Showing posts with label amsterdam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label amsterdam. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

How New Orleans and Amsterdam are Alike

Having visited Amsterdam, NL, I came away with the following observations on the similarties between New Orleans and Amsterdam:
  • Both are below sea level. Canals, levees, dams and dikes everywhere to keep the city from going underwater.


  • Both have a distinctive European feel -- Amsterdam, well, because its in Europe and New Orleans because it was once ruled by the French.


  • Landmark church in the middle of the debauchery: Oude Kerk in the Red Light District vs. St. Louis Cathedral in the Vieux Carre (French Quarter)


  • Napolean Bonapart installed the Netherlands government (led by his brother) in Amsterdam and installed a colonies (what was to become the Louisiana Purchase) government in New Orleans.


  • Coffee shops on every corner (of course thats true of most American cities these days) and, well ok, the American and Dutch menus in this regard are a bit different.


  • Amsterdam has boobs behind glass, New Orleans has boobs on balconies.

However, there is one major difference. . . the natives of Amsterdam speak English far better than the natives of New Orleans.