Amsterdam, Enginneering, and Bikes

After recovering in Edinburgh, we flew to Amsterdam for four days. I LOVED Amsterdam. I have never been in a place that was so well designed for people! I was told that Dutch monarchs all had essentially the education of a Masters in Mechanical Engineering so when they were developing the country they built it with the values of excellent system and structures that kept the environment in mind. The city of Amsterdam itself is below sea level and has a network of canals around the city. I had always heard of Amsterdam's canals, but I was surprised to see the complexity of the canals and how they are truly the heart of the city. To pull a canal system like this off you have to have excellent engineering. Here's a map so you can see what I mean. I stayed on Herengracht canal near a neighborhood called Jordaan.

Amsterdam is a walkable city or if you prefer a very bike-able city. I had read that there are more bikes than people in Amsterdam. I asked our host if this was true, and he had said that yes it is because it was practical. He explained to me that many people will own 2 cheap bikes and 1 nice "weekend" bike. The idea is that during the week you ride a cheap bike to the train station, lock it up, ride the train towards work, then when you get off at the train station you have another cheap bike you take the rest of the way to work. Then the nice "weekend" bike is for family bike rides or leisure riding. The city is also designed with excellent bike lanes and nobody wears a helmet. They all know how to live in a world where everyone bikes and they prefer it over other modes of transportation. I was really impressed with this. Here's a picture I took of a canal and the bikes lined up along it. 

One of the problems of living in a world with canals and lots of bikes is that it is not uncommon for bikes to fall into the canal. In fact, there's a boat crane that goes fishing daily for bicycles in the canal. I didn't see it while I was there, but there's a picture of what it looks like I found on the Internet. I thought this fact was HILARIOUS and highly amusing.

Photo credit: heather_mcnabb/Flickr

Finally, my favorite engineering endeavor I witnessed in the city was a thing I will call a the magical electronic ladder used for moving. We were walking along a canal minding our own business when we ran into a moving truck that had attached to it an electronic ladder that went up to the top floor of the nearby building. Since many homes in Amsterdam have huge French Windows it makes so much more sense to send your heavy furniture out the window down this ladder thing than carry it down flights of stairs. When I saw this I stood there for 5 minutes watching them - I just couldn't believe it! It was MOST amazing thing I have ever seen. IT was so easy! There's a guy that operates the ladder, a guy that is putting boxes/couches/chairs on the ladder from the building, and a guy that slides the furniture easily into the truck! I think they thought it was funny that I was so impressed - I kept smiling at them and giving them the thumbs up. It was so impressive to me! Throughout the rest of the stay I saw 3 more trucks like this... I guess it's a common thing? Here's a picture from the internet I found of it.

I hope to write more about Amsterdam - especially the way the Dutch think about the environment and the art we experienced. I didn't realize so many great artists came from Holland! Finally, I hope to also touch on the legal prostitution and weed and how it links back to Amsterdam being a port city.