The Netherlands might be famous for a lot of local brewed products, but something tells me that the first thing tourists try probably isn’t beer. For a reason, Heineken tastes like bitter water and other beers haven’t made it abroad.
However, Brouwerij ‘t IJ they did a courageous attempt to get rid of this stigma. And with some elements of success, as the beverage card features 10 local brewed beers.
A quick tasting of the first four tells that this attempt was rather fortunate.
A Friday afternoon is probably the best time to visit this old brewery that is located right next to an old windmill. In the pub, that slightly reminds the visitor of a tasting room, it is crowded with a vivid mixture of die hard locals just having finished their work and Loney Planet tourists.
Having drunk a few of their local brewed specialities like Natte and Zatte, people start to interact with each other and in only one hour an open minded and well willing traveller could get to know half of its local pub population. Besides, there are no other options than talking to the stranger next to you at the bar, as tables don’t seem to exist in the first area of the tasting room.
A sweet blonde one, an amber coloured bitter brew or a trappist beer, each beer has its own quality. With a local snack called Osseworst, a sausage of raw meat, and a portion of Dutch cheese with mustard a pub crawl should probably start here. Not end, because the brewery is officially not a pub and therefore closes at 8.00 PM.
The brewery is located on a stone’s throw from Artis Zoo. The tasting room is open every day from 15.00 to 20.00
Regular guided tours of the brewery. A tour lasts about half an hour and are suitable for groups of up to a maximum of 30 people.
They have Style! This is what Charles Bukowsky would say about Wynand Fockink after a visit at the tasting room, 10 seconds walk from Dam Square.
Born in 1679, Wynand Fockink liqueur distillery is acually managed by the two eager owners (no more part of the Fockink family). They spend their time to experiment new mixtures and tastes, producing the best jenevers ever! This is what you can see (and taste!) during the visits of distillery (Monday till Friday from 10.00 until 17.00 hours, Saturday from 13.00 until 18.00 hours, 9€) and at the tasting room (open daily from 15.00 until 21.00 hours).
I have been just yesterday and I tested something completely new: liquors made with the receipt of 300 years ago, when sugar was something missing in Europe.
In the same place Wynand Fockink organizes workshops (in English 14-16 every second Sunday of the month and in Dutch every last Sunday) and sells his products (a range of over 60) at the Liquor Store (sunday closed).
So, folk, when you are near Dam square and when you want to experience a well done liquor (every shot costs about 3€), stop in Pijlsteeg 31 & 43 (10 seconds far from Dam Square).
Are you a big fan of LP’s? Then you shouldn’t miss De Weergever.
This is a small bar and library where one can exchange gramophone records. There is an impressive collection of LP’s from all over the world. Around the big table in the middle of the small basement music fans of LP’s rotating on 78 RPM listen to music. At the bar there is fresh soup and beer for small prices.
At the Weergever one can also buy record players, needles, sheet music and everything you need to have when you are a collector of LP’s.
Every Thursday evening members of the society come together to exchange LP’s, to drink beer at the bar and to talk about their hobby.
If you want to join this unique society in the northern part of Amsterdam, you should become a member. For 25 euros a year you can get in contact with the 650 members of the club, buy your own LP’s and get the society magazine.
The club is open every Thursday from 19.30 to 22.30 and every Sunday from 10.00 to 17.00. The address is: Zamenhofstraat 116C, Postal Code: 1022 AG, Amsterdam (North)
Visitors can call chairman Dirk Woerlee for more information: 020 – 631 45 48
May 3, 2009 at 12:56 pm · Written by tokyorama · Filed under dutch culture
The Netherlands are a small country, but they present many unique cultural features compared to other European nations. Holland have a most peculiar wet territory, and the Dutch have learned through centuries how to live and how to manage it on a technical and political level. Holland was also a country of sailors and merchants, and many different cultures merged.
This series is meant to provide you practical tools in dealing with basic cultural glitches you will sure experience during your visit in the Low Lands.
The first cultural shock that a foreigner coming to the Netherlands have to face is related to the particular form of Dutch toilet vases.
The traditional Dutch toilet is shaped in a way that the user’s wastes are collected in a risen, dry shelf or plateau in the back side of the vase.
Dutch people, of course, claim that this system is the best one compared to other toilet models, and they could provide many technical reasons to demonstrate their arguments:
A plateau is very useful for studying waste, which can come in handy, especially with children. The second reason is equally practical: the shallow flusher does not spalsh back on the user’s buttocks [1]
Others argue that the Dutch, “if they can’t see land above water, they’re not happy” [2]. Despite being tongue-in-cheek, this statement grabs a deeper motivation for understanding the Dutch toilet morphology: toilet is a product of a precise cultural and semiotic code. Listen to Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek, on toilets and Ideology.
I generally associate markets to worm and sunny cities: when I think about a market.. well.. only places as Marrakesh, Jerusalem, the South of Italy cross my mind and a smell of spices follows my thoughts. That’s why when I arrived in Amsterdam and I found out that in the city there was a very “culture of the market” I got positively surprised. Despite the treath of wind, rain and grey sky that often affect the city, there are markets almost everyday, and they are generally incredibly crowded.
