My second visit to Amsterdam, again in the winter. The weather could not have been any better for March and it shows in the top of the colour of water photograph with the bluey grey hues.

From above, the canals looks the same, brown and murky, wherever you are in the city, there seems to be plenty of life milling around on top though.

There is over 100km of canals in Amsterdam and were originally dug in the 17th century and you can find out more info about them here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canals_of_Amsterdam

Fun fact: this water is very clean. It's close to the quality to safely swim in it. This is because the canals are flushed regularly and because far less waste is dumped directly into it (until the 80s there were still houses not hooked up to the sewer and these days there are still a few house boats that need to be hooked up).

Sources (Dutch)

(English)