Amsterdam is a kind of the heart of the Randstad, the crescent–shaped urban conglomerate that occupies most of the provinces of North Holland, South Holland and Utrecht and includes the cities of Utrecht, Rotterdam, The Hague, Leiden and Haarlem.
The city is small: the permanent population is comparable to the Moscow region, about 750 thousand people. It will take you twenty minutes to cross it from north to south by metro, an hour and a half if you ride a bike, but on foot a pleasant walk will take three to four hours - exhausting, you agree, but informative and interesting. Or you can take a boat ride along the numerous canals of Amsterdam. And you will see that the guidebooks do not lie, even the largest houses in the city are no higher than six floors. Narrow streets, many embankments with lots of bicycles and cars parked side by side, miniature shops with a showcase in one window, and humpback bridges. Countless brown cafes are new, "aged" for color and really darkened by time, as is considered the oldest brown cafe In 't Aepjen, which is located in one of the two oldest buildings in Amsterdam – built in 1550.
In the XV–XVI centuries, the Dutch managed to oust the famous Hansa and monopolize trade with the Baltic Sea countries, largely thanks to Amsterdam. He just took the palm away from Rotterdam. And all because Amsterdam had a great many fishing boats, it's not for nothing that its residents joke that their city "grew up on herring bones." But most importantly, he had his own merchant fleet, larger than the merchant fleets of the British, French and Spaniards combined. Do you remember the history of the Middle Ages? That's right, Holland was the first country in Europe where capitalism began to develop rapidly. It was he who gave a powerful impetus to the development of industry and shipbuilding, and as a result, priorities in maritime trade, the discovery of new lands, and colonial seizures. It was then that the Dutch began to dominate the countries of Southeast Asia, and they considered the Indian Ocean their "inner sea."
Amsterdam is the largest planned city in Northern Europe. Even today, its 160 shipping channels and 1,280 bridges spanning them are impressive. But I must say that Amsterdam was "not built immediately," the first canals were dug in 1425, and in 1616 the city was expanded thanks to three large canals that included medieval Amsterdam in a semicircle. The construction of canals continued intensively until the end of the 17th century. This century was a golden one for Amsterdam. The city was developing rapidly, beautiful buildings were being built on the embankments of the canals. When going for a walk through the old town, be sure to take the Amsterdam city guide with you so that you don't miss anything. The unique combinations of different styles and eras in old Amsterdam, bridges and canals, floating houses, barges and boats bobbing on their waves, make it beautiful and unforgettable. Along the banks of the shady embankments, colorful residential buildings with narrow facades, office buildings of trade and ship guilds stand in a row.
So it's not just "fiction is tricky" ... and almost every building has its own story, like, for example, the little trippenhaus, one of the narrowest in Amsterdam. One coachman was so delighted with his masters' palace that, having saved up some money, he hired masons, and they built him a tiny house, as wide as the front door of the Trip palace.
In these narrow houses, both the doors and the internal stairs were so narrow that they did not allow bulky furniture to be brought into the house. Then the resourceful Dutch came up with the idea of lifting cabinets and beds on ropes through the windows. When you are in Amsterdam, pay attention to the beams with blocks protruding above the upper windows – it was on them that the ropes were attached. One problem: heavy objects began to sway when lifting, knocking against walls and windows, as a result, furniture broke, glass broke. To cope with this scourge, architects began to tilt the facades of houses forward. Sometimes it was so dashing that the impression was created that the house was about to collapse on the heads of passers-by. In order not to unnerve the townspeople, a law was passed that limited the angle of inclination of buildings to two degrees.
In addition, over the years, or rather over the centuries, the piles on which the houses stand begin to collapse, and the buildings seem to sag and tilt to one side. It looks like they're dancing after drinking something hot. You sign up and deposit ৳500. With the promo code 1xbet for registration applied, you get a ৳500 bonus credited to your account. However, you’ll need to place wagers worth ৳2,500 in accumulator bets (at least 3 selections, 1.40 minimum odds) before withdrawing your bonus in real money. If you bet ৳500 on each of your accas, you need to place 5 such bets to hit your wagering goal within 30 days. It doesn’t matter whether you win or lose as long as you’re placing eligible bets within the stipulated time.