Bahnhof Zoo, destijds het West-Berlijnse station voor internationale treinen, is al lang niet meer het toneel van de drugsscene. Tegenwoordig speelt het zich voornamelijk af rondom station Kottbusser Tor in Kreuzberg. Christiane is door reporters gesignaleerd bij 'Kotti', ook wel 'Berlins Supermarkt der Drogen' genoemd.

Onguur sujet
In juli en augustus doken de eerste berichten op over Christianes terugval. Geen toeval, vermoedt Kai Hermann. Hermann is een van de auteurs van 'WIr Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo' en had af en toe nog contact met Christiane.

Eerder dit jaar leerde Christiane haar nieuwe liefde kennen: Joachim S. Volgens Hermann een nogal onguur sujet, dat wordt gezocht door de politie.

S. zou met zijn verhaal naar de media zijn gegaan. Ook de moeder van Christiane, Elisabeth T, is inmiddels uitgebreid geïnterviewd door B.Z. "Ik heb mijn dochter 35 jaar lang terzijde gestaan. Nu weet ik niet meer hoe ik haar kan helpen."

Ontvoering
Voor de zomer wilde Christiane met haar zoon en Joachim naar Amsterdam. Ze haalde haar kind van de een op de andere dag van school, maar voordat ze konden vertrekken werd de jongen door de kinderbescherming met politiegeweld weggehaald bij Christiane. Kort daarna ontvoerde Christiane haar zoon uit de instelling en vertroken ze alsnog naar Amsterdam.

Daar ging het hard bergafwaarts met Christiane meldt Joachim S.: "Ze dronk veel, blowde, gebruikte heroïne en methadon. Lag alleen nog maar in bed en waste zich wekenlang niet meer." Naar haar zoon zou ze niet hebben omgekeken. In juni keerde Christiane terug naar Berlijn en haar zoontje werd uit huis geplaatst. Van een terugkeer naar zijn moeder is volgens een woordvoerder voorlopig geen sprake.

Leven na het boek
Van het boek zijn wereldwijd twee miljoen exemplaren verkocht en het verhaal werd ook verfilmd. Christiane krijgt jaarlijks enkele tienduizenden euro's aan royalties. Hoewel 'Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo' hoopvol eindigt, lukte het Christiane niet om een stabiel leven op te bouwen.

'Ich bin so süchtig'
De vader van haar kind is een junk, die ze leerde kennen bij de instelling waar ze haar methadon haalde. In de jaren tachtig had Christiane een relatie met de gitarist van Einstürzenden Neubauten en joeg ze een carriėre na als zangeres. Zo bracht ze het lied 'Ich bin so süchtig, ich find's so wunderbar' uit.

Weer naar Berlijn
Later probeerde ze het als actrice en woonde ze in Griekenland, Zwitserland en Amerika om uiteindelijk weer terug te keren naar Berlijn. Zou ze als moeder dan toch eindelijk een ordelijk bestaan kunnen leiden, vroegen familie en vrienden zich af. Samen met haar zoon ging het ook redelijk goed. Totdat Joachim S. dit jaar in Christianes leven kwam.

Da notare la vigilessa "Questo è il tuo souvenir"...ebbeh...

Dal 1 Gennaio 2009 saranno abolite le ganasce, poiche' (pare) che non ce ne sia piu' bisogno in quanto la multa puo' essere inviata e riscossa nella maggior parte dei paesi europei.

Questa misura e' stata adottata soprattutto per non contrariare i turisti che, tornando alla propria macchina, hanno dovuto chiamare il centro per lo sblocco, aspettare che il camioncino arrivasse, che l'addetto smontasse la ganascia e pagare.

Anche se indubbiamente e' vero che tutto cio' porta un notevole disguido nell'ambito di una visita turistica (e anche un gran giramento di palle), c'è da dire che almeno li' cosi' si era sicuri di ricevere i soldi e si evitava l'invio delle multe nei vari paesi di appartenenza.