Every neighbourhood has its own market, and every market is somehow a mirror of the neighbourhood. I think that one of the funniest way to understand a city is to mix with its people during their ordinary and daily activities; it would be interesting to have a descriprion of the city considering just the people you meet at the market or the different kind of stands.
See for example the Jordaan Market: it has a bohemienne and retrò style but with a “chic” touch, as the houses of the neighbourhood and its inhabitants; it sells second hand clothes, but it defines them as “vintage”. There are organic-food stands, but with a kind of fancy and bizarre choice of products. The vegetables come from the farmers but they look as jewels. The strangest stand is the one which sells only salt: you would never imagine that the simple salt could have so many varieties, colors, tastes and origins.
Or compare it with the Mosveld Market, where you mainly find second choice cheap vegetables and typical arabic dresses: it represents a kind of border, as the neighbouhood itself is; a border between old and new, the city and the fields, locals and strangers. Try to get through the crowd of Maroccan women in front of one of the fists stand: you’ll never believe that they are all waiting for their watch to be repaired by an old and wrinkled Dutch man.
Here a short list, everybody is welcome to add more!
Albert Cuyp Markt
One of the biggest outside daily market in Amsterdam
Area: De Pijp; Albert Cuypstraat/Ferdinand Bolstraat
From Monday to Saturday 9.30 am – 5.00 pm
Jordaan Markt
Biological Fresh Food and handicraft on Saturday;
Second hand clothes and goods on Monday
Area: Jordaan; Noordermarkt
Open: Monday and Saturday 9.00 am – 3.00 pm
Lindengracht market
Next to the Jordaan market that sells almost everything
Area: Jordaan; Lindengracht
Open: Saturday 9.00 am – 4.00 pm
Art Plein Spui
works of art, and second hand book market
Area: Centrum; Spui Plein
Sunday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Waterlooplein Flea Market
On of the most famous and central markets in town. Second-hand clothing, new and used goods.
Area: Centrum; Waterlooplein
From Monday to Saturday 9.00 am – 5.30 pm.
Mosveld Plein Market
One of the cheapest markets of vegetables, tools and clothes.
Area: Noord; Mosveld Plein
Wednesday, Friday, Saturday 9.00 am – 3.00 p.m.
Bloemenmarkt
Flowers, seeds, bulbs
Area: Centrum; Singel/Munt Plein
From Monday to Saturday 9.30 am – 5.00 pm
April 22, 2009 at 12:53 pm · Written by herbert · Filed under Socializing
M2M radio is one of the first thing I discovered when I arrived in Amsterdam. It is a web radio work out by a group of media activists and artists, “a media environment for free communication, an alternative approach towards migration”.
To be honest I don’t know exactly when they started this project. I don’t remember all their names, where they are from, what they did before. Off course I could ask more details but it doesn’t make sense in this moment of my life.
An handshake is sketched on their visiting card.
“No borders, no nations, stop deportation”, is one of their favorite yell for their public demonstrations.
That’s enough at the moment for me.
I like the ideas, the meanings and the energies of this project. I like these people that I meet sometimes here and there.
M2M means from Migrant to Migrant.
M2M is a meeting point for migrants.
Like a camp fire.
Every migrant has a story, a message.
Every migrant is a messenger between there and here
and here and there..
Every migrant is a medium.
M2M invites you to move and be moved.
To imagine you are somewhere else.
To realize that you can be someone else.
To accept the fact that identity is an illusion.
That metamorphosis, the permanent migration of identities,
is the way of life in the age of vanishing substance. [..] (read more..)
March 31, 2009 at 12:43 pm · Written by tokyorama · Filed under Going out, Shopping
During closing time in Albert Cuypmarkt, dozens of herons come by to seek some food left overs. Foto tokyorama
One of the biggest outside daily market in Amsterdam is located in De Pijp District in Amsterdam Oud-Zuid. The street and the market are named from Albert Cuyp, a painter from the 17th century.
This market began by the free initiative of a bunch of street vendors with hand carts, since when in 1905 the municipality decided to establish a free market to regulate and organize the business. Originally it was running only on Saturday until 1912 when it was decided to open it 6 days por week. Actually it’s still going from Monday to Saturday from 9 a.m. till 6 p.m. with 268 market stalls on both side of the street where is possible to buy anything: food, clothes, cameras, souvenirs, gadget, tools.
LivingAmsterdam.com comes from the desire of a better world through a more conscious tourism. This blog will guide you to the unforeseen and hidden part of Amsterdam, beyond the Coffeeshops and the Red Light District.
The Netherlands might be famous for a lot of local brewed products, but something tells me that the first thing tourists try probably isn’t beer. For a reason, Heineken tastes like bitter water and other beers haven’t made it abroad.
The brewery is located on a stone’s throw from Artis Zoo.
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