Crooked Houses

Okay.....I have tons of pictures like these......but Piddle wouldn't let me post all of them....I hate the word "cull" now.....

These crooked houses are everywhere.......because this town is built on ground below sea level (sound familiar).....the pilings that the houses and buildings are built upon...are sinking....thus making the houses crooked.....the city won't let the owners fix them however because they claim it is the "character of Amsterdam" and they don't want that destroyed....

You'll also notice how skinny and tall the houses are.....this is because when building the town...the land was at such a premium that the city would only allow you to build your house a few feet wide....the cost of the building permit was based on the width of the structure....thus very skinny and 4 to 5 stories tall was the typical structure of houses...

The second place we stayed was on the west side of town....and this was the "upper crust" area of town and the houses are about twice as wide....because they could afford the permit...I'm not sure I have any pictures from there...but you may see some.....