Per quanto concerne il lavoro quindi, niente piu' addetti alle ganasce ma addetti alla verifica delle targe e reperimento e invio all'indirizzo del contravvenuto...

La multa pare resti invariata: 104 euro e 60 centesimi.

Ik storm naar binnen.
Wolken van Oostende drijven.
Drijven me voort in jou.
De vuurtoren en het antwoord.

De vez en cuando ocurre que te topas sin querer con un libro, un disco o una película de la que nunca he oído hablar y que consigue despertar en ti una curiosidad imprevista. Las razones pueden ser de lo más variopintas; a veces basta con una portada llamativa, un aspecto excitante, una imagen misteriosa… Cuando uno lleva tanto tiempo dedicándose a rastrear rarezas, la menudo cae en la cuenta de que existen razones más que justicadas para que determinadas obras hayan sido relegadas al olvido.  La mayoría de las veces te acercas a alguna de ellas en busca de un premio a tu constancia por desenterrar tesoros ocultos y lo único que recibes a cambio son decepciones absolutas o descubrimientos anecdóticos. Las menos, resulta que el esfuerzo ha valido la pena y se te dibuja una sonrisa de orgullo en la cara al pensar que, por una vez, puedes ser tú quien haga saltar la liebre.

Pues bien, “Den Brysomme Mannen” pertenece al bando de los hallazgos. No sólo por su innegable interés y calidad, si no por tratarse de un título a contracorriente dentro del panorama cinematográfico actual. No termino de explicarme porqué un título como éste (galardonado en los festivales de Cannes, Sitges, Bruselas, Atenas, Noruega y Amsterdam, entre otros) ha pasado tan desapercibida como para que hasta resulte complicado encontrar referencias a ella en los medios especializados. El hecho de que haya durado lo que un suspiro en las carteleras españolas no supone ninguna sorpresa, claro. Al fin y al cabo se trata de una película noruega en la que se le exige al espectador algo más que engullir palomitas. Si a eso le sumamos un carácter alegórico de crítica social para nada complaciente, ya podéis imaginaros el porqué de su condición casi inédita en nuestras pantallas.

En principio nos encontramos ante una fábula de aliento kafkiano sobre la toma de conciencia de un oficinista sobre la pérdida de valores de una sociedad consumista y en apariencia idílica. Su director, Jens Lien, asume el envite de un guión plagado de simbolismos, abogando por una narración en la que el peso de los silencios juega un papel capital. Su cómplice, Per Schreiner, pone a su disposición los elementos necesarios para llevar a cabo un desangelador retrato de la superficialidad de las relaciones humanas en esta nueva era de la globalización capitalista, retratando la alienación emocional con un pesimismo casi misántropo. Adscrita a una especie de realismo fantástico, la cinta se centra en el proceso de extrañamiento del personaje protagonista (un notable Trond Fausa Aurvaag) que va tomando conciencia de la monótona levedad de su existencia a través de una sucesión momentos de malintencionado, violento y surrealista humor negro. Su intento de romper con lo que le rodea, en busca de una felicidad real, alejada de tanto sexo mecánico, manjares insípidos y banalidad de Ikea, se salda con un final tan poco gratificante como revulsivo.

Os advierto que no es una película fácil. La necesidad de asumir un ritmo pausado pero constante y una fotografía convenientemente gélida, pueden hacer de “El inadaptado” uno de esos platos de digestión lenta. A veces, la austeridad de la puesta en escena puede recordar al cine de Kaurismaki, pero los personajes que rodean al protagonista resultan tan carentes de emociones humanas que finalmente la balanza se decanta hacia el lado de las fábulas políticas checoslovacas de los años setenta.

En resumidas cuentas: una película que llama a la reflexión y que, sin resultar en absoluto aburrida, puede llegar a atragantarse a quien busque un relato convencional. A los demás os garantizo que la experiencia vale mucho la pena.

[Tuberculosis can be a difficult disease to diagnosis. The following is working under the assumption that the diagnosis of "phthisis" for Spinoza's long-running pulminary problems is best understood as the disease tuberculosis.]

