Amsterdam

Riding the train across Holland was fun because I saw the stereotypical windmills in the distance. The old wooden windmills are being replaced though by the new ones that aren't as nice too see. It's been nice here in Amsterdam (aside from the rainy weather). It is a city of canals, bridges, and bikes. I think there are somewhere around 900,000 bikes in the city which is about one bike per person. Never have I seen so many bikes. They have a lot of them stolen though. The junkies steal them and sell them again at "bum bridge" for about 10-20 euro and that's where everyone buys their bikes after there's is stolen.
I have seen many of the sights including the old church, the jewish quarter, the royal palace, dam square, the jordaan district, the house where Anne Frank and family hid during the war, the dutch east inida company, some art by rembrant and van goh, the widest bridge in holland and the most narrow house. The houses here are all leaning forward toward the street. They are about 4-5 stories tall and back in the day were where people lived and worked. The bottom floor was their shop; they lived above it and stored their goods on the top. The buildings have a hook at the top of the building that was used like a pully system to bring the goods up to the top floor. There's no way they could go up the stairs anywhere in this city. They are so narrow and really steep. The people didn't want to goods to hit the windows on the wall, so they built the walls at an angle.