January 12, 2012
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Amsterdam, Netherlands
Until the days start getting significantly longer again, the chances remain pretty high that the daily picture on this blog is one of Amsterdam in the dark. Such as this one, taken as I was walking home from work. It shows Rokin, which is actually where the Amstel River ends. It's a funny notion that, centuries ago, people simply stopped the river from flowing towards the Zuiderzee by building a dam on the spot which is still Dam Square to this day. Of course the water needed to flow anyway and that's what the canals took care of. People often think that Amsterdam's canals are filled with filthy still water. I can't guarantee it's clean water and definitely wouldn't recommend drinking it, but the water in Amsterdam's canals is fed by the Amstel still and so, through a system of locks, gets flushed out every night. Rokin is the last stretch of genuine Amstel River before it reaches the Dam.
The weather was horrible today so I took a metro to work. Admittedly, with the bike ride to work not being enjoyable at all even on the nicest of day, a metro ride is always an interesting option if it weren't for the fact that I do need the exercise of a bike ride as often as possible, but today the rain was a genuine reason to go underground. My manager had already left for Paris yesterday so only my American colleague was still in town. With him I did some more training today, and at the end of the day it was also time for him to say goodbye as he's flying back tomorrow morning. It was good to see him in the office. Hopefully he'll be able to pick up what's expected of him in the next couple of weeks.
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