The Influence of Disease

It is interesting that of all the influential facts we seem to have about Spinoza's life, his tuberculosis may be neglected only as much as his lens-grinding has been. Very little of how debilitating this disease can be, nor its chronic nature seems to be considered when framing a picture of Spinoza's motivations for life decisions. At most his tuberculosis, called in biographies "phthisis", its name derived from Greek, gives us a remote picture of a man made weak and coughing at times. Then there is the oft repeated, but unsupported, yet romantically satisfying thought that he died not only of his TB, but also from inhalations of glass dust from his lens-grinding. Yet the facts of the disease seldom seem to enter into the explanations for Spinoza's decisions and life turns.

Spinoza's early biographer Colerus tells us that Spinoza had been suffering from tuberculosis for more than 20 years when Spinoza died at the age of 44, in Feburary of 1677:

Spinosa was a Man of a very weak Constitution, unhealthy and lean,
and had been troubled with a Pthysick above twenty years, which
oblig'd him to keep a strict course of Dyet, and to be extreamly sober
in his Meat and Drink. Nevertheless, his Landlord, and the people of
the House did not believe that he was so near his end, even a little
while before he died, and they had not the least thought of it.

If we track backwards, this would place the first bout with tuberculosis very close to the date of his father's death (March 28, 1654), and his taking over of the family firm (September 1654). Spinoza's step mother, Esther, died only five months before his father did (October 14, 1653), after a year of serious illness, itself a year after Spinoza's own sister Miriam had died. Tuberculosis is a highly contagious disease when symptomatic, (when living 24 hrs a day exposed for two months you have a 50% chance of being infected).

To more fully picture the condition, the symptoms of active tuberculosis include:

- A cough which may last three or more weeks and may produce discolored or bloody sputum
- Unintended weight loss
- Fatigue
- Slight fever
- Night sweats
- Chills
- Loss of appetite
- Pain with breathing or coughing (pleurisy)

That Spinoza may have contracted tuberculosis from his father, and may himself have become symptomatic in the year 1656 or so is not something that many people have considered. (To his credit, Nadler does momentarily bring up the idea that Spinoza may have suffered from the same thing that killed his step-mother, 155; why his step-mother and not his father I do not know.) These are years that we have very little historical record of, and a struggle with the illness may very well be a reason for this (the highest risk for deveoloping of the disease is in the first two years after infection). When Spinoza applied for orphan status in March of '56 (two years after his father died), and when the cherem is read against him in July of the same year, removing him from the community, having failed to pay the family firm's imposta tax, he may indeed already have been tubercular, and perhaps even seriously so. This would make his excommunication something of quarantine, not only of ideas, but also in a vividness of metaphor, of body and illness. But we really need not go that far, though it should be considered. We have had such a variety of motivations projected onto Spinoza at this time, from Jonathan Israel's thought that Spinoza was at this time attempting to be excommunicated by being outrageous, simply to climb out from the burden of onerous debts, to Wim Klever's notion that Spinoza at this point was so invested in his political and spiritual education with Van den Enden, long broken from the community, the excommunication was but a triffle. Either of these may be so, but if Spinoza had by now become symptomatic, his illness certainly would have played into his inability to run the firm to profit, or more significantly, his desire no longer to conduct that vigorous business.

Chekhov's Example

Tuberculosis does not always head in a straight line, by my understanding. It can be recurrent. Chekov, for instance, who like Spinoza also suffered from the disease over a twenty-year period, as an original onset had an intial bout of fevers in December of 1883, and then three days of coughing up blood a year later in December of 1884. It was not until six years later, from the strain of trans-Siberian travel, that again the disease seemed to surface, much more forcefully. Chekhov, like Spinoza, died in his 44th year, at the peak of his intellectual and creative powers. [Citing "Chekhov's Chronic Tuberculosis" (1963), by Brian R. Clarke]. This is how one medical information website describes the nature of its chronic mechanism:

