We went to Amsterdam over the weekend to attend a friend’s wedding, and also to spend some quality time together.
I wanted to share with you my two favourite purchases. The scenic photographs will follow, I just need to get them from the hubs as he was using his camera.
Model houses by Amsterdam Streets. These are based on real buildings of canal houses in Amsterdam. If you are wondering why the houses appear crooked, well that is because in real life, the buildings are crooked. There seems to be a couple of explanations for this. The first one being tax reasons. In the past tax on land was very expensive and hence builders tried to get around paying less tax by building high rise buildings with a small base. Apparently over time this resulted in the houses being slightly crooked. The second theory is that they were deliberately built this way. For some reason the imperfect structure lends to these buildings a unique charm. They are imbalanced, imperfect, like many things in the world around us- but yet when viewed as one unit, transcends into a beautiful work of art. Some buildings have been accorded listed/monumental status.
Delft Blue Chinaware is another product unique to the Netherlands. You can see this in most shops in Amsterdam. I couldn’t resist getting these cute kitten salt and pepper shakers.
That’s it for now, stay tuned for more updates.
The kittens are really cute! I wouldn’t want to shake them, so sayang
They are cute aren’t they? Sitting on my coffee table and looking proud at the moment
I love the houses! My dad used to travel to Holland for biz rather often in the past and brought back many Delft Chinaware of Hollas and’s architecture (like a combination of both of your souvenirs), they were given out courtesy of KLM. There were such work of art!
PS: Hollas and’s= Holland’s