Useless Information II

With the popular trend of sequels in the movie industry now days, I thought a sequel would be a good idea since I am know way too much useless information. Hopefully it is more enjoyable than most movie sequels, but won’t be as good as the first:

On the first day of summer in Iceland, the Iceland’s general rule is if the morning of this day is freezing and warms up above freezing during the day. It will be a warm summer season.
- Since the first day of summer this year, it has been surprisingly nice (better than normal).

During the French Revolution, the cathedral of Notre Dame was vandalized and most artifacts were stolen or destroyed. Since this time the cathedral in such disarray. Renovation of the cathedral was not even considered until after the book Hunchback of Notre Dame became popular.

Amsterdam’s coat of arms has three X’s, which people believe it represents protection from plagues, fire, and flood.
- With the Red Light District so well known, it is kind of funny that the Amsterdam’s coat of arms includes XXX. Maybe it’s just me.

During our trip I heard on multiple occasions that Amsterdam is also called the “Venice of the North” and Amsterdam has more canals (length) than its counterpart.
- I was curious about this and decided to look further into this. After looking at Wikipedia Encyclopedia, did not link this nickname to Amsterdam. There were comparisons during a general search on web, but I could not find any information about greater amount of canals. Of course I didn’t spend too much time, but I believe this is a self proclaimed title and statement.

Up to the end of 18th century was very prosperous for the Dutch, mainly due to there world wide trading network. According to one of the tours, their fall was due to the conflict with British for the Dutch support for the Americans during the American Revolution. Resulting in British control over Dutch colonies
- I was curious about this statement, so I read more about the subject. Come to find out the Dutch were fighting on and off with England since mid-1600s. During the American Revolution was the fourth war between them and England. In addition to the decline, there was a regime change and Dutch elite merchants started using London as a base of operation. England did take control of majority of the Dutch colonies during this period.
- Sure blame it on Americans when there is so much more to the story.