Canal walk

Today we did the tourist guide book canal walk, looking at the houses of significance and trying to learn as we went. We did learn that houses along the canal are narrow because taxes used to be levied on the width of the house, that they tilt forwards so that furniture being hoisted up by pullies attached to the roof (that's how furniture is moved in Amsterdam) wouldn't smash into the windows, that the Herensgracht is where all the rich people lived (their houses were wide), including the Gentlemen 17 who ran the VOC (the East Indian Company which built the Batavia and 1500 similar ships in the 17th century). T's publisher occupies the old mayor's house (see pic). There are a lot of people living in canal boats, which are connected to the main electricity supply and apparently the sewerage system, and I thought I could live happily like that. But maybe not in this BRICK house boat!


We took a detour from the canal walk and visited the Begijnhof - a little housing complex originally built in 1346 as a sanctuary for women who lived there and did good works. It still functions in the same way with single women living in the houses. There is a 15th century church there too, called the English Church as it was handed over for the use of English and Scottish presbyterians in 1607 after the Alteration. Although Begijnhof is right in the middle of Amsterdam it is very tranquil.