Night at the Museum…

For the 10th time the first Saturday of November is Museum Night or N8 [Nacht = Dutch for night]. In 42 museums in Amsterdam and 10 other spots around town over 200 extra performences will be held, as diverse as theater performences to specialised guide tours or behind the scene looks.
More information on the N8 [...]

History Is Just Around The Corner… #2

Remember when I was driving through Van Diemenstraat and the last wall painting was of… Willem Barentsz [1550-1597], he was a Dutch navigator and explorer, a leader of early expeditions to the far north. [In English his name is mostly written as Barents].
A cartographer by trade, Barentsz sailed to Spain and the Mediterranean to complete [...]

History Is Just Around The Corner… #1

Discovering the world didn’t stop with Columbus. While traveling the city I came past this wall painting on Van Diemenstraat. Mr. van Diemen [1593-1645] was the Covernor-General of the Dutch East Indies. Van Diemen’s nine years as Governor-General were successful and important for both the colony and the commercial success of the East India Company. [...]

Museum of the Month?

I’ve always taken it for granted finding modern art in this building, it is not a museum but a University Hospital. The AMC accommodates the largest permanently exhibited collection of Dutch visual art of the period after 1945.

Even “the junk” hanging from the ceiling of the Feet Hall is art.
The basis for this was laid during [...]

After the Deluge…

Luckily most of the buckets of rain came down during the night, so when I left home yesterday around 10.30 it was clear and a weak sun showed itself through the clouds. I was on my way to the Farmers Market at Nieuwmarkt [New Market], one of the oldest squares in town. All I needed was [...]

Once Hidden Now In “Plain View”…

A Hidden Church or as we in the Netherlands call them, een schuilkerk (Dutch – house church; plural – schuilkerken) is a kind of church that is not recognisable as a church from the outside of the building. They were built in large numbers during the time of the Dutch Republic for use by Roman Catholics, [...]

Place of Silence in a Noisy City #3

The Miracle of Amsterdam
A few days before Palm Sunday on March 15, 1345 a man in the Kalverstraat in Amsterdam received the Sacred Host when a priest administered the Sacrament of the Sick to him. In his sickness he vomited, expelling the Host which was caught in a basin and thrown on to the fire, [...]

Place of Silence in a Noisy City #2

Begijnhof
Until 1578 Amsterdam was almost completely Roman Catholic, with two large parish churches, six chapels and many monasteries and convents. Every year the worship of the Sacrament of the Miracle [see tomorrow] drew thousands of pilgrims to the city. A fair grew up alongside, ensuring a flourishing economy.
In Amsterdam the Protestant reformers were particularly opposed [...]

Place of Silence in a Noisy City #1

Begijnhof
In about 1150, a group of women came together to live in a religious community, primarily to look after the sick. These were, in effect, the first ‘Beguines’ although the name was not yet used. The women were not nuns and nor did they live in the seclusion of a convent. They had no founders [...]

Stoopid…

I totally forgot I had a ticket to the theater tonite.
In Dutch we call that a B-lul, or more specified in my family they call it that.
Okay it was not that expensive and maybe I can get a seat for another night since I emailed them during the performance, and if that doesn’t work I [...]

Nice Art… Wrong Place

If you didn’t know better this could be a circus act, in fact it’s a sculpture named ‘Reaching for the Sky’.
Only the place its at gives a bad taste in your mouth… it is the facade of new Mental Health Clinic of JellinekMentrum in Amsterdam.
Do they give instructions to their patients to reach for the sky too?

Something Old, Something New…

Something Borrowed, Something Blue…
Something borrowed… Google Earth, Something blue… The Big Pond between our two cities.

A Dutchmen, I forgot his name, used the same scale on Google earth to make this collage of Old Amsterdam at the bottom and New Amsterdam (nowadays New York) in the centre.

BTW Old Amsterdam is missing 1/3 of the city [...]

Narrowest…

A photo on another site triggered this post.
The narrowest facade in the world is number 7 on the Singel. The cottage is one meter wide and is barely wider than the front-door. The people who live there must be very slim… It’s more honest to say that this area is the rear of a house, [...]

Man the Battleposts…

 Tomorrow, September 5th, the harbor at ‘t Sluisje in Amsterdam-Noord will be the scene of the commemoration of “the Battle of Nieuwendam” which happened in 1572. At the end of the Eighty Years War, Amsterdammers who were in favor of the Spanish fought a fierce battle with the heroic Nieuwendammer Geuzen. The pride of the [...]

Another Festival…

Amsterdam has been festival city for the last few months. Three weeks ago the Grachten Festival started which ended with the Prinsengracht Concerto, or as they call it the start of the classical music season.
Last weekend we had UITmarkt, in which UIT means going out, with modern music, musicals, plays, opera and comedy, or the start [...]

Loo With A…

I’m not sure if anyone of the advertising firm that’s located on this floor ever uses this loo. The ‘john’ is on the same height as the window and you have a wide view over the harbour and the Amstel Botel [white ship on the left] and this is NOT  a one-way window.
On the otherhand [...]

QETC…

This season the Queen’s English Theatre Company will bring you, when you’re in Amsterdam, The History Boys by Alan Bennett.
Performences will take place on October 1st to 4th, October 21st to 25th and December 2nd to 6th, 2009 at the CREA Theater.
Synopsis of the play:
The action of the play takes place in Cutlers’ Grammar School, Sheffield, [...]

Along the River

Tuesday was not the warmest day of the week but, until now, more the wettest. I left home very early, at 7.00, getting a taxi to the hospital for a check-up of my feet and broken toe. Around 8.30 I was ready at that department and I had my first large cup of cappuccino. One [...]

Life from the Quays…

The Grachtenfestival is the annual festival with (classical) music on special locations in the centre of Amsterdam and on the IJ banks. Every year new locations are added. These locations stand out because of special or monumental architecture and cultural and historical value.
The Grachtenfestival makes a special effort to provide a stage for young talent. [...]

From the Heart…

At the heart of Chinatown I went to see the Hearts & Queens of Zeedijk. I met several people I know, family and Family, but talked also to several people I don’t know yet.
Some call it “the After party of Gay Pride” which ended 2 weeks ago.
It was quite hectic in the street, I got [...]