Watch your step
A Dutch staircase is not for the faint of heart ... or the intoxicated.
Three things that surprise first-time visitors to The Netherlands:
There are more bikes than people.
“Coffeeshops” do not sell coffee. (They sell pot and hashish.)
Dutch staircases are a deathtrap.
This is pretty common in older homes built more than a century ago.
Taxation in the past was tied to the width of the home, which led to the narrow row house style that you see along the canals of Amsterdam and many other cities across the country. There’s one house in Amsterdam (Singel 7) that’s only seven feet wide.
The narrow house width meant a smaller footprint for the staircase, especially in a building that has three or four stories.
The first photo is from the small hotel we’ve stayed during each of our visits. Each tread has enough room for about 70% of my foot. It definitely takes getting used to.
Our new apartment has some fairly steep stairs down to the basement, where the guest bedroom and laundry room are located. But the living room is on the ground floor and there’s French doors that open to the street, which will make it easy for movers.
Here’s a video to give you a better idea of what it’s like to walk down these stairs: