April 26, 2017 – Day 89 of 365

Leading Lines — 

Today’s topic, “leading lines” is brought to you with a little history lesson gleaned from a photo safari through the streets of Amsterdam yesterday.  

The Damrak is the original mouth of the Amstel River – rak is an old Dutch term for a straight canal or river. Until 1672, when most of it was filled in, except for the canal-boat docks on the east side, Damrak was Amsterdam’s busiest canal. Ships were docked along its quays — all the way up to Dam square — to unload, and take on board, goods from all over the world. The name of the canal refers to the dam in the river Amstel (hence, Amsterdam) on the site of what eventually became Dam square in front of the Royal Palace.

At the time, the northern end of Damrak ended in the city’s open harbor front, which was the gateway to the Zuiderzee (South Sea), and from there to the North Sea. The Amsterdam Centraal train station wasn’t built until the 1880s.

 Today, the gabled houses backing onto the water are among the town’s most picturesque.  After our six-hour photo safari, we arrived back at the train station to catch a tram back to our accommodations.  It was now a little after 10:30 pm and the winds had died down.  The water surface was extremely calm and provided a glassy reflective surface that begged to be captured in a photograph.