Amsterdam city find.

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Bert Tressel reports about a most recent find in the very hart of Amsterdam. A nice late 19th century building surrounded by high fences and shrubberies is hiding the collection of a locally wellknown hoarder of  bicycles and Ariel(!) motorbikes. When the wheather is fine he will repair bikes in front of the house. So far so good and not an uncommon sight in Amsterdam. Even the daffodil coloured Daf 55 parked in front makes sense.  Due to recent activity - possibly the collector is moving to a home for elderly - the fences are more often and wider open than usually is the case.

Bert peeked inside and let his iphone do the witnessing. To his surprise he found under the debris another daffodil coloured vehicle, but now missing one wheel: a Messerschmitt!  And then there was this curious cylindrical shaped white topped vehicle with perspex windows all around. A mystery to most of you. Not so for Amsterdam people who have seen the seventies. The WitKar was an avant garde project of car sharing with electric vehicles available to anybody. Way beyond what was feasible back then. The project initiated by hippie & visionaire Luud Schimmelpennick died very soon. It  came forty years too early. Now if you zoom in here with Google you can still find the fenced garden and even the white roofed WitKar. But for how long?  

(photos Bert Tressel)

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