In addition, TB can spread to other parts of the body. The body's immune (defense) system, however, can fight off the infection and stop the bacteria from spreading. The immune system does so ultimately by forming scar tissue around the TB bacteria and isolating it from the rest of the body. Tuberculosis that occurs after initial exposure to the bacteria is often referred to as primary TB. If the body is able to form scar tissue (fibrosis) around the TB bacteria, then the infection is contained in an inactive state. Such an individual typically has no symptoms and cannot spread TB to other people. The scar tissue and lymph nodes may eventually harden, like stone, due to the process of calcification of the scars (deposition of calcium from the bloodstream in the scar tissue). These scars often appear on x-rays and imaging studies like round marbles and are referred to as a granuloma. If these scars do not show any evidence of calcium on x-ray, they can be difficult to distinguish from cancer.

Sometimes, however, the body's immune system becomes weakened, and the TB bacteria break through the scar tissue and can cause active disease, referred to as reactivation tuberculosis or secondary TB. For example, the immune system can be weakened by old age, the development of another infection or a cancer, or certain medications such as cortisone, anticancer drugs, or certain medications used to treat arthritis or inflammatory bowel disease. The breakthrough of bacteria can result in a recurrence of the pneumonia and a spread of TB to other locations in the body. The kidneys, bone, and lining of the brain and spinal cord (meninges) are the most common sites affected by the spread of TB beyond the lungs.

"experience had taught me"

At the very least, if Spinoza was showing symptoms of the disease as early as 1656, as Colerus' very rough estimate would place them, Spinoza's life decisions to not pursue wealth, but rather a life of philosophy, must be cast in a slightly different psychological light. Spinoza writes of his change of mind in The Emendation of the Intellect:

After experience had taught me that all the usual surroundings of social life are vain and futile; seeing that none of the objects of my fears contained in themselves anything either good or bad, except in so far as the mind is affected by them, I finally resolved to inquire whether there might be some real good having power to communicate itself, which would affect the mind singly, to the exclusion of all else; whether, in fact, there might be anything of which the discovery and attainment would enable me to enjoy continuous, supreme, and unending happiness.

I say "I finally resolved," for at first sight it seemed unwise willingly to lose hold on what was sure for the sake of something then uncertain. I could see the benefits which are acquired through fame and riches, and that I should be obliged to abandon the quest of such objects, if I seriously devoted myself to the search for something different and new. I perceived that if true happiness chanced to be placed in the former I should necessarily miss it; while if, on the other hand, it were not so placed, and I gave them my whole attention, I should equally fail(Elwes translation).

This is thought to have been Spinoza's earliest philosophical text, before the Short Treatise, Shirley placing its composition between the years 1657 and 1660. What, we may ask, was this "experience" that has taught Spinoza the futility of social life, the uncertainty of "fame and riches". Are these generic experiences that all would have, perhaps even the particularities of watching his father die in tubercular fashion, after a life of substantial monetary and honorific gain? Or, more jarringly, was it the onset of the same disease, the same coughing up of blood, that he had seen his father and his step-mother succumb to? This would certainly have a life-turning effect.

We see no evidence for debilitation in April of '55 in the record of Spinoza's subpoena and physical confrontation with the Alvares brothers. He is struck so hard his hat comes off, something which might afford a reference to physical weakness, but none is mentioned. In fact, from the vague description it seems that only the hat seems worse for wear. And in '58, from Fra Tomás' 1659 report to the Spanish Inquisition, we find Spinoza to have a handsome face "de buena cara" with light, clear, but perhaps pale skin, "blanco". This would seem to put him in good health. The only thing I may mention is that there is great contrast given between his very dark hair and eyes, and the paleness of his skin. Prado, in whose company Spinoza is in, has a "brownish" complexion on the other hand. While he may have been in good health at the time, the paleness of his skin may have been due to some convalescence. In 1659 he is described by another informant for the Inquisition as having a "well-formed body, thin, long black hair, a small moustache of the same color, a beautiful face".

