Tag: Netherlands Travel

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Foreign Grocery Friday: Boxes of 'Hagelslag' Sprinkles in Amsterdam

April 12, 2013 at 1:31 PM | by | Comments (0)

When we travel, one of our favorite things to do is to pop into a local grocery store and check out the food products and candies we'd never find anywhere else. So we're trying out this new feature, Foreign Grocery Friday, where each week we'll feature some of our (and your) favorite overseas treats. Got a recommendation? Let us know!

Hundreds and thousands. Nonpareils. Jimmies. Sprinkles.

Whatever you call them at home, these little, decorative bits of colored sugar go under the name of Hagelslag in the Netherlands. It's not a pretty word, but surprisingly Hagelslag makes for a delicious breakfast sprinkled over buttered toast. For the full how-to on this, check out our earlier explanation of the dish. For now, let's just focus on the sprinkles themselves and the fact that they are an awesome souvenir of a visit to Amsterdam.

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First Stop on a Gloomy Amsterdam Day Should be the Museum with the City's DNA

Where: Kalverstraat 92, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1001
March 8, 2013 at 11:34 AM | by | Comments (0)

Can a museum take on the mammoth task of finding a city’s genetic code? Well, the Amsterdam Museum has done just that by launching its Amsterdam DNA permanent installation in 2012. It’s an interesting exhibit, yes, but on top of that, it’s really kind of cool.

The Museum has traced the city’s history over the past 1,000 years and figured out what has made the city tick over all that time of development – the good, the bad, and the ugly. What they’ve come up with is this: the city has four genetic markers that gauge its progression through time. The first is its indomitable spirit of enterprise, secondly tolerance and freedom of thought, then civic virtue, and, finally, creativity.

When you first head up to the ticket counter, you are given your own personal DNA code (which looks like a QR code). With it, you scan your code to start films in your own language, activate your personal DNA analysis, and make and view online after the fact your civic-guard photo.

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Amsterdam's Red Light District Gets New Hours, Age Restrictions

March 4, 2013 at 4:14 PM | by | Comments (0)

When Jaunted's newbie traveler visited Amsterdam's infamous red-light district one of the first things he noticed is that the women were "really young and actually beautiful." Other Jaunted staff members have noted that the prostitutes behind the glass are really young and terminally bored. Either way, the "really young" part is something most people quickly notice, and stems from the fact that the legal age to become a prostitute in Amsterdam is 18.

Was 18. The legal age has now been raised to 21, according to an announcement made in the Dutch capital city. The announcement went on to explain that this was being done to "strengthen prostitutes' position," which seems straightforward enough. It's also pretty close to a "that's what she said" joke, although it's not quite there (which actually is a "that's what she said" joke).

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Neighborhoods to Know and Go: Amsterdam's Noord

February 28, 2013 at 12:12 PM | by | Comments (0)

If you want to get away for a bit from the hordes of cyclists in the main tourist areas of Amsterdam, a ferry ride across the river IJ can do just that. The city’s Noord (North) neighborhood is the oldest and largest in Amsterdam, yet you don’t hear much about it. We think that’s going to change.

Formerly a shipping and industrial area, it’s becoming the cultural and creative center of Amsterdam with its mix of canal cottage villages, parks, architectural mix and the recently-opened EYE Film Institute. New condos are starting to appear on the waterfront and yet, if you’re looking for some early work of Rem Koolhaus, that’s here too.

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Keepin' It Kubrick at Amsterdam’s New EYE Film Institute

Where: IJpromenade 1, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1031KT
September 4, 2012 at 11:57 AM | by | Comments (0)

Movie lovers rejoice! Amsterdam opened its new spaceship-like EYE Film Institute Netherlands in April of this year in the city’s developing north neighborhood, across the River IJ from Old Amsterdam.

With a goal of promoting film as art, the museum’s collection spans decades of filmmaking brilliance and they hold one-offs of some of the world’s earliest films once thought lost. This collection has even been named as part of UNESCO’s "Memory of the World" Register.

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The Newbie Traveler in Amsterdam: Red Lights and Locked Bikes

August 15, 2012 at 6:17 PM | by | Comments (0)

What would your life be like if you hadn't yet traveled to Europe? If you'd spent years reading travel novels and fantasizing over guidebooks, but hadn't made the big leap? This is the case for Andy Miles, who in his late twenties just embarked on a trip to hit most of the cities for the first time. He's walking us through the emotions and observations of a true Newbie Traveler.

There are a few things that most of us already know about Amsterdam:

· The Red Light District is full of scantily clad women dancing behind glass.
· The coffee shops serve something a little stronger than regular coffee, but more mellow than decaf (if you catch my drift).
· It's where Anne Frank wrote her beautifully heartbreaking diary.

