We enter the Netherlands!
When you enter a new country you always feel this mix of uncertainty and happiness in your stomach.
In the Netherlands you feel the force of interaction between three great elements: water, earth and wind. These three fight and collaborate with each other in every corner of the country.
Great stretches of land were won back from the water thanks to extensive barricades formed by sluices that impede the entrance of the sea.
The old windmills are still functioning and helped removing the water using the energy of the wind.
Kinderdijk is a system of 19 windmills constructed in 1740. It is the greatest concentration of windmills in the Netherlands.
Windmills are used to drain the water from a piece of land, mainly to use it for agricultural purposes.
The Dutch have grown into masters of reconquering the land situated on the shores of the sea.
In Dordrecht our argentinian friend Jorge was our host and prepared a real argentinian barbeque for us.
It is very characteristic to see houses leaning out over the street.
Dordrecht is also patterned with canals, similar to the more famous Amsterdam.
There are several versions of the story why many houses in the Netherlands lean towards the street.
One version says it is a question of competition: stick out from the other houses lends importance. Another version argues that it is a means of protection from the abundant rain.
Other versions explain that it is due to the soft soil, or alternatively to facilitate pulling up furniture outside of the houses, since it is impossible to fit anything through the narrow staircases.
Our guess is that it is simply a way of gaining a little bit more space in these tiny apartments.
The house where Anne Frank and her family hid before being deported to Aussschwitz, where she and her sister died in 1945. My smile in this photo is unnecessary.
Amsterdam is famous for its enormous number of bicycles and is the world centre for bicycle culture. Its streets are crammed with parked bikes.
The old quarter of Amsterdam is surrounded by a magical belt of semi-circular canals.
Thousands of bikes are stolen every year in Amsterdam, and many of them end up at the bottom of the canals.
If you need a bike you can take a fishing rod and fish one right out of a canal.
Our dream is to have one of these houseboats that can be found in many Amsterdam's canals.
The capital of the Netherlands is considered one of the best cities in Europe to go out at night, together with Paris, Madrid, Barcelona and Berlin.
Amsterdam as well as the rest of the Netherlands are famous for their tolerance, their liberalism, their diversity and the open-mindedness of its population.
One example of this is the red-light-district, where prostitution is legal.
The Netherlands is one of the most densily populated regions in the world, therefore every bit of space has to be taken advantage of.
Saying good-bye to the canals to continue towards the east of the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark.
Together with our friend Michael who hosted us in the city.
In Groningen we experienced a slight inconvenience with our host's mailbox, as we tell in the news section.
Bourtange is a small fortified village in the shape of a star, surrounded by canals and great walls for protection against invasions.
The garden of one of the houses in the village of Bourtange.
