Forget Paris - this place is buzzing, and
the people are so friendly!
We spent a long weekend in September 1998 in a 3 star hotel called
De Looier, very near to the hustle and bustle of Leidseplein - but far enough away that
you couldn't hear it. |
 |
|
We found our hotel via a package with
Thompson Holidays - their City Break Holidays are very reasonably priced. The whole
four days in 1998, 3 star accommodation, flights and breakfasts - for the two of us - cost
less than £500. An added bonus is that Amsterdam is
currently one of the cheapest places in Europe! |
| If you want grown-up fun, bars, good
restaurants, entertainment, sophisticated art galleries and good shopping - Amsterdam is
the place. Personally, I think Paris is over-rated and
currently far more expensive than here. Amsterdam is just as sophisticated, but with
the bonus of a more laid-back atmosphere and people who literally speak your language.
And - hey! - marijuana is actually
legal to smoke
here, in what they call Coffee Shops. The stuff's on sale inside, but you'll need your own
roll-ups! |
|
 |
We found the
Centraal Station to be by far the best
starting point for walking around Amsterdam.
The Centraal Station - as suggested by
it's name - is very central, in the north of the city. Apart
from the fact that the GWK Bank at the station seems to have the best deal on currency,
here you'll also find a city tourist
office offering maps & information too. |
| Amsterdam is one of the most virtual of
cities. As you'll see from the web sites below - just everywhere has a place on the
internet. We did most of our research via the internet before we
went, to make the most of our four days. Hopefully our links will help you too. |
 |
|
So, what are the
hot tips?
There are many things we learned that will make our next visit even better.
Unfortunately as a tourist on a whirlwind
visit, you do find yourself making the inevitable odd mistake...! |
|
Canal Boats
Now here's a surprise...what would you most want to do if you
visited Amsterdam? .....Go on a canal boat ride...
Unfortunately, our canal boat trip was - in my opinion - a bit of a
bummer. Yes, you do get to see a lot of the canal folk - but you see very
little of Amsterdam itself, as it's some fifteen feet above you on the
canalside!
Tourist Amsterdam Avoid the touristy parts at all costs - you'll be continually pestered by
people trying to flog you the complete range of pharmaceuticals, or half an hour with some
Indonesian woman in a seedier part of town!
The pay-off for visiting the tourist places like
The Old Side and Dam Square, is that there's a good range of cheap restaurants - rather like Soho
in London. The old buildings are fab too, and there are some good fashion shops around. It
seems to be the more popular student area of Amsterdam, which of course means more
fashion, music and hip bars - which can't be all that bad.
Bars There's so many bars in Amsterdam, it's hard to know which way to turn! In
the end you find yourself adopting one or two, and whiling away a couple of hours at
various times of the day & night. The so-called brown bars are the most like
the ones in the UK, unpretentious, cosy and friendly. Beers vary in strength, some are
quite strong like the Belgian ones. |
|
 |
We found
some wonderful bars and cafes around the Jordaan
district, west side of the city. Here, you find a lot of high quality art galleries too - the
whole area has a really good village feel about it. Rather like Covent Garden in London,
or Chelsea Village in New York.
Jordaan is only a couple of canals west of
the centre, and yet the regular tourist seems to avoid the area - fortunately! |
|
Leidseplein South of
Jordaan we move towards Leidseplein - a very
popular area for restaurants. Our hotel was conveniently just a few streets away
from here.
This is where
to go for the clubs, live music, cheap meals, and busy European-style bars!
There are two parallel streets off the square that must have at least
50 restaurants in each! We found one excellent Indonesian restaurant here at Leidsedwstr
49-51 that was so cheap - it's called Bojo.
Hot spots for entertainment in Leidseplein
have to be the Melkweg (Milky Way) - most visiting international bands would
appear in this club just off the square, and Boom Chicago - a hugely
popular comedy club actually in the square.
