Monday, December 21, 2015

The port of Amsterdam - "De magie van het IJ"

One of the paintings by Aafke Steenhuis in "De magie van het IJ"
Few people know that Amsterdam is the fifth-largest port in Europe, after Rotterdam, Antwerp, Hamburg and Marseille. Nor do many people know that the largest shipbuilding yard of the world, NDSM, once was in the northern part of Amsterdam, the part of the city where I live.

My wife, Aafke Steenhuis, has just published a book, "De magie van het IJ" (The magic of the IJ), about the history of the northern part of Amsterdam that until 1921 was a separate municipality, Nieuwendam.

In the book, richly illustrated with her own paintings, Aafke gives a vivid picture of Amsterdam North, which is becoming increasingly popular, among other things, because of EYE, the film museum located at the northern border of the IJ, the water that divides Amsterdam from its northern part and is pronounced as 'eye'.

In the video below (filmed by me) you see Aafke's visit to Damen Shiprepair Amsterdam, located at the same spot where once the famous NDSM yard was building and repairing ships.


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