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Things to know about Amsterdam, Holland

By Joop Frielink

Interesting facts about the city of Amsterdam’s population: today the city has an official population of 731000 plus an estimated 20000 illegal residents. Children and elderly people are underrepresented compared with other  cities, so 40 % of the population is aged between 20 and 40. 55 % of households are single and couples without children are more common than couples with. . 

There’s a wide choice of things to do in Amsterdam, so you don’t have to worry that you’ll get bored. When you’re walking in the city you can admire the 17^th- and 18^th- century architecture, enjoy street artists like musicians, acrobats and fire-eaters, visit open-air markets and do some shopping. Some other popular things to do in Amsterdam are making a cycling tour in the city or go on a canal tour by boat.  

Some other interesting things to do in Amsterdam are; visiting the Artis zoo, Van Gogh Museum, Rijksmuseum, the Anne Frank House, Stedelijk museum, Holland Casino Amsterdam, Concertgebouw etc. You don’t have to spend a lot of money at museums to enjoy your stay. There are many free things to do in Amsterdam also. For example; you can wander through the red-light district and admire the architecture, enjoy peace and quiet in the Begijnhof, visit the Zuiderkerk, enjoy an open-air concert in the Vondelpark in the summer etc. 

Some facts about the birth of the city.  Most of the region that later became known as Holland was a soggy land of shifting lakes and swamps lying at or below sea level. These marshlands were gradually tamed with ditches and dykes by isolated farming communities, and around 1300 the south bank of the Ij (Y) was dyked all the way to Harlem. It was in this period that Amsterdam was officially founded. The city grew rapidly and focused on maritime trade.  

Some other Amsterdam facts you may like to know: when you meet someone, it’s accepted to shake hands. Three kisses on the cheeks are only common between men and women who know each other socially. If you’re invited home for dinner, it’s customary to bring something for the host, like flowers, a bottle of wine, or some good cake or something like that. It’s also polite to arrive 15 minutes late.

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Visit the Kon-Tiki (Thor Heyerdahl)  Museum in Oslo, Norway.   .

 By  Anna Johansson

Thor Heyerdahl, scientist, explorer and traveler was born  in 1914 on October 6 in the Norwegian town of Larvik. He died in 2002 on April 18 in Colla Micheri, Italy. He is known the world over  for a number of exciting expeditions..

His  first expedition (1937- 1938) was on one of  the Marquesas islands,  Fat Hiva. There he studied the fauna and flora of a number of islands.  What really made him famous was his Kon-Tiki Expedition in 1947. He built a balsa wood raft like the ones used by South American peoples hundreds of years before.  He sailed, with five colleagues, from Peru to the Raroia atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago. They crossed the distance of 8000 km  in 101 days. Mainstream scientists had ridiculed him and had said his raft would sink within days. He proved them wrong and did that more than once in the years that followed. 

In 1952  Heyerdahl headed a Norwegian archaeological expedition to the Galapagos Islands. There the expedition found great quantities of pre-Incan ceramics.  In 1955  he led  an excavation on  Easter Island and discovered that the island had been occupied from 380 AD, again proving that a number of mainstream scientist had been wrong about the island’s history..

In the two very exciting Ra- expeditions (one in 1969 and one in 1970) he proved that ancient civilisations (like the one from Egypt)  were able to and could have made the trip from Africa to the New World, long before the Vikings and Columbus. He made those trips on two papyrus boats which were replicas of ancient Egyptian vessels. 

Later followed more expeditons on the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, in Peru , Tenerife, the Black Sea, etc. He kept on working, giving lectures and doing more travelling  until he became seriously ill in 2001. 

The Kon-Tiki museum in Oslo, Norway  (Bygdøynesveien 36 - 0286 Oslo, Tel: (+47) 23 08 67 67 Fax:  (+47) 23 08 67 60x, Email:   kon-tiki@kon-tiki.no) opened in 1950 and is situated not far from the city centre of Oslo. The museum has permanent exhibitions on the Fatu Hiva, Kon-Tiki, Easter Island, Tigris and Ra expeditions. You can see some of the original parts, objects and boats of a number of the great scientist’s expeditions and travels.

The museum is open year round and can be reached by bus (every 15 minutes) from the Central Station or the National Theatre.   Or in summer (from April to October) by ferry from the departure point near  Oslo City Hall.

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