Netherlands and Under-appreciated Engineering

Amsterdam is really lovely. I (Kenzi) just kept thinking how unintimidating it is. We never ran across any "bad" parts. The people are diverse and conscientious. The public transportation is amazing, and the city feels really clean (perhaps from the frequent rains). There are tulips and parks, and beautiful canals with bridges, and many OLD buildings. And so many bikes! Apparently, the Dutch have a reputation for being tolerant. Well, they tolerated a couple of bumbling American tourists graciously. Really, what more could you ask for in a city? 

We heard that Dutch people were the tallest in the world, but we had no idea they would be this tall!

We visited the:

• Anne Frank museum (humbling)
• Van Gogh museum (interesting)
• Royal Palace (how come we don't hear about the Dutch Royals like we hear about the British Royals?)
• Rembrandt house and museum (his sketches were really impressive)
• Canal boat ride (the Dutch are masterful water engineers)
• Dutch Resistance Museum (because every place in Europe was affected by WWII)
• Oude Kerk (old church, started in the 1300s, and now conveniently in the heart of the red light district)
• Molen van Sloten (a working windmill in Sloten)
• Keukenhof (TULIPS!!!!)
• Aalsmeer Flower Auction (check out the time lapse of the flower delivery)

Keukenhof had bazillions of tulips and a windmill too.

We took FAR too many photos of the beautiful flowers, so we'll just combine some here.

For our last day we rented a car to get out of the city. We saw the engineering feat called Maeslantkering (see Bill's engineering Afterword below), drove through Rotterdaam and The Hague, toured Kasteel de Haar (a restored castle that rich people used to party in), and visited a beach town called Zandvoort. 

Kasteel de Haar

We also visited at least four Albert Heijns (local grocery stores), and visited some multiple times, because if there's one thing the Judges CANNOT pass up in foreign countries, it's foreign grocery stores. We love wandering every single aisle, seeing what they have, how they package it, comparing it to what we have back home, using Google Translate to read food labels, and trying new things. We can and have entertained ourselves for hours in grocery stores. 

Bill looking for the perfect chocolate. 

Many of the buildings in Amsterdam appear to be leaning forward. Turns out they were built that way intentionally.  There's a hook/pulley at the top of each building so that people can move their furniture in through the windows rather than up the narrow spiral staircases. That way the furniture won't hit the building on the way up.

Buildings appear to lean forward a bit.This was taken from our canal boat ride.

Engineering Afterword by Bill

The Dutch are engineering on a massive scale to keep their feet dry

So, I wanted to point out that my dearest wife literally napped while I went through the small museum for the Maeslantkerring part of the massive Deltaworks project to keep Holland safe from floods. Kenzi did however manage to stay engaged through our tour of a functioning windmill. These two stops on our tour of Holland exemplify the ability of man to make the odds against the elements better through ingenuity.

The Dutch started reclaiming land from the sea in the 1600s by using windmills, they each produced the power of 20-30 horses and were able to pump water up and out of low lying areas. Environmental considerations aside, these windmills were the first glimmers of the industrial revolution which today means most us are no longer engaged in farming, no longer dying of horrible diseases before we're 30 and we're all walking around with a little box in our pocket that can tell us minute by minute what the Kardashians are up to. Here it is 400 years later and the Dutch are still 'milling' about below sea level and they haven't stopped working to improve their lot in life. Many examples of advances in engineering aren't very impressive to look at, denser and denser transistors on a chip don't really impress, but the Maeslantkering is a physically stunning, visible from space, example of engineering making lives better.

Day after day engineers are hard at work doing this same thing, making lives safer, more productive and enjoyable for everyone. They do get a paycheck for this but a little credit every now and then is worth while and hence this afterword. (Disclaimer, I do like to call myself an engineer.)