Sometimes it’s nice to have a good beer in a typical Amsterdammer cafè, but when the summer comes it is wonderful to spend all the day long in the parks or just sitting by the canals with a good beer. Anyway if you are tired of the beer cans  you can generally find in the super-markets and you want to try something new, then you should pass by the Cracked Kettle.

It is a very small shop in the Center of Amsterdam, on a little street that crosses Spui Straat (Raamsteeg 3). They have more than 500 different types of beer from all over Europe: a vast choice of biological and indipendent producers. If you are a curiouse person you can also try strange varieties as the choco-beer or the one with banana taste. Ask them to suggest you something!

I would suggest the one without any tag: it is a Belgian beer produced in a small farm in the middle of nowhere. It is very difficult to find it in other places and the taste is great.

Proost!

The Binnenpret is a social center in South-west of Amsterdam, close to the Vondelpark.

Originally it was an horse tram station which was closed in 1920. Then different private workshops and small factories until the spaces were abandoned at the end of ’70’s. Since 1984 the building have been reused for social and artistic activities.

The place consists of three different buildings and a nice, cozy garden in the center, with a lot of different uses: The Occii, concert hall, cine forum, bar; the MKZ, the popular restaurant; a theater; a music practice room; an info cafe’; a sauna; a bike workshop. Some artist’s ateliers and residence.

You can pass by during the afternoon to have a cheap coffee’ or beer, a bit of relax in the sauna (very cheap, 9 euro for the entire afternoon and evening or 4 euro from 10 pm. to 11 pm. with a bar inside where you can eat a snake or drink a tea). Have a cheap and good dinner, enjoy some gigs or performance. Speak with people from everywhere or just enjoy a book in the calm of the garden.