Bloggers in Amsterdam

Scenes from the Noordermarkt

"Thanks to a tip from Heidi, we headed on Saturday afternoon over to Amsterdam's Jordaan neighborhood in search of the Noordermarkt, an outdoor farmer's market located along the Prinsengracht canal. The market is just a short walk away from the Anne Frank House, which we returned to on another day. By the end of our trip, the Jordaan turned out to be our favorite place for walking and shopping, randomly exploring its narrow streets lined with charming townhouses.

The Noordermarkt occupies a triangle overlooked by the Noorderkerk, a large 17th century church designed by architect Hendrick de Keyser. Though we arrived late in the afternoon, the market was still going strong, filled with stalls doing a brisk business selling an impressive variety of produce, cheese, baked goods, and meats."

Don't miss the photos at The Food Section.

Verse Vlaamse Frites

"Afterwards we went to an Italian restaurant and ate dinner. Then it was off to find a bar to have some drinks. We checked out a cool little Vodka bar near the Flower Market, but it was pretty dead and they started playing Herbie Hancock, circa Beverly Hills Cop Part 1, so we decided to try another place. Just down the street was a really cool looking place called Soho. As soon as we walked in Trent and David looked at each other and said, 'It's a gay bar!"

I was like, "How do you know?"

They were like, "Look around!"

I was like, "Oh..."

The place wasn't very busy so we got our choice of seats upstairs. The whole place was really beautiful, with dark wood and red leather everywhere. We were having a great time, Trent kept getting recognized, and then the most curious thing happened. The lights flashed. The next time we went to the bar to get a drink we were told it was happy hour. At midnight? So my one shot of tequila and vodka tonic turned into two shots of tequila and two vodka tonics, the same was true for my companions - here's the damage..."

Rachel, from Scenestars

dear amsterdam,

im writing you from your airport which is mellow and quiet and bright and clean. i miss you already.

last nacht you showed me whose boss. you led me to your bars and you sat me down and made me drink 130 of the 150 dutch beers that are worth a taste. they were all delicious...

... i seriously cant believe that i got to come here for free. a week wasnt long enough, which is odd to say for a small city, but theres so much to do here, theres so much to experience. i do hope i can return when its warmer, but after the first day the weather was no longer shocking, if anything it helped make the nacht stay longer.

i will miss you amsterdam, i will buy your flag from ebay, and i hope to get a tshirt before i get outta this airport.

all my love,

tony

bicyclemark was the mvp of the week

"On our final night in Amsterdam we had the immeasurable pleasure of meeting up with the one and only Jaap van der Molen at his house in the city. This is a picture of Jaap at dinner right before he told us that Scarlett Johansson wouldn’t be on his List of Five because her boobs aren’t big enough, at least not as big as the European boobs he’s used to. Which suddenly makes me very frightened of European boobs."

from Dooce

"people watch soccer here. they stand out in the cold and watch it being shown in restaurants. wednesday night soccer. you dont see people standing outside on a cold chicago spring night watching baseball. or basketball. so props.

i also like the flag of this city. its red and black and has three x's on it.

it looks like a pirate flag. like someone saying our flag is a treasure map and we have three treasures here. sex is legal, drugs are legal, and our art is better.

i like the windy streets but i dont understand them. how did they get that way? did people build ten feet of street and then got bored of making it go straight? was it to make invading armys confused? whatever it is i like it. i feel like im on the stage of a shakespeare play."

musings à la Tony Pierce of Buzznet

Is it just me, or is that house on the right leaning over a tad?

Dr. James Joyner (Outside the Beltway) calls the Netherlands a Libertarian Paradise:

"I recently spent a few days in what a friend referred to as "the land of debauchery." Amsterdam, capital of the Netherlands, is probably as famous for its openness toward prostitution and drug consumption than for wooden shoes, canals, or world class museums. Yet, strangely, it nonetheless seems to be a clean, functioning society.

While Holland has an exceedingly redistributionist economic policy, it is a libertarian's paradise on the social front. Recreational drug use is technically illegal but use of marijuana and hashish is tolerated and quite open in "coffee houses" throughout Amsterdam. The city's red-light districts, where prostitutes sit in windows on open display, are famous the world over. Civil unions were introduced in 1998 and gay marriage and adoption rights followed in 2001." Read more…

Heidi made an amazing post, really digging into one of the things that I noticed about Amsterdam: the amazing colors and textures of the city.

