Rouen

Joan of Arc's church, where she was burned at the stake

So many cobblestones in all of these towns! I keep thinking of mosaic paintings and how long they take to put together and the number of pieces involved, then consider how big these cities are. And it's the same throughout all of Europe! I don't think my feet are used to the uneven walking they cause, even if it's quaint. 



Sheltering the homeless

Rouen is known for being the place where Joan of Arc died, which is a bit negative for the town, I imagine. But the town is more a shrine to the memory of the saint she has become, the patron saint of France. I was surprised to learn that despite being a young woman leading the French army, Joan of Arc wasn't a feminist and dismissed all other women from the military. The way she came to power seemed interesting too. I guess she made a few military predictions that came true, and the French thought, why not, what we're doing now doesn't seem to be working, so let's try the teenager out on the battlefield. And it worked, for a while!

I was also amused to find that her church was being used to shelter the homeless, albeit informally.



Love me

As it was our last stop in France, I picked up some sweets for the road, an eclair and some other ball of chocolate covered goodness. The latter turned out to be two meringues sandwiched together with chocolate frosting, chocolate bits and powdered sugar. Difficult to eat, but definitely one of the best things I ate in France! I just love me my chocolate.

We made it into Amsterdam around 8pm, checking into the crazy popular Flying Pig Hostel before rushing out to meet T&B for a night boat tour of the canals. We managed to sneak in a snack of the local favs, fries with mayo. I'm actually a decent fan of mayo, but having it only on fries seemed wrong up until I tried it. It was awesome, if not just because their mayo has a different (better) flavor to it than ours. But maybe that's a good thing. I don't want to be putting mayo on everything all the time.

The canal tour was fantastic, more for the company than the commentary, though a lot of it was interesting too. Amsterdam prides itself on its canals, and for good reason. They're beautiful, and it was a lot of fun to be on a huge glass boat, protected from the light rain, watching the Captain pilot us through with inches to spare on either side. The lights on the bridges at night were the perfect ending touch.

The hooks to haul up the furniture

Venice was the only city I knew of that had canals, and while I still really want to see it, it kind of sounds like Amsterdam might outdo them on that front. Of course, this might just be the locals talking about the city they love. But the most common complaint I hear about Italy is how dirty and smelly everything is, especially the canals, and Amsterdam's canals are definitely not that. They have a lock system that flushes them out every few days (one whose height was raised after Katrina) and they scooped some water out of the canal into a glass and it was still really clear-looking.

The buildings in Amsterdam are kind of like San Francisco, in that they're narrow but with lots of stories. A lot of them are also leaning, some because of the foundation under them is slowly giving way and others because of the hooks that jut out at the top of them. Because the stairways are so narrow and steep, they have to use the hooks to hoist up furniture to be brought in through the windows for the upper stories. And to make sure they avoided hitting the houses as they did so, they leaned the houses forward a little in their construction. I'm not sure this is totally true, but it kind of makes enough sense that I'm willing to pass it along.


The lights of several bridges down the canals

While a house in the canal district is expensive, it doesn't compare to the price of a houseboat on the water, because several years ago the city stopped giving out permits for them all together. Now those who have them sell them for around $300,000. Not too shabby! It was really neat to float by the houseboats and see two couples having a dinner party inside, and another taking a chicken out of the oven.