It's tulip season and the earth's fertility shows. Nowhere do canals vitalize and grace a city with as much splendor as does Amsterdam, its capital and largest city. Canals don't wander. They average half a mile in length. But they're a small portion of the city's canals.
Some short canals resemble railroad sidings.
You rarely move more than a block without having to cross a bridge. The famed Rijksmuseum lies along that waterway. Radial canals connect the main canals, and most residential businesses lie along them. Buildings touch side by side but not against those to the rear, which front on an adjacent canal. Expect to wait in line if you want to see the Jewish girl's hideaway where she wrote her diary in 1942-44.