"One of the things that struck me the first time I explored the streets and alleyways of Amsterdam was the signature palette of the city. Giant, glossy, black doors open up onto murky canals. Block after block of brick structures sprout from sidewalks in shades of heavy red, dirty whites, and slate greys. Doorsteps are punctuated with hearty, thick-leaved plants, deep green in color." More…

At the gay bar

"Afterwards we went to an Italian restaurant and ate dinner. Then it was off to find a bar to have some drinks. We checked out a cool little Vodka bar near the Flower Market, but it was pretty dead and they started playing Herbie Hancock, circa Beverly Hills Cop Part 1, so we decided to try another place. Just down the street was a really cool looking place called Soho. As soon as we walked in Trent and David looked at each other and said, 'It's a gay bar!"

I was like, "How do you know?"

They were like, "Look around!"

I was like, "Oh..."

The place wasn't very busy so we got our choice of seats upstairs. The whole place was really beautiful, with dark wood and red leather everywhere. We were having a great time, Trent kept getting recognized, and then the most curious thing happened. The lights flashed. The next time we went to the bar to get a drink we were told it was happy hour. At midnight? So my one shot of tequila and vodka tonic turned into two shots of tequila and two vodka tonics, the same was true for my companions - here's the damage..."

Rachel, from Scenestars

Dear Amsterdam

dear amsterdam,

im writing you from your airport which is mellow and quiet and bright and clean. i miss you already.

last nacht you showed me whose boss. you led me to your bars and you sat me down and made me drink 130 of the 150 dutch beers that are worth a taste. they were all delicious...

... i seriously cant believe that i got to come here for free. a week wasnt long enough, which is odd to say for a small city, but theres so much to do here, theres so much to experience. i do hope i can return when its warmer, but after the first day the weather was no longer shocking, if anything it helped make the nacht stay longer.

i will miss you amsterdam, i will buy your flag from ebay, and i hope to get a tshirt before i get outta this airport.

all my love,

tony

bicyclemark was the mvp of the week

David and Rachel

Dooce & Jaapy

"On our final night in Amsterdam we had the immeasurable pleasure of meeting up with the one and only Jaap van der Molen at his house in the city. This is a picture of Jaap at dinner right before he told us that Scarlett Johansson wouldn’t be on his List of Five because her boobs aren’t big enough, at least not as big as the European boobs he’s used to. Which suddenly makes me very frightened of European boobs."

from Dooce

Amsterdam canals

"people watch soccer here. they stand out in the cold and watch it being shown in restaurants. wednesday night soccer. you dont see people standing outside on a cold chicago spring night watching baseball. or basketball. so props.

i also like the flag of this city. its red and black and has three x's on it.

it looks like a pirate flag. like someone saying our flag is a treasure map and we have three treasures here. sex is legal, drugs are legal, and our art is better.

i like the windy streets but i dont understand them. how did they get that way? did people build ten feet of street and then got bored of making it go straight? was it to make invading armys confused? whatever it is i like it. i feel like im on the stage of a shakespeare play."

musings à la Tony Pierce of Buzznet

Pics from Danielle

Is it just me, or is that house on the right leaning over a tad?

Libertarian Paradise

Dr. James Joyner (Outside the Beltway) calls the Netherlands a Libertarian Paradise:

"I recently spent a few days in what a friend referred to as "the land of debauchery." Amsterdam, capital of the Netherlands, is probably as famous for its openness toward prostitution and drug consumption than for wooden shoes, canals, or world class museums. Yet, strangely, it nonetheless seems to be a clean, functioning society.

While Holland has an exceedingly redistributionist economic policy, it is a libertarian's paradise on the social front. Recreational drug use is technically illegal but use of marijuana and hashish is tolerated and quite open in "coffee houses" throughout Amsterdam. The city's red-light districts, where prostitutes sit in windows on open display, are famous the world over. Civil unions were introduced in 1998 and gay marriage and adoption rights followed in 2001." Read more…

Amsterdam colors

Heidi made an amazing post, really digging into one of the things that I noticed about Amsterdam: the amazing colors and textures of the city.

"One of the things that struck me the first time I explored the streets and alleyways of Amsterdam was the signature palette of the city. Giant, glossy, black doors open up onto murky canals. Block after block of brick structures sprout from sidewalks in shades of heavy red, dirty whites, and slate greys. Doorsteps are punctuated with hearty, thick-leaved plants, deep green in color." More…