When I first visited Amsterdam briefly five years ago, what I saw as the main appeal of the place was the fact that life revolved around the canals. I have no idea if this is what it is like in Venice, never having been there, but the Canal houses were fascinating. These would be of all shapes and sizes, and none of them looked like a boat, though they were on the canal itself. Even those not directly on the water amazing. They were to be like the Victorian houses in San Francisco, but more authentic, and with more character.

With this trip I didn’t really expect to see anything similar even though it is the same country. But apparently, its not just an Amsterdam thing. It’s a Holland thing. Along with 'coffeeshops' and cheese.

Aah yes. Cheese. Oodles of them. More on this on a later post, I think.