Amsterdam is known for the series of canals that encircle in a horseshoe shape and crisscross each other throughout the city even though it is below-sea-level. As such, the residents have had to find ways of dealing with the water and soft ground. Houses are built on sturdy pilings to assure a solid foundation. Although you will see many cockeyed canal houses, some held up by huge logs, most buildings have been where they are for centuries.
The gables, oh, the gables. They are Amsterdam! If you look up, you will see many of the gables are adorned with a hook. Not a decoration, the hook is there to enable residents to pull large, bulky objects up and into a window at the proper floor. Most homes in Amsterdam have narrow, steep, often winding staircases that make it difficult to bring large, bulky objects upstairs. Voila, the hook. Many windows can be taken out of the wall completely for the same reason. In warm weather you will pass by many an establishment that has removed the windows to let the warm breeze waft through.
When property was sold in the early years of the city, it was valued by width, not depth. So you will see many narrow buildings throughout the city. After so many years and real estate transactions, many buildings that seem very tiny from the outside open into beautiful spaces. All along the canals the rear end of the houses open on to beautiful well kept gardens which are occasionally open to the public.
Just outside the large canals (Prinsengracht, Keizersgracht, Herengracht and Singel) you find the area that used to supply the city with fresh vegetables. This garden (in french; Jardin) area was later turned into a residential area with rather small houses, mainly for labourers, and is still named after the gardens. The Jordaan.
Charming houseboats line almost every canal. You will see them with gardens on decks and roofs, with cushy upholstered chairs on deck, with tables and chairs for al fresco. About 2,400 of these picturesque houses on water are docked in the city. In the 1950's Amsterdam was experiencing a housing shortage (still is?) and in a display of typical Nederlandic ingenuity they looked to their beloved canals and the houseboat was established.
A number of Amsterdam's famous residents have had their homes preserved and turned into museums, most notably Anne Frank and Rembrandt Van Rijn.
Anne Frank wrote her Diary of a Young Girl in this house from 1942-1944. It is perhaps the most renowned and widely-read accounts of daily life under German occupation during World War II. The actual house, located on the Prinsengracht, was constructed in 1635. It was listed for demolition in 1955. A campaign to save the house was successful, and the Anne Frank Foundation was established in 1957 with the purpose of preserving the house. It was opened to the public in 1960. Two large renovations closed the building temporarily in 1970 and 1999.
Rembrandt purchased this house in 1639 and lived and worked there until he went bankrupt in 1656. Over the following centuries, the house went through various occupants and alterations until the building was bought by the city in 1906. A foundation was set up in 1907 with the purpose of preserving the building. Today, it is a museum dedicated to Rembrandt etchings and drawings, and also houses works by Rembrandts teachers and pupils.
