Amsterdam : bikes, Satan and screaming

Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands with a population of 850,000 inhabitants and a surface area of 219.3 km2 located in the Amsterdam region in the northwest of the Netherlands.

More bikes than inhabitants?

We know that Amsterdam is the city of bikes, that there are even more bikes than inhabitants, but do you know why?

In the 60's, cars were the progress: they were present everywhere in the city, all the roads had to be redesigned (enlarged), destroying houses. Moreover, it caused the death of many children.

In the 1970s, the people of Amstelloden wanted to do away with cars, so they opposed the city council's pro-car plans and got back on their bikes as before.

The Church of Satan in the red-light district

Amsterdam is known as a city of freedom and tolerance, but with certain limits.

60's in the red-light district, everybody knows each other. The district is a construction of a young man: Maarten Lamers. He builds his business (of sex...) trying to pass it off as a religious institution (including a monastic order), in this case Satanist, to avoid paying taxes.

His business is doing well, very well, and Lamers must therefore be fully in his role as a satanic high priest.

Unfortunately for him, the tax and customs authorities realized that something was going on behind his back. And 14 years later, the Satanic Church of Lamers was raided on a massive scale.

The judge finally sentenced Lamers to one year in prison for tax evasion with tax refunds to the IRS.

Screaming in the XIVe century

Cows bellowing in the slaughterhouse next to you, and ten children running on a thin wooden floor above you. This kind of noise pollution was once quite normal.

With the invention of the flue, homes could accommodate occupants on each floor, which could cause a lot of noise, even though shoes were removed when entering the home.

On top of that, the residents were treated to the daily sounds of animals being shot in the street.

Finally, although the city had only 30,000 inhabitants at the time, many inns existed (often located under the houses)

To solve these problems of noise pollution, during the day, you could go to a monastery to rest.