The govt made a video to show people what to do if and when they drive into a canal. I've never seen anyone do it but i have seen them pull a car out once. I wonder if you get special insurance for that or if its extra.
I wonder how many people have fallen into the canals.? I wish I had the statistics on that. Better still see someone do it and catch it on video.
I saw a car hanging with it's right front wheel over the canal egde once.. hehe.. it's really tricky 'cause the parkingspots are very small and there is usually no boundary between the parkingplace and the canal (like a fence or poles).. also finding a spot is hard enough in itself (they should call them G-spot) so when you finally find one you can't be too picky on how tricky it is to get your car in there Parking is very expensive as well.. if you are by car, best thing to do is park somewhere at the edge of the city and go to the centre by public transport. By the way.. the Dutch word for 'canal' is 'gracht'.. try pronouncing that We have the word 'kanaal' as well, but we only use that for the very wide, humanmade riverlike things.. you know, like the Suez-canal. The small once in the cities are called 'gracht'. The small canals of water along meadows (natural or humanmade) are called 'sloot'. A river we just call 'rivier'.. 'leg' is 'meer', 'sea' is 'zee'.. 'rain' is 'regen'.. 'puddle' is 'poel' or 'plas'. Note that in German 'Meer' is 'sea' and 'See' is 'leg'.. just opposite from Dutch.. Am I boring you yet?
Velevet, you are a wealth of information. I'm glad you are on the Hip-Forums and share your stuff with us all. Not many people from the Netherlands or Amsterdam come to this section, but glad you do. (I've ticked your rep points BTW, you deserve it). Velvet, I hope you don't mind but I need some info and will PM you by late Thursday eve (6 Jan) about it. I hope this will be OK with you. Just a quick question nothing to worry about.
I seriously would not like to fall into the canal. I can swim but noticed that in places there are shear brick walls, how the hell would you get out, especially drunk and stoned and in a panic.
Yeah.. plus the water must be pretty nasty.. But I think I'll panic in no matter what water when it's deep and dark.. brrr.. scary
There's a lot of junk in there... I didn't know about the number of cars but there are lots and lots of bicycles thrown into the canals. Sometimes people toss old wrecks in just to get rid of them and also there's vandalism; not all bikes that disappear are stolen, quite a few end up in the water instead. Btw, Velvet, your little translations are neat but 'leg' should be 'lake' Leg = been in Dutch, lake = meer.
did you ever see that movie 'Amsterdammed'? there was a serial killing scuba diver in the canals of amsterdam. thats the real reason you shouldnt swim in the canals.
No clue.. hehe.. but my guess is that you can't stand in it so that to me is deep enough And yeah, I saw Amsterdammed.. hehe.. when the corps hits that touristboat.. teehee
Like mafuman said.. it's about a serialkilling scubadiver that lurks in the canals and attacks people.. it's from the '80's and in Dutch.. saw it once.. it's an ok movie I guess.. check here or watch trailer (windows media player) here by the way.. it's 'Amsterdamned'.. I missspelled
More movies with Amsterdam: Do NOt Disturb. something about a deaf or mute girl who witnesses a murder in amsterdam. this movie sux. still smokin: cheech and chong; can i call you burt, mr reynolds? oceans 12: i didnt see this but i was in amsterdam while they were filming it.
I mentioned this in another post but I know someone who drowned in one of the canals in Amsterdam (Happened about 2 or 3 years ago, name was Dave (or David) Young) I think he was a first timer there, he ended up drinking too much, or smoking too much or both. Either way, wasn't cool.
