While on an Amsterdam canal cruise tour I took today’s top photo of some Dutch buildings. I think the tour guide was describing the details at the top of each building. The building on the right, by the way, is a “Coffeeshop.” I’m not sure if you can really buy coffee there or not. The main item on the menus in Amsterdam’s coffee shops is marijuana–all perfectly legal.

Anyway, back to the tops of these buildings…

At the top of Amsterdam’s houses you will notice hooks suspended near the top called hijsbalk. With the use of a rope and pulley the Dutch can hoist large, heavy items in and out of their homes rather than have to try and haul them up their steep, narrow staircases.

While scanning the buildings to find examples of this system I came across this one…

Posted on March 20th, 2012 under Other • Tags: amsterdam, buildings. • RSS 2.0 feed • You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed