In Amsterdam the water is the mistress and the land the vassal. Throughout the city there are as many canals and drawbridges as bracelets on a Gypsy's bronzed arms.- Felix Marti-Ibanez
Amsterdam is an embracingly friendly city: its tall, elegant, narrow houses could easily choose to look grand and austere but, instead, they lean very slightly forward in a quizzically humorous way and peer with many-windowed eyes across the canals at similarly attractive houses or, below, at the passerby on foot, bike and boat.
Travelling on the canals, you pass not only beneath the inquisitive gaze of those towering houses but also alongside the houseboats which line almost every meter of the waterways...
Here a child on a houseboat feeds a pair of swans, while his sister sits reading the diary of one of Amsterdam's iconic figures - Anne Frank...
And, finally, here's another, earlier, shot of that golden sunset I posted the other day - less dramatic, I admit, but more idyllic; perhaps, more Amsterdam...
Images: © Brian Sibley & David Weeks, 2007
4 comments:
Beautiful photos Brian. Dutch towns - and Belgian Flemish towns have their own very special charm that I don't think you find anywhere else in the world.
I've never seen Amsterdam in such clothes.It's always miserable weather when I go but I do recognise the places where you took the pictures. The houseboats are very much a feature of the city being divided up into those that pay rates (and therefore have access to electricity and utilities from the cities supplies) and those that are just squatting.It's very easy to tell the difference.Most of the latter look like Banksy's creations...
ahh.. you make me feel homesick!
Such lovely pictures...
I agree with Suzanne - Dutch and Belgian towns have a beauty all of their own.
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