And here just a hundred metres or so from the middle of town is a scene like this – pastoral and beautiful.

Edam is very pretty and the bridges through the centre are tall, I assume it is to allow enough clearance for the boats that travel the canals.

In this photo, imagine the canal running across the scene from side to side.

Of course there could be just the bridges, and then people could walk on one side of the the canal or the other.

But if you wanted to connect to both sides above the canal then because the roads and streets on either side of the canal are just a half metre or so above the water line, so the connecting land between roads has to be humped.

Here is a view of a group of tourists and the guide. I was standing on the street looking up at people who were standing on the hump of the road and you can see that the building behind on the other street is also at a lower level. .

It is very unusual. If you want to walk from the street on one side of the canal to the street on the other side of the canal you have to climb up this slope and down the other side. And if a boat happened to be on the canal at this point, then it would be under your feet, so to speak.