While the rest of the world has suffered agonising withdrawal symptoms over the past couple of days, in the absence of any football, the free time came as a boon to this reporter. Time to recharge batteries and so off I went to Amsterdam, a two-hour train journey from Dortmund — and seamless, thanks to the Schengen visa.

A late start meant I had just seven hours in Amsterdam — not enough to see all of it but you can’t have it all. The best place to start, I was advised, was a canal tour; hop off and on whenever you like, see what you want, one pass valid for 24 hours.

I duly did so, a very wise decision. The ride takes you around the three main canals that go round central Amsterdam, dug in the 16th century when Amsterdam grew four times in size. That was when the Dutch empire was approaching its zenith; though overshadowed by the British, French, Spanish and Portuguese, the Dutch were no mean colonisers themselves. Their rule, in some form or the other, ranged from South America (including Suriname, where most of their black footballers come from); Indonesia; India (Chinsurah in Bengal, parts of Kerala); South Africa; Sri Lanka. New York City was formerly known as New Amsterdam and, strange though it may sound, Harlem’s roots are more Dutch than African.

Evidence of that power is found all along the canals in the magnificent gabled houses, palaces, churches and office buildings built in those days, all in apparently good condition. The real signs of power, however, lie in the warehouses which at one time would stock goods as diverse as whale oil from Greenland and Norway and spices from the East Indies. The Dutch also had an East India Company and it was here, in the wooden buildings along the canals, that their hard work came to fruit.

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