FluxEuropa - dark music and more

FluxEuropa has suspended active publication and no longer requires items for review. The site is, however, being maintained as an archive and you can still post to the Gigboard and order Amazon products which helps to subsidise its continuation.

home > locality >

AMSTERDAM

tram.gif (109083 bytes)

Although best known for sex and drugs, Amsterdam is an interesting and vibrant place to visit in any event. Particularly attractive is the picturesque Western part known as De Jordaan.

I found almost everyone polite, honest, helpful and friendly, but the first thing to strike me was how tall people are and this has unexpected results - like the height of urinals!

No problem about reaching this type, but watch out for the mosquitoes!

Although cars are banned from many parts, the promiscuous melange of bikes, pedestrians and trams is hazardous enough. Near misses are frequent but handled with humour rather than road-rage.

SEX AND DRUGS

Sex and drugs need little signposting. Strolling through the main part of the Red Light area is treated as a family outing. The girls - sitting or standing in glass-fronted cubicles - are strikingly good-looking.

'Coffee-shops' - a euphemism for cafes selling cannabis - are everywhere. At first a curiosity, I eventually found their omnipresent smell oppressive and nauseating.

Free attitudes to sex and drugs might suggest a hippie paradise but the typical visitors to these attractions are lads on a stag trip.

SHOPS

The main reasonably-priced shopping street (Kalverstraat-Nieuwendijk) snakes in a reversed S from Rembrandtplein in the south-east to the north of the Jordaan.

Showroom dummies in the Kalverstraat

Fashion clothes are stylish and tasteful. There doesn't appear to be the same chain store domination as in the UK and there certainly isn't the same vulgar and childish obsession with the display of designer labels. In this, as in other respects, Holland is a lot less postmodern than Britain.

The Waterlooplein flea-market had a Goth clothing stall and there are some fetish-wear shops for those so inclined. Like body-piercing and the tattoo revival, fetishism has lost its avant-garde status.

BEER

The editor of a postmodernist review ought to drink designer lager and exotic cocktails but I prefer real ale. Holland isn't Belgium but there's more to beer there than Heineken.

De Gooier in Funenkade is a former windmill now functioning as a brew-pub. It produces a range of delicious (and potent) beers . Another brew-pub is Maximiliaan in Kloveniers Burgwal close to the Nieuwmarkt where a huge 'copper' (brewing vessel) is to be found in the bar.

The aggressively utilitarian De Gooier never-the-less produces excellent beers

Finally I can recommend a visit to De Wildeman in Nieuwezijds Kolk where a large range of guest beers are available on draught, and also to the little Belgian pub to be found in nearby Gravenstraat.

Dutch pubs, bars, cafes and 'lunch-rooms' are distinctly individual. There is no sign here of ersatz theme pubs or standardisation driven by the economic reductivism of big brewery ownership.

FOOD

Attracting people from all over the world, Amsterdam offers a rich variety of culinary delights. The best Indonesian meal I had was a satay version of the famous rijsttafel served in the friendly and informal cafe atmosphere of Say Satay in Amstelstraat.

Eve (the Editor's wife) samples an Indonesian cocktail

Another good Indonesian restaurant is the Sukasari in Damstraat but avoid at all costs the Jayakarta in the Rembrandtplein where a battery of pretty but robotical waitresses will badger you to buy extra and expensive dishes.

Memories Of India in Reguliersdwarsstraat serves a mouth-watering Lamb Pasanda, but don't expect UK-sized portions.

CULTURE

After a week of strolling about and a knowledge of street-names that would qualify me as a taxi-driver, it was time to visit the museums.

The Rijksmuseum was disappointing as a great deal of it was closed, while the Stedelijk modern art museum doesn't have a large permanent exhibition. The Amsterdam Historisch Museum, however, is comprehensive, well-designed and an interesting guide to the city's development. Don't miss the 17th-Century group portraits of the city militia companies. Painted with photographic realism, they are paradoxically remarkable studies of individual character ranging from the intense and severe bourgeois worthy to the youthful dandy with a knowing smirk.

Rik - 15 July 1998

REFERENCES

The AA's City Pack Amsterdam (1997) provides an excellent pocket-sized guide and map. Once there get a copy of the free local English-language magazine, Boom!