Amsterdam

After three days in Paris, we had a much needed day to rest and recover back in Brussels and then it was on to Amsterdam, another beautiful canal city like Bruges.  I loved the tall, skinny multi-story houses.  Many of them seemed to be leaning which was no surprise since everything was built on reclaimed land and the houses were several hundred years old.  The date was posted outside many of the buildings and the oldest one I saw was 1597.

The bridges over the canals were pretty, especially the ones with flowers.

Bikes were everywhere!

We took a boat tour of the canals and saw lots of houseboats.  Wouldn't a houseboat be a fun place to live?

We went to the flower market where you could buy any kind of flower bulb imaginable.  I wanted to buy some, but wasn't sure I could get them through customs on the way home or even get them to grow in my hot, dry climate.

 

There were also buckets and buckets full of wooden tulips.  They were so pretty and almost looked real. 

Also found the "secret" entrance and visited Begijnhof which was built in the middle ages and is one of the oldest parts of Amsterdam.  It's like a convent and was used by the Beguines, a group of women who lived alone and devoted themselves to prayer and good works without taking vows.  We saw the oldest wooden house in Amsterdam dating back to 1528 here as well as the clandestine Catholic church.