Tag Archives: Amsterdam

The houses in Amsterdam are built on pilings and, because the piling settle, the houses shift with time. As a result, all the older buildings are a bit crooked. How the windows and doors in some of these houses can continue to operate in the crooked walls is beyond me. The Sint Nicolaaskerk is a Roman Catholic church in Amsterdam, built in Neo-Baroque and Neo-Renaissance styles. At the front of the church are two neo-Baroque towers with a rose window between them. The Hotel Di-Ann is an impressive structure composed of five buildings between the Herengracht and Keizersgracht canals. Continue reading →

Of all the sights in the Netherlands, perhaps the one with which the greatest number of people are familiar is the Anne Frank House at Prisengracht 263 in Amsterdam, the location of the secret annex where the Frank family (Otto, Edith, Anne, and Margot), the van Pels family (Hermann, Auguste, and Peter), and Fritz Pfeffer hid from the Nazis. The building was nearly demolished after years of neglect, but with the pressure of public opinion and the help of Otto Frank’s friends, the building was saved. Today, the Anne Frank house and the two buildings adjacent to it serve as the Anne Frank Museum. Continue reading →

While in Amsterdam, I walked along Raadhuisstraat and took photos as I crossed each of the major canals of Amsterdam. The first, the Singel was originally the moat around the medieval city of Amsterdam until 1585. The Herengracht (Patrician’s Canal) was named after the heren regeerders who governed the city in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Keizersgracht (Emperor’s Canal) is named after Maximilian I, the Holy Roman Emperor. The Prinsengrach (Prince’s Canal) was named after the Prince of Orange. To the casual observer, one canal looks pretty much the same as another, although I’m sure a resident of Amsterdam could easily identify which is which from the photos. If I hadn’t known which was which, I could have identified only the photo of the Prinsengracht, since that photo shows a line of people on the right, waiting to get into the Anne Frank House. Continue reading →