Fragothic

Hello, I've read many city journals, and I thought it should be time for my own city journal. So I 'proudly present'New Amsterdam to you. It's still a small city, but it should grow into a metropolis... Here you can see the historic city core with the loop canal 'singel' Here another part of the town Show your view and give comments please! If people like the city i'll post more pictures

@Sebes: Please don't start Rotterdam-bashing here, Rotterdam is a very nice city in my opinion!

After a very long time, I decided it was time for a new update. Let's take the train to weteringdam! You will leave your train here, because it's the old main station of the city. A new terminus station has been built in the city, but it isn't widely used yet. We're directly in the city centre. The centre is very old, older than NewAmsterdam. It has been conserved almost completely and now it is a popular tourist trap, with over 60 gift shops and unreliable money change offices. One of the most beautiful things about Weteringdam are the canals, built to supply the old warehouses. Rich people living in the warehouses sold their goods all around the world and made a lot of money, making it possible for Weteringdam to build a lot of churches and big public buildings Around the churches big squares were developed troughout the ages, giving the city it's majestic look. One of the nicest areas in town is the harbour districts with the warehouses, the old buildings and the canals. Here a nice community garden, not accessible from the street. On the left side, you can see the national theatre. Famous for the nice orchestra The final shot: and old suburb

Since RLS eats more time than I eat hamburgers, the amount of updates has been decreased somewhat, but here are some pics of Weteringdam, a big old city. The city is still under construction, so I don't have much pictures:

In contrary to NewAmsterdam, Rotjeknor doesn't look too nice. It's a poor industry city. Almost no rich people live there, however, the city is a nice place to live: people are very friendly and they like party's. A little shopping mall in a residental area. Don't expect nice shops: there are only low-budget clothing stores and supermarkets And the development is still going on... As you can see, the city centre doesn't look nice, the only place of interest is the huge club 'The volcano'. Every weekend thousands of people visit the famous party's. Here the people do their job... Just let the comments come!

Today we're going to the countryside, not many people live here, and it's a horrible area. Why? Because nothing happens over here: no parties, no cinema's, no progression and the average age is 55, and anybody who could organise something moves away to the major cities. Here is a small village at the river. The city is protected from the river by a big dike, however, about once in a century the dike breaks and the city gets flooded. Here another picture of the dike. Maintenance is well done, but nobody knows why. Nobody would miss the people living behind it, because they're the most boring people living on this planet. Another place along the river. It's very important, since it has his own train station and even a pub!

Now we're going to visit the villages around NewAmsterdam. We start with Zeedam, a coastal village with a big harbour. During the summer holiday, the village is crowded by citizens from NewAmsterdam, who like the beach and the nightlife. Here is an overview of the city's waterways, harbours, marina and buoys. The ship traffic is quite dense, due to the marina and the big seaport. Also some fishermen live in the village. The seaport during day and nighttime. A big and cheap hotel to facilitate the mass tourism Here arer the clubs, bars and disco's of Zeedam. Overcrowded during summer holidays, empty and boring at the rest of the season The lighthouse. Now not really needed anymore, because the most ships have navigation systems on board. The seafront The village centre The dunes, preventing the country from being flooded

@Everybody who says I have to use canals: Many city's in Holland have circular 'singels'. To give an example, in my home town, Haarlem those singels, formerly used to defend the city, have been transformed into parks, and the Haarlem singels actually don't look like the canals made by oppie etc. I used Oppie's canals in other city's, but I like PEG ponds more. The streets are becoming more crowded, because of the many tourists and because the city gets bigger and bigger, now the authority counts more than 250.000 people, of which around 60.000 live in the old centre. Here is the city's Catholic cathedral. Almost all of the churches in the city were built by Catholics, but in 1566 the 'beeldenstorm', the protestant rage against the Catholics didn't skip the Catholic churches. They became prosestant. The Catholic church was forbidden, but around 1700 the Catholics were allowed again to build churches, and they built a big cathedral here. One of the few wide roads in the old town. Some buildings at the singel The business district is still growing... Some overview pictures The next time we will visit the villages around the big city, and as always:

@ Bux: No, it isn't a copy of Amsterdam at all The old city is located on an island. The new districts are on the main land. The most people live here. The most important area is the new business area, a modern district with skyscrapers and monorail. Here is the city's second central station. To tackle congestion, the old station has been reconstructed and more trains leave the station now. More and more commuters find their way to the station. During the reconstruction 2 hotel skyscrapers were built to accomodate the increasing amount of tourists in New Amsterdam.

Here 2 city overview pictures Give your comments!

Here a new 'episode' The central station of New Amsterdam. Transport in NA is badly organised. There is almost no public transport in the ciy, city routes are very small, because when the city was built, no one ever thought about cars. Heritage laws forbid old buildings to be destroyed, so nobody has a solution for the traffic problems. The city's richest district. The captains of Industry of the whole country live here. Seaside district. This is the state square: The government settles here. Also some parts of the city government have their buildings at the square. Also the city theatre is here. An overview of the 18th century new town. New Amsterdam isn't really a 24-hour-active-city, but the pubs, stages and theatres are well loaded in the evening.

Here are some new pictures of New Amsterdam (In JPEG format!) Here an overview of the old town. As you can see, there are a lot of churches, but these days they aren't used as much as when they were brand new, because around 1500 around 100 people lived in one single building. Here other pictures of the old town. A neighbourhood at the river. Long times ago it was a slum for sailors, prosititution was the main business of the district and alcohol abuse was common. Now it's a popular and trendy place in the city with shops and pubs. Many students live here After a bloody war the economy of the city boomed and complete new districts were added to the city. Rich people owned the buildings. Many rich people left their castle/vila and bought a house in New Amsterdam. A huge fire in the city left a big gap near the waterfront. Project developers wanted some more Manhattan in New Amsterdam, but the buildings they built were ridiculously ugly and now the shops have moved away their business out of the buildings and they're on sale. It's not a nice place at night, because junkies and youth rule the park. Please let the comments come!

Here are some other town pictures: The new town at the other side of the 'Singel' A part of the city's market square Another picture I hpoe you like it!

A switch point is a place where commuters switch between different ways of transport (Like busstops walk-> bus) Here is it el train -> train

The 90 degree curves are being made for a light-rail project. There is another thread where it is explained. It's impossible to get non el-trains driving on el-tracks and vice versa, so they can't work. They can only work as a switch point