Crooked Houses & Bikes Galore
The beautifully chaotic streets of Amsterdam
Over 70 years ago, my Opa immigrated to Canada by boat from the Netherlands with his parents and his ten siblings. In October, I had the chance to visit the country in which he grew up and explore that part of my heritage. I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to document the things I've seen and the places I've been as part of this project. There were a few things that visually stood out to me in the city of Amsterdam. Most notably: bicycles and crooked canal houses.
Bikes
One of the best ways to get around in Amsterdam is by cycling. From 4 years old to 94 years old, everyone and their grandma can be seen riding on the busy bike lanes of Amsterdam. Besides being a great green initiative, one of the reasons cycling is ideal in the Netherlands is because of how flat the whole country is. The word "Netherlands" literally translates to "Low Lands". This means not having to bike up huge hills before the start of your 8:00am shift.
Biking in Amsterdam is also significantly easier than here because of the amount of effort put into the infrastructure. Not only does every street have two bike lines on either side following the flow of traffic, but there is an incredible amount of mutual respects towards cyclists from vehicles, trams, and pedestrians. As a cyclist who has come close to being run over a few times, I find this is something that we are lacking here in Ottawa.
Crooked Houses
Because the Netherlands are so flat, they get a lot of rain as there are no mountains to block anything coming in from the ocean. As a result, a lot of the beautiful, centuries-old houses and warehouses along the canals have started to sink into the ground, causing them to lean. Many have been structurally renovated on the inside to prevent collapse, but many of the facades remain a crooked, chaotic mess.
A long time ago, the houses of Amsterdam were identified by either a painted gable stone or a symbol on their facade representing the person who lived there, rather than using a number address system like we do today. For example, if it were still like that nowadays, I would probably have a painted picture of a camera on the front of my house and that is how my friends would know where I lived.
Sadly though, it's important that we are aware of the darker sides of history. We learned from a canal tour guide that human statues on a person's facade meant that the person who lived there when it was built was likely involved in slave trading, like in the photo above.
It's confusing to me why this particular detail of the facade remains on some houses and why they haven't yet been destroyed. On one side, it's an ugly symbol of the past that shouldn't be on display or glorified in any way, shape, or form. But on the other side, it serves as a reminder of a dark past - one definitely not to be proud of but also not forgotten or repeated.
All in all, I would highly recommend Amsterdam to anyone who has a chance to go. I've fallen in love with the culture and agree that there is a lot of things that we could learn from them in today's times. From their impressive bike lanes to their amount of respect for one another. Also, they make really great cheese and stroopwafel, so there's that.
