Living like a Local

We're renting an apartment in Amsterdam for the week instead of staying in a hotel.  If we had not done this, we would need two hotel rooms since there are four of us.  Given our location on Reestraat near the Prinsengracht canal in the "9 Streets" neighborhood, the apartment is just as economical as two hotel rooms.  Plus we get a full kitchen which we have used extensively to cook meals instead of eating out all the time.

Our apartment has three levels above a store selling ladies clothing.  We found it on the internet and the information said narrow steep staircase.  This picture in no way captures how narrow and steep the staircase actually is.  This is the view from the street through the front door up to the first floor.  We're probably going up about a 60 degree angle.  It's like we're climbing a 20 foot extension ladder -- except with a landing in the middle.  Getting our luggage up the stairs was quite the challenge.  The stairways to the top two levels each turn 180 degrees like a spiral staircase going up about 10 feet with 12 steps.  The steps themselves aren't wide enough to fit your entire foot.  If you are looking closely, you will see that there is a definite lean to the left --it's not the angle of the camera.

Our first floor has a small living area with large windows looking down on the street.  There is also the kitchen and built in table.  The top two floors each have a bedroom and full bath.  The stone atop the gable indicates our building was built in 1897.  We've noticed that all the row houses and canal houses have similar narrow staircases, which begs the question--how do they move furniture or other large items into these houses?

The answer is hoisting hooks.  Every building in central Amsterdam has one.  The ones hundreds of years old have them and the ones built ten years ago have them.  The white posts sticking out from the top of each building have hooks where you can fasten ropes and pulleys to hoist up most anything and pass them through the windows.  In addition, all of the buildings are built leaning forward so you don't hit the front of the building when raising and lowering items from the hooks.  Between the intentional lean and the fact that most if not all of the buildings are built on reclaimed land, I doubt there's any row building or canal house in Amsterdam that is plumb and square--but it does make for great architecture.