Literally meaning Dam on the Amstel, this one time fishing village, located on two Dikes and the dam on the Amstel, has grown into one of Europe's finest, cultural diverse cities. Here is the readers digest version of its history.

  This was a quiet fishing village with the earliest historical mention in the 13th century. One day a fire struck the town burning a lot of it down. Miraculously, a Eucharistic host in a church was left unburned. Amsterdam quickly became the site of pilgrims coming to pay their respect. Amsterdam's real prosperity came thanks to the Spanish, who sacked Antwerp (Belgium), causing all the merchants, including the diamond merchants, to flee to Amsterdam. This brought the beginning of the Golden age, where great artists (including Rembrandt) flocked to the city most likely looking for rich patrons. Amsterdam became a trading center and founded two colonially companies the Dutch East and West Indian companies. (East Indian was in the Indian Ocean; West Indian was handed over to the British New York use to be New Amsterdam). By the 17th century, Amsterdam was one of Europe's richest and finest cities.

  Today, you have this fine city, built on canals (more than Venice) that contains some of the finest architecture and artwork anywhere. I really enjoyed my stay in this magnificent city. My first day in town I took a little walk from my hostel to get oriented. I walked around the Canal towards the Museum District. I quickly came upon this building with murals and neo-gothic statues. I figured it for some sort of church. Low and behold, when I looked on my map this impressive, artistry building was the Rijks museum, built to house Holland's greatest art treasures. This building is as impressive as the post card cathedrals in Europe. (The next day when I went to the museum I found it was on par with Florence and Paris for quality of art work)
   The Rijks museum is in corner stone for the Museum district with a couple others', most notably the Picasso museum. There is a park between them and the district is quite scenic. After a morning of seeing some of Europe's finest arts, you can have a nice picnic in the park.
You will note that the houses which I took a picture of are tall and narrow. That is because, so I have heard, in Old Amsterdam property owners were taxed based on street width. Therefore, they build tall, narrow buildings.

I hope you enjoy the photos. Any comments, please E-mail me, .