As I said previously, I’m in Amsterdam for a long weekend. Just me and the missus. It’s Saturday evening and so far we’ve had a great time.

Got in to the centraal station friday morning and wandered west down one of the lanes looking for somewhere suitable for breakfast. Came across a coffee shop called Barney’s and stopped there for pancakes, eggs and bacon. Very tasty. We sat opposite some other english people who had just driven straight from Plymouth and parked outside. They seemed pretty boxed already, making their way through a large bag of something! I get the impression Barney’s is a popular spot as it features in the Lonely Planet.

Anyway, we headed to our hotel from there which isn’t far from the Vondelpark. One of the great things about Amsterdam is you can walk everywhere, although the tram is available if you’re lazy.
We’re staying at a b&b called Flynt. It is a small (3 rooms) family run place. The owners are very easy going (well they are dutch). There is a kitchen which is well stocked and we are free to help ourselves. This is good for them too as they don’t have to get up and make our breakfast! Wasn’t sure when we first arrived as they have a couple of dogs which kept barking. From experience you can forget a lie in with dogs in the house but they didn’t make any noise this morning - got up about 11. Now that is one of the real benefits of a trip like this. Since being a parent I can count the number of times I’ve slept to 11 on one hand.

Dutch Influence and Power

Walking around Amsterdam felt so familiar. I know I’ve been here before but it was different. Having just recently been to New York it occured to me that the two cities are incredibly similar. I don’t know if I’ve got this wrong but I seem to remember that NY was originally called New Amsterdam in its founding days. Then the brits got their mits on it and changed the name. The architecture is strikingly similar. Beautiful tall, thin terrace houses. I love the place. The edge it has on New York is the scale and the canals. It is just a beautiful city. Combine that with the dutch attitude and you can’t get much better.

It seems the dutch influence on the world is far greater than we self-centred Brits realise. There are so many shops and banks here that I know realise are actually Dutch owned. Thinking about even LexisNexis is Dutch owned - Reed Elsevier (world’s 3rd largest publishing house) has it’s headquarters round here somewhere.

Another Dutch super power based here in the dam is Heineken. We visited their brewery today. It is a good tour. Value for money too as for11 euro entry you also get three beers through the course of the tour. The whole thing is very modern. Not sure when it opened but it was all based around a lot of audio/visual entertainment including various interactive intranet, websites etc. They showed a very impressive corporate showreel that made you want to sign up exclusively to Heineken for the rest of your drinking live. The presentation was amzingly slick with a soundtrack by Tiesto. It seems they own 80 different brands of beer including Amstel, Murphy’s and Cruz Campo. Just shows, here we are thinking there are all these different breweries providing a diverse drinking choice when actually they’re all owned by a handful of major players. Guess the same could be said of most industries.

The Real Amsterdam

One thing that I have discovered about Amsterdam this time round is that there is so much more to it than the Centrum district with it’s red light sleaze, coffee shops and cheap food. This time we been all round the Jordaan district, checking out the boutiques in the 9 lanes (?) area.

Last night we ate at Brasserie Harkema in lower Centrum. The venue is a vast old warehouse beautifully designed and the food was excellent. We had three courses (including a perfect steak), two glasses of white and a bottle of red and the bill was 80 euros. You can’t knock that. After that we had a few drinks at Bar Bep followed by a couple at the Supper Club. I recommend all of them - we were definitely in the minority as non-dutch.

Today we made our way east from the hotel through the Vondelpark and what I can only describe as the ‘kensington” of Amstrdam. The area is beautiful. Away from the canals true, but it is made up of wide, quiet avenues of imposing townhouses and real villagey/community feel. I loved it. That took us to great street market along the Albert Cuypstraat where we ate frites with mayo. From there we just meandered up the east side of the city and back down towards the hotel. I even picked up a new pair of shoes for 50 euros!

The plan tonight is, seeing as we’re here, we’ll check out a sex show. I skipped all that previously but it’s one of those things that has to be done really!

Holy moly! It has finally arrived. The day is almost upon us. Abercrombie & Fitch will finally land this side of the Atlantic on the 22nd of March!

For those of you unaware of this fashion giant, they are an American label which produces what I would class as classic ‘college jock’ clothing for men and women. I discovered their clothes on my first trip to the states and fell in love straight away. The detail and cut of the clothing is excellent. Somehow they always seem to get it right and the quality means it never looks cheap. These days you see everyone trying to copy the style all the way down to Primark. Ultimately though you can just tell the difference. Maybe it has something to do with the people wearing the clothes too. As until now the only way to get hold of the stuff was by going to the states or buy the odd item that found its way in to a random little boutique somewhere. That has meant it hasn’t saturated the high street. It remains to be seen what will happen now they have a store here.
Saying that, it will be on Saville Row which indicates they are definitely targeting a certain demographic, namely that which can afford to shop down Bond St. Which says to me that the clothing will be way over priced. I guess you could say that’s a good thing. If you have the money to pay or, like me you travel to and have friends in America. The bonus of this situation to me is that, given that they stock the same items, I can go in and try things out for fit then have someone send me the same thing from the states, or pick it up while over on business. Perfect!

Knowing me though, I won’t have the patience to wait and will just buy it regardless.

Anyway, only 8 days to go. I might have to make an effort to check it out on the opening day. I wonder if it will be a free for all. They have certainly been marketing it around town these past weeks.

To be continued…