On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Captain C
And so we reach the final set of photos from my October trip to Amsterdam. These are mostly from Saturday, my last full day.
I saw this windmill on my way to meeting up with my cousin and his young son (whom I met for the first time) for games and snacks at a vegan cafe. Said six year old kid was adorable–he acted like an eight year old, tried some amusing calvinball with the various game rules, and has a very British accent in English which he gets from his mom.
While I’m not sure what, if anything, it’s hooked up to, the windmill definitely gets a good spin when the wind is going.
Canal traffic.
I met this lovely kitty not far from my hotel. I offered my fist to sniff, and they put their head right into my hand for some good scritches. Then they went off on their Important Cat Business. I suspect they are an indoor/outdoor cat as they had a collar and were fine with me approaching.
Looking up Damrak towards Centraal Station.
My small but comfy bed in my small but comfy hotel room. The bathroom did feel a bit like what I imagine a submarine’s to be like: small and one needs to plan their way into various facilities.
All good things must come to an end, and this trip was no exception. This is my plane from Reykjavik to JFK, which we boarded on an old fashioned stairway. I think they had some sort of lift for people who needed it.
eclare
The canals look so nice. What are those things suspended from wires in the photo looking up Damrak?
WaterGirl
Thanks for this series, Captain C !
Betty
Are the canals mostly for tourists or are used regularly by locals?
bjacques
@eclare: Dead thread but those are streetlights. The design is a sort of homage to a festival of lights held on that boulevard almost 100 years ago, by the Edison Co. to promote electric streetlighting.
Torrey
Thank you for this series. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the pictures.
MelissaM
When we visited BIL years ago, we went to Leiden and visited the windmill museum De Valk, which I found really fascinating. It’s set up IIRC as a mill with residence, so you enter and see how the family lived, then go up further to see the the mill process (or that first, then living area) but you can keep going up – if you can get up and down the ladders – to see how they worked, also with explanations of other mills like the polder mills which are so essential to the Netherlands and the land reclamation.
These have been great pictures – thanks for the trip!
eclare
@bjacques:
Thanks!
owlbrick
It’s my understanding that many of those windmills are actually water pumps, and were part of the broad scale hydrological project of land reclamation in the 18th century.
Also, transatlantic on a 737 sounds really cramped… hope it wasn’t too bad.
Overall, lots of nice pics and I have to say, I’m jealous… the Netherlands is a dream destination for me!
owlbrick
@owlbrick: replying to myself… apparently per wikipedia this mill was once a grain mill, but now is no longer hooked up to any mechanism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Gooyer,_Amsterdam
Captain C
@WaterGirl: You’re very welcome! Thanks for the opportunity to share these pics here; it’s always a treat.
Captain C
@Betty: They are functional (as in used by the locals), though bjacques could probably much better tell you the details of what for. I think it’s also why there are many spots without railings; people need to get stuff on and off their boats and barges.
Captain C
@MelissaM: You’re welcome! That sounds very interesting about the windmills; I’d love to check something like that out sometime.
Captain C
@owlbrick:
It wasn’t; I had a stopover in Iceland and the flight legs were comparable to NYC-Miami (AMS-KEF) and NYC-Phoenix (but going east timewise). After my 13-14 hour Japan flights a few years ago, this was easy-peasy.
Thanks! If you make it, and I hope you do, you can ask WaterGirl for my email and I’ll be happy to write you up a little guide from a tourist’s perspective (or more likely, edit one that I’ve already written for someone else :^) ).
Tenar Arha
Lovely series, thanks!
Captain C
@Tenar Arha: Glad you liked it!