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Beer Travel / Beer / Beer Bike / Drinking / Dangerous Travel / Amsterdam / → All Tags

Amsterdam Beer Bikes: Possibly Dangerous, Definitely Dorky

The tolerance of Amsterdam residents is legendary, but the beer bike may have stretched it to the breaking point. For those who don't know, the beer bike is a self-propelled, ten- to twenty-person contraption that pedals around town while all but its driver quaff beers. Popular with stag and hen parties (what we Yanks call bachelor and bachelorette parties), the bikes are a fixture in the city center, with revelers howling and singing as they enjoy the booze-soaked ride. But according to Reuters, two accidents involving the bikes since April have caused the city councilor responsible for transport to reconsider how many beer bikes ought to be allowed in the city at any one time, and what measures can be taken to ensure their safety. Could this spell the end of the beer bike?

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Amsterdam Travel / Art Galleries / Art / Netherlands / Amsterdam / → All Tags

Russian Art Branches Out To Amsterdam

Who says the Russians aren't good at sharing? A little to our surprise, the Hermitage Amsterdam is opening next month in a new art gallery in an old seventeenth century building which is basically a branch of the famous and original Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Russia. They've been running minor exhibits in another building for a few years, but now the real Hermitage Amsterdam is ready to thrill.

We've had a couple of trips to the Russian version and always been dazzled by the suggestions it would take a lifetime to view every piece of art there – and only if they rotated their display in time with your visits. The opening of the Amsterdam branch means there's another place for the Hermitage to exhibit some of their vast number of art treasures, and we're excited about that.

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Amsterdam / Marijuana / Crime / Sex / Prostitution / → All Tags

Amsterdam Now 20% Less Amsterdammy

It wasn't supposed to happen this way. The idea of making weed and prostitution legal - or quasi-legal - in Amsterdam was meant to remove the criminals from the equation, not encourage more criminals to get involved. But wouldn't you know it, recent years have seen a marked increase in scumbags who roll in to Amsterdam intent on harshing everybody's mellow, and now the gig is up. Authorities in the Dutch capital have had it with the organized crime syndicates who use the coffee shops, peep shows, massage parlors, and other red light businesses to launder money and front gambling parlors, so they're shutting them down. Well, not all of them, just about 20% of the city's special coffee shops in the town center, and an untold number of "windows" where scantily clad prostitutes beckon the lager louts who stagger around on stag parties. So what's left to do in Amsterdam besides getting screwed, blued, and tattooed? Well, the brilliant white light of sobriety and propriety just might steer you to the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, where you can admire the brush strokes of Dutch Masters like Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Steen. Or you could take in a concert at the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, where the Latvian conductor Mariss Jansons leads some of Europe's most talented musicians through a program of classic and modern masterpieces. And if you're feeling sporty, you could watch Amsterdam Ajax play football in Amsterdam Arena. But if it's your destiny to be bad, then start off with a few pints at any of dozens of pubs throughout the city center and then go find your dens of sin. You won't have to go far.

[Photo: The Guardian]

Related Stories:
· Amsterdam Limits Sex and Drug Trade [The New York Times]
· Amsterdam Coverage [Jaunted]

Missed Connections / Amsterdam / → All Tags

Missed Connections: After Dark in Amsterdam

Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel made a love connection there; want to follow in their footsteps? Find love (or just someone to sit canalside with) in Amsterdam at one of these hot spots:

Cafe Monaco -- This Rembrandt Square locale adds a touch of class to your average pub crawl. Rembrandtsplein

Kunst en Koffie -- Canal views, hot locals and--yes--legal marijuana make this cafe a great place to unwind at night. Tweede Laurierdwarsstraat 64

Vive la Vie -- Stop in this hole in the wall Saturdays after 11 for an intimate girl-meets-girl scene. Amstelstraat 7

Related Stories:
· Missed Connections coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: karlgilbertuk]

Amsterdam / sex / adult entertainment / → All Tags

Red Light Amsterdam Endangered

Many travelers to Amsterdam are expecting to find something more than tulips and canals. It's a place where window-shopping means more than just looking at the latest fashions, and you can observe many of the kinds of activities not practised so publicly in other parts of the world. This famously open and free-thinking city even has a Prostitute Information Centre for anyone to learn about the industry; one-hour tours are even available, guided by former prostitutes.

So it's with more than a little concern that news from Amsterdam this week reports the iminent closure of almost half of the licensed businesses in the Red Light District. Licenses can be revoked when a link to criminal money is proved or--as is argued in this case--merely suspected.

Let's be honest, some of us just want to poke around Amsterdam to see a little of the other side; kind of like adventure travel. If they're going to take that away, we'll be stuck with New Zealand's Boobs on Bikes for entertainment and the way the police down there are complaining, there mightn't even be any good knockers for us to ogle.

[Image via Rinaface/Flickr]

Related stories:
Amsterdam Closes Red Light District [News from Amsterdam]
New Zealand Appreciates the Human Form [Jaunted]

Nightlife / Books / Amsterdam / the Netherlands / → All Tags

Drinking with the Dutch

Sean Wilsey, the author of the memoir Oh the Glory of it All, has been writing about his book tour over at McSweeney's. He stayed long enough in Amsterdam to get down a few notes:

[The Dutch] excel at drinking, and, as with texting, they are better at it than me. My first meal in the country, which was hosted by Oscar, began with mixed drinks and beers all around, continued through four bottles of Sancerre (for four of us), then tapered off into four more rounds of beers and mixed drinks. The Dutch do not like to leave their mouths unoccupied.

The Dutch wake up without hangovers. Hung-over on my first morning there, I had a long conversation with Susan Smit, a tall, blond former fashion model who is now a reporter for AvantGarde magazine. She asked me about memoir and about James Frey. When our conversation was over, she asked me about my plans for the evening.

"No plans," I said.

"Well, then," she stated with Dutch matter-of-factness, "you can come out dancing with me and my friends. I will text-message you at midnight."

Sigh. Somehow we don't think that we'd get to go model-dancing there if we went, but you never know.

[Image via larukucafe/Flickr]

Related Stories:
·   Should I Move to Amsterdam? [Slate]