Find Of The Week (2)
There is an old Amsterdam joke that the average depth of an Amsterdam canal is 3 metres, made up of one metre of mud, a metre of water and another of bicycles, some fifteen thousand of which are fished out each year. The canals are much cleaner these days, no longer being used as a convenient repository for the city’s waste and sewerage, but the authorities still carry out extensive cleaning operations.
And it is surprising what they fish out.
Less than a thousand Mondial 3.2 sports cars were produce by Ferrari in the late 1980s. One was reported as stolen in Amsterdam in the early 1990s, never found and the insurance company duly paid out.
Last month, though, in the water off Javakade in Amsterdam Oost, divers found the car. Its condition was described as “completely rusted” and it will be scrapped. Some, though, think that would be a waste and are campaigning for it to become a feature in the aquarium at Artis Zoo, where fish can swim in and out of it to their heart’s content. Seems like a good idea.
Why it was ditched in the canal, perhaps it was too hot to handle, no one knows, although after a forensic investigation, police confirmed that there was no proof of a violent crime having been committed.
It makes a change from bikes, I suppose.
