Amsterdam has three Red Light Districts, but the one located in the centre of the city is definitely the most famous. It is not only a place where prostitutes run their business, but also a part of the city where one can find popular coffee shops, sex-shops, cinemas, theatres, bars and dining places.
Keizersgracht is the name of one of the main canals in the capital of The Netherlands and in my opinion, is one of the most picturesque places to view. The picturesque effect is likely due it being the widest canal, which is in the middle of three main canals crossing Amsterdam centre. Wandering around and observing the lights of the bridge turned on during the blue hour is amazing.
Montelbaanstoren is a tower in Amsterdam that sits alongside a canal named Oudeschans. This tower is over 500 years old and was built in 1516 as a part of the city walls and was originally a Watchtower; although this function was only given for 90 years. Montelbaanstoren is also famous, with due credit to a particular painter that you might be familiar with – Rembrandt. He used to reside in an area near the tower and was supposedly very keen on painting this structure.
After the second world war, there was a shortage of housing in Amsterdam. People then moved to live in boats on the water. Back then, they were not so comfortable compared with our day now, but at least they were cheap. With decades passing, houseboats have become more popular as an essential part of Amsterdam’s landscape, eventually becoming a main tourist attraction.
Papiermolensluis is a stone bridge over one of the canals. It is probably one of the most photographed landmarks, due to the composition of the houses as you can see in the background and the canal in the foreground are perfectly depicting the “atmosphere” and the architecture of Amsterdam. Back in time, on the corner house of Brouwergracht, was a hanging sign “De Papiermolen” – paper handler. The bridge was called Papiermolensluis because you can see this sign of the shop from the bridge.
In our modern age, there are only 1,200 fully operational windmills in the Netherlands. Several in the “Old Holland” region, including the famous beauties from Zaanse Schans. Over a few centuries ago, there were over 10,000 windmills across the Netherlands and they were used to pump water out of the lowlands, to make flour from grains and to press oil from seeds or saw wood.
Whilst visiting Amsterdam, we had to get up early for at least one our mornings to visit the incredible and charming Zaanse Schans. Gustavo told us that this area is supposedly a “fake village” and that there were no residents, so we made the best use of our visit – making as much noise as we desired. When the sun was up, a young man came out of the house you see above, complaining about the noise.
There are exactly 165 canals, so the decision as to which one to capture was not so easy. The composition though was always accomplished by the presence of several boats. The boats pictured above were rather small, in comparison to the 2,500 other house boats which were all around Amsterdam.
All photos taken by Nico Trinkhaus unless indicated otherwise.
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