Along the paths and canals of Amsterdam

The Begijnhof

One of the conference sponsors hosted an interesting guided walking tour of Amsterdam for 8 of us from Canada, US, India, Taiwan, Ghana, Africa, Australia and the Caribbean. My favourite part of the tour was the Begijnhof, shown above. After its long history as a Catholic almost-convent (the women took vows but were free to leave to marry), this beautiful peaceful enclave has 105 residents, all widows. After the bustle of Amsterdam, your heart rate responds to the serenity of the quiet closed-off courtyard. Amsterdam's oldest house is also found here.

The homes in Amsterdam are distinctive both for their gables and for how crooked they are. Sometimes this is because their pilings have deteriorated, but partly it's intended: the upper stories usually lean out to ensure the furniture which is to be brought up by that hoist on the gable won't hit the house, as dramatically shown down this little street.

Of course we walked through part of the Red Light District. Despite the early morning hour, there were a few women 'in the windows', extremely generously endowed as we were in the part that specializes in the extravagantly endowed. We didn't see any blue lights, which signal gay sex on offer. This trade is not restricted to one district as Wayne was to see more windows just by our hotel where he walked to take his bicycle tour. This is a shot of a day care centre wedged between the windows.

Our walking tour was followed by lunch and canal tour, another peaceful interlude. I tried to capture the view of nine consecutive bridges which you can just see peeking out from behind the first bridge in the foreground.

We caught sight if Amsterdam's smallest house,

As well as many other characteristic houses and houseboats. Here are some typical scenes.

I particularly enjoyed the many houseboats and how they squeezed little gardens into their space.

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Water, Water, Everywhere

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The Rijskmuseum

The highlight of our day was a visit to the Rijskmuseum. Arriving just as it opened at 9:00 (before the hordes of bus tours), we left at 2:30, exhausted. It's a gorgeous building outside. But it's the inside that's spectacular. The museum was closed for ten years to complete renovations to return it to its original design. It was stunning, with charcoal walls and modern lighting fixtures trained on the paintings as in this gallery. There were fewer Rembrandts than I had expected, but the Rembrandt and contemporaries gallery was spectacular. The long gallery's arches opened onto many great paintings, dominating their own wall. The entire gallery was a frame for the famous painting at the end: The Night Watch. Then there it is, brighter and more captivating than I could have imagined. Thankfully we were there early before these crowds developed so we could contemplate in peace before returning after lunch. (This photo is rather fuzzy but frankly I was amazed anythi...

Conference venue

The conference I'm attending is the Central Bank Payments Conference in Amsterdam. The meetings are taking place in the hotel's conference centre in a 17C church. They call central banks the high priests of finance so this is an appropriate venue.

Netherlands 2017

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