Canals
Random Facts About The Netherlands
1. The Netherlands boasts many world famous painters such as Vermeer, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, and Jan Steen. Many of their paintings, dwellings, and scenes of inspiration are preserved in the Netherlands to this day.
2. A favorite drunken past time of the Dutch is throwing unlocked bikes into the canals. They have a boat specifically designed to fish them out, deliver them to a junkyard, and repeat...every single day.
3. The Dutch have always been proud of their policy of religious freedom. Even when the Netherlands became a Protestant nation and Catholicism was outlawed in the 1500s, the Catholics were never persecuted. When secret Catholic churches were reported to the authorities, the authorities would claim that they could not investigate on a Sunday due to the sabbath, and that they could not find any evidence of wrong doing during the week.
4. In the 17th century when many canal houses were being built in Amsterdam, they were taxed only on their width. The width of the house became a glaring sign of wealth (or lack thereof) for the people of Amsterdam.
5. Houses in Amsterdam often lean sideways or forward. Sideways because the city was built on a swamp. Forward in order to protect the facade of the building from swinging furniture hoisted through windows using a hook on the roof.
6. The girls of the Red Light District are all independent contractors. They work for themselves and rent out rooms/windows by the day/night. The average amount of time they spend with each client is only 6 minutes.
7. The Dutch East India Company was the world's first multinational corporation, larger then than Apple is today. They were also the first company to issue stock, stemming from the novel idea of a distribution of goods across many ships. In the event that one ship did not make it to their final destination, many merchants would lose a portion of their goods/profits instead of one merchant losing everything.
