Friday - Kicking off the Amsterdam canals' birthday celebration bash

The canals of Amsterdam, or at least the main four ones around the centre, are 400 years old this year and the city is going to celebrate them the whole year with exhibitions and events.

Being a nerdy lover of maps, architectural plans and cityscapes, I will start my own personal celebratory tour with a visit to the State Archives, hosting the exhibition "Booming Amsterdam".

During the Golden Age, Amsterdam was the London or the New York of the era, with people conveying  to it from all over the world, looking for a job and a better life. Statistics and documents of the Seventeenth Century show that actually the majority of the residents had been born elsewhere.

Many of them helped building the canals and the beautiful houses that you can admire (and possibly, envy) along the Herengrcht, Prinsegracht and Keizergracht.

http://boomingamsterdam2013.nl/2012/08/english/