Finally Fall

Thankfully we seem to have phased out of the rainy weather (knock wood), and I really feel like it is fall as last. While the trees here don't really change drastically, they are displaying a bit of colour reflected brilliantly in the canals, which in turn, enhances the warm brick tones of all the houses.

Everywhere we turn there is another long canal to gaze down, our minds caught up in the romance of bridges and heavy hanging trees as far as the eye can see. Sadly in reality these canals aren't all romance as we learned from a cheery woman we shared some chocolate with on the train from Antwerp. After talking for a while she finally admitted to us that she was here for a funeral of a friend who had drowned, and that that is not an uncommon occurrence here.

All the houses are tall and stately. Shaun tells me this is because taxes were/are so high on canal facing properties. People got around this by building tall, skinny houses. Nina likes to look for the hooks just below the roof line that are used for moving things in and out of top floor apartments.

Hmmm, Shaun has just asked if I want to go out and get Chinese food. Sorry, food wins. I'll finish this post later.

(Later)

You can't imagine how pleasurable it was to get Dim sum so far from home. I'm stuffed. And, for all of you who were wondering - that was my Thanksgiving dinner (although I did make mashed potatoes Monday night).

To finish up with the houses of Amsterdam, the other quite remarkable thing is that due to their age, and height perhaps, many of them are leaning at alarming angles. It's a wonder if anyone inside can set something down on a flat surface without it rolling away. Sometimes if you look down a long row of houses you can see how they are buckling, as if all of them are getting a little plump in their old age. There are two houses in particular that Shaun tells me are famous for how much they lean against one another. They look like very old friends, keeping each other going. And for that reason, I named them "Nina" and "Jess".