Last month, I spent a few days in Amsterdam, and I wish I could have spent more time there.
It is a very quiet, friendly city. There are more bikes than people. No, seriously. 1.4 bikes per person. And DO NOT step into the bike lane when one is coming – they WILL run you over. The food was great and so were the people.
We did some sightseeing as well. The first thing we checked out was the windmills at Zaanse Schans, famous for its windmills.
Dating from the 1600s and 1700s, these towering wooden giants represent different aspects of traditional Dutch industry: some still grind mustard seeds and spices, others saw lumber or press oil, demonstrating the remarkable versatility that made windmills the backbone of Dutch commerce during the Golden Age. The distinctive green-painted structures, with their thatched caps that can rotate to catch the wind from any direction, stand as testament to a time when the Netherlands harnessed natural power with an efficiency that wouldn’t be matched until the industrial revolution.
What makes Zaanse Schans truly special is that it offers visitors the chance to step inside these mechanical marvels and witness centuries-old technology still performing its original function: the rhythmic creaking of wooden gears and the thunderous rumble of massive millstones. Beyond the windmills themselves, the site preserves an entire 18th-century village atmosphere, complete with traditional wooden houses painted in the region’s signature green and white, artisan workshops where craftspeople still practice traditional trades like wooden clog making and cheese production. SO MUCH CHEESE!
One of them made chalk that lines most of the sports fields in the world!
Zaanse Schans serves as a living library of Dutch heritage, reminding visitors that the iconic windmill is far more than a picturesque symbol—it’s the mechanical ancestor that helped build a nation from the sea.
The next day we took a canal boat tour – with cheese! – and we learned about some unique history of the buildings in Amsterdam – they’re crooked!
No, really, they are.
Some lean left, others tilt right, and many appear to bow forward as if greeting passersby with an old-world courtesy. But these aren’t architectural accidents or signs of neglect—they’re the result of centuries of ingenious Dutch engineering, practical necessity, and the unique challenges of building on Amsterdam’s foundation.
Amsterdam’s famously crooked buildings stem from one fundamental challenge: the city is built on what is essentially a swamp. Beneath the charming cobblestones lies a foundation of soft peat and clay that extends down nearly 40 feet before reaching solid sand. When Dutch builders began constructing the city’s iconic canal houses in the 17th century during the Golden Age, they had to drive massive wooden piles—sometimes hundreds per building—deep into this marshy ground to create stable foundations.
Over time, these wooden piles shift, settle, and sometimes rot, causing buildings to lean in unpredictable directions. Each house settles at its own pace and in its own way, creating the delightfully irregular streetscapes that make Amsterdam so photographable today. What might look like structural failure is actually testament to the remarkable longevity of Dutch building techniques—many of these “crooked” houses have been standing strong for 400 years or more.
While some of Amsterdam’s building lean due to foundation settlement, many of the forward-tilting facades you’ll notice were actually built that way on purpose. This intentional forward lean, called “voorhelling” in Dutch, serves several practical purposes:
Optical Illusion Magic: The forward tilt creates a visual effect that makes the building appear perfectly straight when viewed from street level. Without this compensation, the building would actually appear to lean backward due to perspective.
Rain Protection: The forward angle helps direct rainwater away from the building’s foundation and entrance, crucial in a city where managing water has always been a matter of survival.
Structural Engineering: The slight forward lean helps distribute the building’s weight more evenly across the foundation piles, reducing stress on any single support point.
Those Mysterious Hooks: Amsterdam’s Original Moving System
Perhaps the most intriguing architectural feature of Amsterdam’s canal houses are the prominent hooks or pulleys you’ll spot jutting out from the top floors. These aren’t decorative elements—they’re the remnants of the city’s original moving and storage system.
Canal houses were built tall and narrow to maximize valuable street frontage while minimizing property taxes (which were based on the width of the building’s facade). This created a problem: how do you move furniture, goods, and supplies up multiple flights of narrow, steep stairs? The solution was brilliantly simple: use the hooks to hoist everything up from the street.
These hooks, called “takels,” allowed residents to winch heavy items directly up to upper floors and swing them through large windows. Merchants used them to move inventory to storage areas, while families used them during moves or when bringing in large furniture pieces. The system was so effective that it remained in common use well into the 20th century.
Guess I saw an uncommon use, eh?