Just some more photos of the Amsterdam canals. While they are remarkably peaceful for the center of a big city, that's primarily because people get around in boats and bikes nowadays. But in previous eras, the favored mode of transportation would have really livened up the place. For reasons I don't entirely understand, the wheels on horsedrawn carriages would get wrecked on the rough cobblestone streets, and the horses couldn't pull the carriages up the many bridges. So people got around on horsedrawn sleds instead, dispensing with the wheels. In order to lubricate the way, gangs of children would run ahead, throwing water and greasy rags in front of the sled, and throwing hay when it needed to stop. Of course the children didn't do this for free, so the occupants of the sleds would throw coins out the window to the children the entire trip. Maybe it looked normal back then, but in my head it sounds completely insane.