Singel: Life on the street

Our street is a busy snapshot of life in central Amsterdam. We spend a lot of time watching out the window at life "going on". And the canals aren't in the way of the people delivering furniture (we also saw a guy carrying a mattress in a box today)...

It takes two to move a couch

...of streets getting fixed...

Our street was torn up, worked on and fixed in 6 hours twice in 2 days

...of people keeping the neighborhood tidy...

Pardon the focus

...of amazing parking jobs...

He did not knock over the post

...of people hanging on the street in front of their houses enjoying a beer or a glass of wine on a sunny Friday afternoon...

They were there for 4 hours

A glass of wine, and thou

...or the truly weird, such as Amsterdam's only pedaling bar...

They really do pedal and drink. Presumably, a non-drinker steers

...or a pedicab convention.

Silly looking yellow ones

While sitting on the stoop this afternoon (Friday), folks that rode by on their bikes included a group of three guys in white ties and tails, two people carrying double basses on their backs, one guy with a cello and one with a guitar (wimps). 


This afternoon, we also came home to find a party going on across the canal. The party was on a flat top barge...

Celebrating the opening of a shop, I think

On the barge and in some parking spots, too

...and featured a jazz band playing on the barge.

2 sax, bass, drums, plus keyboards

So for the better part of 3 hours (in union-prescribed 45 min sets with 15 min breaks) we enjoyed the sounds of live jazz wafting in our windows.

Our apartment from the party

KC holds court in the window

When the party was over, the boat was emptied and drove away. The boat's pilot had an interesting driving technique.

They teach you this move in Captain's school

Our canal is also a parade of various categories of boats, which I will get to in another post.