As there is not many room in Amsterdam the houses are attached and usually have 4 floors, which means a lot of steps !
Here is the street and below left his house. Most of the houses have benches outside to sit and chat or watch the children. There are not many cars, only bikes and parking in the street is very expensive. Each house owner has a place in a common garage and you are allowed to only keep one car, otherwise you have to pay the parking fee of 2.50 Euros/hour !!
There are all kinds of big toys on the sidewalk and hundreds of bikes. The cats also have their space !
These pictures show the back of the houses. Each house has a big terrace and the residents try to make the best out of it so that it looks like a little garden. The one of my son is below left. Of course for me coming from Belgium where we have even in Brussels a lot of space except in the very poor areas, this seems strange to me. But these houses are very expensive and have a big success, because there are close to Amsterdam and very modern. There is everything you need, schools, shops, playgrounds and sports clubs.
Toby my grandson and I walked along the canals to the nearby harbor where we had a delicious ice cream.
These people had their lunch just besides their boat ! Nice place to live when you have a boat just at the back door !
In 10 min walk you are also at a little beach, where we went and father and son did a little swim, because it was quite hot !
Our T-shirts didn't really fit the reality I had a cat and he a dog !
In the evening we had a barbecue which was delicious.
Toby and I are on holidays, the parents have to work ....
more about Ijburg here
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With such great restrictions on cars, I assume the public transport is very good, even in a new area.
ReplyDeleteThe architecture is quite modern!
ReplyDeleteA lovely tour, I wouldn't want to pay the car parking fee no wonder there are so many bikes.
ReplyDeleteWow, if only they introduced the parking fee here then maybe people would actually use their garages instead of parking their cars in the street and taking up all the spaces. Selfishness reigns supreme here.
ReplyDeleteHolland is so much more bike friendly. I hope you're enjoying your stay.
ReplyDeleteHaving a boat at the back door is kinda my dream :-) Love the photo of you in cat shirt and Toby in dog shirt!
ReplyDeleteWonderful pictures. What a great spot! My friend lives in the middle of Amsterdam and she and her husband do not own a car. They just bike or walk. If they go on holiday, they rent a car, but owning a car is too expensive for them. His work is very close by and she is retired, and she stays at home and paints.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a nice area.
ReplyDeleteThe people have made their small spaces beautiful. And to have a beach nearby - that is wonderful! I have two cats and one dog, so I like both shirts
ReplyDeleteWhat a nice tour. Lovely to see the cats.
ReplyDeleteWorth a Thousand Words
Seems a lot of thought has gone into that estate with regard to caring for the environment. With the number of cars on the road it would make a huge difference it ownership was restricted to one car per family.
ReplyDeleteIt is different way to live, but (perhaps except for the stairs for people of our generation) it seems not bad at all to me.... they are well planned with the terraces and play areas and I like the car restriction. We had a big house and yard when our kids were growing up, a typical western ranch-style, but as you know went to very small space living once we retired and didn't need that much space. I'm very happy with that decision, but think it would have been hard to raise our big family without the big home we had back then.
ReplyDelete