As we walked along this canal one early evening, it seemed to distinguish itself from other canals in small ways. The canal in the photo above is actually the Leliegracht as seen from the Herengracht. I was so enamored of the details on buildings along the Herengracht I failed to take a photo of the canal itself; but, let’s get back to the details.
Some of the contrast of colors on the buildings were especially nice and when I thought about it, I had never before seen so many brown hued buildings as I have in Amsterdam. The sculpture in the upper right photo seems much more in place for a culture where three dimensional, figurative, shop signs are more common than they appear to be in this city. I think perhaps the hardware was the most unique. They say the devil is in the details, but this door pull would have you think it was a dragon. The grate over the window in the wooden door to the lower right seemed very elegant and it made it clear that this was never a working class neighborhood.
On the other side of the city just south of Herengracht on Utrechtsestraat (a block west of the Amstel river) is another clue to the social status of Herengracht. It’s the upscale supermarket, simply called Marqt. Terry Mitchell, a chef in Amsterdam, had posted photos of some of the food products sold there on www.foodspotting.com and they made me want to see the store. I actually used his photos to plan a portion of this trip and think the website is a decent place to look for restaurants or markets in unfamiliar territory. If you click the link and search for Amsterdam you’ll see Terry’s photos as well as some of mine. Or you can take a look at mine right here.
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