I was able to puzzle out a lot of what I heard and read (as long as it was in context, of course).  I have since found out that it is not unusual for English speakers who study German extensively to be able to understand written Dutch fairly well.  It makes me want to be a linguist in my next life.  Or at least tackle Dutch after I master Deutsch!

So, we took zillions of pictures — but narrowed it down to 86 for your viewing pleasure here.