AMSTERDAM
This is our 2020 trip which was postponed because of Covid 19. We boarded the ship in Amsterdam and spent one night there. We had a canal tour and a walking tour. The big surprise for me on the canal tour was the number of houseboats, which can cost as much as 600,000 Euros. While there is no land tax, there is a lease cost for the water as sewage services are provided.
A couple of examples of an ordinary and a fancier houseboat.
A suspended bridge over one of the canals.
Houses which have leaned over time.....there are several of these around the city. Because it would be very expensive to 'realign' the foundation, these houses rely on their neighbours for support.
This gate was moved from outside the city. It kept those who had incurable diseases out. The figure on the left above the gate represents lepers who were one of the few allowed into the city but they had to carry clappers to announce they were coming so that people could avoid them.
An example of one of several very narrow homes in the city.
Rembrandt's former home. He was not a very good business manager and eventually went bankrupt.
The pulleys at the top of the house is how furniture or anything heavy is lifted into the house as there are no elevators.
COLOGNE
Unfortunately, there are only three pictures of Cologne. We docked there on a Monday and all museums are closed on Mondays.
The middle figure in this picture represents a nun who was discovered to have Jewish heritage and she was murdered in one of the concentration camps. The split face depicts her split heritage.
Cologne Cathedral (Catholic) in the city.....they are very proud of this cathedral.
The organ in the cathedral appears to be hanging off the side.
As we cruised the Rhine, we saw several old castles, all of which had stories attached to them, and some of which have been refurbished and turned into hotels and/or hostels. This is one such castle where the left side has been refurbished and the right side is still in ruins.
This church has the tallest spire along the Rhine.
Schonburg Castle has also been refurbished and is now a hotel and a youth hostel.
This is one of the 'tax collector' buildings where merchants had to stop and pay their taxes. If they tried to get by without doing so, there were mechanisms in the water to prevent their ships from getting very far.
Before Germany became east and west, they used to be many individual states. This is a statue of Bismarck who oversaw the unification of the German states.
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