Things I actually like about the Netherlands, Part II

As I looked out of my window this morning, I noticed that one of the apartments across the canal has installed new blinds (bear with me, there is a point to this); the deep shade of teal contrasts nicely with the deep-brown bricks and cream window frames and gable decoration (no really, the point's coming up soon). It caught my eye not just because of the unusual color combo, but largely because window treatments of any variety are rarely seen in Amsterdam. Wherever you go, apartments luxuriate in the curious gaze of passers-by, those living opposite, and the tourist barges that ply their trade on our waterways. Apparently, this openess has two causes: 1) it's a way for the otherwise reserved (ha!) Dutch to demonstrate their wealth without actually flauting it in a terribly nouveau riche/American way; and 2) the Calvinist belief that enjoyment of soft furnishings condemns you to eternal damnation -- something, I think, we can all get behind.

This absence of curtaining is fantastic for someone who is both as nosy and as interested in "ordinary" design and interior decorating as me(there's my point!). In my student days, I enjoyed wandering round Summertown, a well-to-do Oxford neighbourhood, gazing in at the basement kitchens and book-stuffed living rooms as dusk fell and lights were turned on. But the English felt no compunction at closing their curtains to my stalker-esque stare, relishing, in fact, the privacy afforded by several metres of John Lewis' finest material. Amsterdam rewards my gaze, revels in it, nay encourages me to admire the many plants, unusual light fittings, and kitty cats that fill each abode.

Even better than the canal houses are the apartment blocks in areas like Oud West. If you enter one and head to the back, you are confronted with a huge expanse of gardens, enclosed on all sides by buildings. Each building has windows, balconies, roof terraces, all alive with light and human activity -- Rear Window come to life. (I've yet to see anyone being bumped off but I live in hope.) It's better than television, or at least Dutch TV -- but that's a complaint for another post.

And, I must confess, we've gone native. Although we have curtains, we rarely close them, preferring to see and be seen by our neighbours. You forget about them remarkably quickly; strolling scantily clad around the front room with nary a thought. "But surely the people across the canal can't see in? It's too far!" Well, perhaps -- although at one dinner party, one of our British guests exclaimed in scandalized tones "OMG! There's a woman in the apartment opposite taking her kit off" and all eyes swivelled in that direction. Oh well, modesty is clearly an over-rated virtue in these parts, and I don't care.