It turns out that there's a lot more to Amsterdam than the three items listed above. Like, for example, did you know that in Amsterdam it's legal to use the bathroom in the street? Ok, that's not technically true, but it's also not entirely false. See, while walking around Amsterdam you're bound to run into a strange-looking spiral metal enclosure that always seems to be wet on its tiled floor.

When I saw the first one of these near my hotel I thought it was a piece of art. I was incredibly wrong, however; these enclosures are actually outdoor bathrooms open to the public, though I assume mainly for men as there are no seats and you're only supposed to go "Number 1" in them.

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Hertz Rents Cars, Electric Bikes, RVs and Now...Boats

August 2, 2012 at 8:30 AM | by | Comments (2)

If you've ever been to Amsterdam you've seen them—the groups of young tourists who think it'd be cool to rent a boat and explore the city's canals, but then just end up blithely pedaling their way up one or two before giving up and hitting a "coffee shop" the rest of the afternoon.

Well, the embarrassment of the cheapie pedalboat is nearing its end as worldwide car rental giant Hertz has announced that Rent A Boat, an Amsterdam-based rental service for non-sucky watercraft.

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Above a Giant Port City on a Tiny Airplane

May 24, 2012 at 6:26 PM | by | Comments (0)

Rotterdam in the Netherlands isn't usually a city over which you fly in a plane. If you arrive, you'll come into Rotterdam-The Hague International Airport, or via train into Rotterdam Centraal Station. But...BUT if you happen to fly out Hamburg, Germany and to a place like London, and the sky is clear and you've got a window seat, keep watch for the distinctive huge maritime city.

While it's very cool to see the layout of this legendary port from the above, we think it's even cooler that leaving from Hamburg (called "The Gateway to the World"), means having a chance at flying over Rotterdam at all, as it's called "The Gateway to Europe."

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any superhuge supertankers in port on the way we snapped this, but hats off to the pilot for announcing the view out the window!

[Photo: Jaunted]

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Maastricht Keeps the Sticky Icky for Itself, Bans Foreign Tourists from Weed Cafes

October 3, 2011 at 10:35 AM | by | Comment (1)

We're not going to say "I told you so," but we kind of did back in May when Holland first announced plans to possibly close "coffee shops" to tourists after crime rose. Now, from this last Saturday, the hammer has dropped and foreign tourists are not permitted in the coffee shops of Holland's southernmost city of Maastricht.

There are exceptions: Germans and Belgians are still welcome, but no Americans or Italians or English or French or...we could continue but you get the point. And if you are German or Belgian, then be prepared to show your passport and allow the coffee shop to retain your identity information for up to two days, even if you're only in the shop to smoke weed for fifteen minutes.

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Total Bummer. Amsterdam Will Close Its Weed Cafes to Tourists

May 31, 2011 at 2:45 PM | by | Comments (4)

Can you hear that? Stoners and wanna-be stoners everywhere are weeping and reaching for the nearest bag of Cheetos, to ease the sadness. Holland, home to Amsterdam and this, the weed-smoking capital of the world, will shut the doors of its cannabis cafes to tourists. By the end of the year, only Dutch residents will be able to enter pot-selling shops.

So if you were planning a trip to light up in Amsterdam, you'll have to find other means to get high. According to the Daily Mail, the new legislation is being called "tourism suicide," since it will cost the country millions of dollars each year in lost revenue.

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Get Your Face Painted on a Plane in KLM's Cute Contest

May 5, 2011 at 9:02 AM | by | Comments (0)

We always knew we'd get our faces on the side of an airplane one day. We just thought that when it happened, it'd be bigger than a few inches. Ah well—KLM is throwing a contest that's worth a few minutes of your time, because that's exactly what they want to do—put your face on one of their planes.

The whole "Tile Yourself" deal is quite simple. Head to the websit, login via Facebook or just upload a picture straight from desktop and choose a border and type a cute saying. Click submit, KLM will show what you'd look like as a traditional Delft blue tile, and you'll be entered to actually have that tile painted on a plane of theirs.

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TV Ad Has Nothing to Do with Flight Attendants, Everything to Do with Sex

January 21, 2011 at 12:36 PM | by | Comments (0)

It's lunchtime on a Friday, so step away from your desk or wherever for a little, semi-NSFW treat. The video above, which features a sexy (fake) flight attendant showing how to properly put on a condom as part of her pre-flight safety briefing, was a PSA over in the Netherlands. Yep—they showed it on TV, as a way to get Dutch teens and twenty-somethings to perk up and pay attention. If they are going to have sex on their vacation, then it should be safe sex.

We think we've found a solution to the problem of no one paying attention during the safety briefings!

[Thanks to Pam Ann for pointing this out on her Facebook page!]

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