Back again for a five week stay in my good old motherland of the Netherlands. Started with a rainy morning in the city center of Amsterdam. Above a photo of one of the canal streets, back in the days called "Bloemenmarkt" (Flower Market), because there were many street vendors of fresh cut flowers. Nowadays mostly tourist souvenir stores. From 1985 to 1988 I lived here on this street at the top floor of a three story very old house (see below).
At the ground floor of the house there is now a shop selling Hilary's favorite Dutch treat, the so-called "stroopwafels". They make them fresh and sell them for a whopping 6 Euros each (and decorated like donuts for even 9 Euros!).
The house back in the eighties had three tenants in bachelor apartments. Now it appears to have been converted to office units ("kantoor" is the Dutch word for "office"). The canal calls back many good memories of my years there. And I noticed they found yet another place to find a parking spot for the many bicycles! The downtown area of Amsterdam is now virtually car free, with only public transport and supply trucks (plus people who live along the canals and are willing to pay very high parking fees). But silent electric bikes (especially the so-called "fat bikes") are now the most dangerous going at speeds of around 30 km per hour and totally silent.....
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