Amsterdam, Holland, 9/9/1994 Founded Around 1200

Much Of Country Is
Below Sea Level

By Bob Van Leer

(AMSTERDAM, HOLLAND - Sept. 9, 1994) - We landed at 7:00 a.m. at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport after a seven hour night flight from Dulles Airport near Washington, D. C.

  We are starting a two-week rail and river boat tour of Europe. Betty and I are accompanied by our daughter and husband, Sherry and Scott Wills, who live in Portland.  We drove to Portland Wednesday, stayed with them and caught a 6:35 a.m. flight from the Portland airport to Dulles with a stop at Chicago. The flight through to Amsterdam was on United Airlines.

  Amsterdam is nine hours ahead of Gold Beach time so when it is 7:00 a.m. in Amsterdam it is 10:00  p.m. the day before at home. Our hotel is in the old section of Amsterdam, the Hotel de L'Europe. We were bushed, but after checking in, Sherry, Scott and I took a canal boat tour of the city and strolled around town a bit before catching up on sleep. This evening we had a reception to meet the other guests who will accompany us on this tour.

  The tour is put on by an English company, Abercrombie & Kent, and is called "Great Renaissance Rail Cruise" which will take us by rail and riverboat from Amsterdam to Rome. The distance is less than a thousand miles and the tour is two weeks so we will not be in any hurry.

  Amsterdam is an old city, founded about 1200 A.D. at the conflu-ence of the Amstel River and the estuary. Amsterdam's golden age was the century 1600-1700 when Dutch mariners established colonies around the world. The empire established lasted until World War II. The jewel was the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. When Holland was unable to protect the colony from the Japanese, the Dutch could never reassert control and Indonesia became independent in 1949.

  Holland is a small country of about 25,000 square miles, about 16 times the size of Curry County, with a population of 15 million people, one of the most densely populated countries in the world. The population density is about 600 persons per square mile compared to about 13 in Curry County. Amsterdam's population is 720,000, smaller than a decade ago.

  This is a country reclaimed from the sea with 60% of the population and 60% of the whole country below sea level. The highest point in the whole country is 900 feet elevation. The Dutch developed a technique with their famous windmills to drain the marshes by pumping water into canals. The airport is 15 feet below sea level.

  At night the city around our hotel is alive with shops and people. Holland has a reputation for tolerance. The streets are a mixture of restaurants, bars, gambling parlors, pornographic movie houses and gift shops.  Tomorrow we are going to take a tour of the city and another canal boat ride.
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