Amsterdam again...

Train up to Amsterdam yesterday. Part of me felt almost too tired to tackle what I knew would be the busy-ness of Amsterdam (seven weeks of constant exploring, navigating, absorbing, walking, walking...takes its toll) but I felt I couldn't leave Holland without returning to Amsterdam - my first visit (this time round) having been focused solely on the galleries.

So I fled the hoards of tourists around the palatial Amsterdam Centraal Station and the medieval Old Centre and wandered the canals and side streets of the Canal Ring. The Canal Ring is on UNESCO's World Heritage List as an area of 'outstanding value'

The historic urban ensemble of the canal district of Amsterdam was a project for a new ‘port city’ built at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries. It comprises a network of canals to the west and south of the historic old town and the medieval port that encircled the old town and was accompanied by the repositioning inland of the city’s fortified boundaries, the Singelgracht. This was a long-term programme that involved extending the city by draining the swampland, using a system of canals in concentric arcs and filling in the intermediate spaces. These spaces allowed the development of a homogeneous urban ensemble including gabled houses and numerous monuments. This urban extension was the largest and most homogeneous of its time. It was a model of large-scale town planning, and served as a reference throughout the world until the 19th century.

It is difficult to do justice to in photos and I found myself looking for details...

Note the hooks projecting from the top stories. 

Elderly gent sitting on his steps, smoking a cigar and watching the world go by

I went into the Begijnhof.

This enclosed former convent dates from the early 14th century. It’s a surreal oasis of peace, with tiny houses and postage-stamp gardens around a well-kept courtyard. The Beguines were a Catholic order of unmarried or widowed women who cared for the elderly and lived a religious life without taking monastic vows. The last true Beguines died in the 1970s.

Enclosed entrance

Always, however, it comes back to the water...and the bikes...and the gables...

You would need weeks, months, to explore Amsterdam properly and my photos don't do justice in any way to its magnificence. Just a taste...