In Leidsekruisstr - just around the
corner from Bojo's - is a brilliant blues pub called Bourbon Street Rhythm &
Bluescafe, though take note - it doesn't even open until 2200! |
|
Museums and the Vondelpark
You really can't go to Amsterdam without paying at least a short
visit to the Rijksmuseum - has to be one of the best art galleries in Europe.
|
 |
| The Van Gogh Museum was having a complete
refit, so paintings were on temporary loan to the Rijksmuseum from the Van Gogh down the
road. While in the area, you must also check out the
Stedelijk
the most amazing museum of modern art. In one room there were paintings by
Dali, Hockney, Picasso and Matisse!
The museums and a very upmarket shopping area are all near the
Vondelpark, which is where all the fashionable locals hang out on Sundays. There's
impromptu music from Tibetan musicians and the like, people selling paintings, and there's
a really cool piazza to while away the afternoon with a few glasses of wine. It's
very busy but a must to see, especially if the weather's nice as it was when we dropped
by.
Open air marketsThere's quite a number of open air markets around Amsterdam. I won't begin to
suggest the opening times - but most are open at the weekends of course.
Waterlooplein market, just behind the modern City Hall, is
a good source of antique knick-knacks and smaller gifts. You'll wish you'd bought the car
by the time you've seen it all!
Kunstmarkt
is small, but the standard of modern art
paintings is very good - also quite expensive! That's next to Rembrandtplein - like the
Leicester Square of Amsterdam. Open only Sunday afternoons.
There's a large
Flower Market
at
Muntorren, just west of Rembrandtplein - not half as big I guess as the huge flower
auction, which we didn't have time to see. Spui
market
is quite small, but again excellent paintings and sculptures on offer - at a very much
more reasonable price. This market is only five mins walk from Dam Square, and open only
Sundays.
Plantage I wouldn't normally recommend seeing a zoo, but the
Artis is rather
special - I now realise that I picked up the guidebook in Dutch! - but it's well
worth trekking out to the Plantage area of the city to see it. The Artis has one
of the most amazing aquariums in the whole of Europe.
While in Plantage check out the
Botanical
Gardens, with it's monumental palm house, and the Museum of the Tropics. |
|
 |
Amsterdam trams
are so photogenic. This one was painted up to look so Eastern European I began to wonder
what was in the last drink I had! |
| Music Amsterdam is a real music city, and caters for all tastes. Here's a few
to get on with:
Paradiso (Live bands) Weteringschans 6 Melkweg
- "the Milky Way" (Live bands)
Lijnbaansgracht 234, just off Leidseplein. See their web page - details below.
Bourbon Street (Blues) Leidsekruisstraat 6 - near Leidseplein.
Cafe Soundgarden (Hip Hop) Marnixstraat 164 |
|
| Eating The excellent guide to the city from Boom Chicago! can be found in cafes and
bars around the city - it's full of recommendations. It also suggested that local
Dutch cuisine is to be avoided - how honest can a Dutchman be?! - but they were dead
right! Instead, head for Thai and Indonesian cuisine - it's the best and cheapest
here.
Recommended restaurants (we managed to try them all):
Kartika (Indonesian) tel. 020 618 1879 Overtoom 68, 1058 HL Amsterdam.
Excellent restaurant not far from the Rijksmuseum. Top Thai Herenstraat 22 - cheap Thai food.
Cafe Het Land van Walem, Keizersgracht 449. tel. 020 625 3544 Near Leidseplein. Cool and very
sophisticated 60's style cafe.
Say Sate
(Thai restaurant) next to the IT club, just off Rembrantsplein. Very cheap Thai food.
Nam Tin
(Chinese)
Jodenbreestraat 11-13, near Waterlooplein. tel 020 428 8508. Immensely popular with local
Chinese business people. Huge restaurant, excellent food, but surprisingly cheap!
Bojo
(Indonesian) Leidsedwstr 49-51 so cheap and very
friendly! |
|