But as we have seen from the example of Chekhov, an attack of tuberculosis does not nessarily leave one debilitated for life. The body's immune system can indeed isolate the infection, and return one to health, even robust health, only to be susceptible to the disease later, and times of great stress or weakness. Assuming that his disease was that of tuberculosis, one cannot conclude that Spinoza's health was never robust, as some have thought.

The Beginnings of "Isolation" and a Conserve of Roses

A great deal of investigative imagination and analysis has gone into the question as to why Spinoza left Amsterdam for the much more quiet Rijnsburg in 1661. Gullan-Whur suspects that something had frightened Spinoza in a way that the excommunication had not, perhaps something to do with the Spanish Inquisition. Perhaps an increasing pressure from Dutch authorities and Jewish reaction made it unsafe for Spinoza to continue his Amsterdam life, some feel. And there is the account of a knife attack outside the theatre, if it is to be believed. Or it is assumed that he went to Rijnsburg to be closer to the Collegiant movement. Spinoza's very good, generous friend Jarig Jelles bought a large new house on the Herengracht in Amsterdam in 1660, but Spinoza did not move in. First he moved to near Ouderkerk, and then to Rijnsburg near Leiden's university. Why? We are told his move towards isolation was so that he could be away from distractions from friends, so that he could concentrate on his work, and this is no doubt true. But is it too much to notice that his withdrawl from friends and the air of the city may have been really a question of health? Was it not that tuberculosis struck him again, and it is was in full view of his mortality, and even questions of contagiousness, that brought him to concentrated isolation.

By September 1661 he writes to Oldenburg that his Short Treatise, (one may say is most overtly spiritual work) is still a work in progress. There is no hint of his illness in their correspondence. In the winter of '62/'63 he has the company of Johannes Caesarius, who is living with him, helping him in a none-too-satisfactory fashion with the geometrical treatment of Descartes' philosophy. Gullan-Whur reads Caesarius to be Jan Casier, a student of Van den Enden's school, now a young, Dutch Reformed ordinand (1642-77). As a note of perhaps significant coincidence during this period, Adriaan Koerbagh, Spinoza's friend and comrade in spirit of the same age, had received his doctor of medicine from nearby Leiden University in 1659, with a dissertation on the causes of Tuberculosis, Disputio medica unauguralis de Phthisi. In 1661 he became a Doctor of Law, also at Leiden, and in Koerbagh's later trial he admits that he had discussed philosophical matters with Spinoza numerous times in the years 1661-63. Having conducted a study of the causes of tuberculosis, one wonders if Koerbagh had ever seen Spinoza as a patient, or if Adriaan himself had tuberculosis which weakened him (as he would died only within a few months of being sentenced to prison and hard labor in 1669). Along this line of argument, a conserve of roses is the only conserve mentioned in the Bloemhof  (1668). The suppressed Bloemhof  was a 672 page dictionary of terms written by Adriaan and his brother, meant to demystify the use of foreign phrases and technical jargon, putting into the vernacular the verbal obfuscations by which eclesiastical, medical and legal "experts" carried out much of its authority over the common man. In 1665 it is for a conserve of roses that Spinoza says he is waiting (Letter 28), writing to the physician Johan Bouwmeester who was an intimate of Adriaan Koerbagh. Spinoza had visited his friends in Amsterdam earilier in the year, and during his visit to the city he seems to have suffered a recurrence of his tuberculosis:

At the same time I also expected some of the conserve of roses which you promised, although now for a long time felt better. On leaving there, I opened a vein once, but the fever did not abate (although I was somewhat more active even before the bloodletting because of the change of air, I think). But I suffered two or three times with tertian fever, though by good diet I have at last rid myself of it and sent it packing. Where it went I know not, but I don't want it back.

By this time Spinoza has moved from Rijnsburg to Voorborg near The Hague, and he distinctly associates the "air" of Amsterdam with the onset of his illness. It would appear likely that this causal belief was consistent in his life, and thus part of his reason for moving out of Amsterdam in the first place.

Voorburg, Not So Quiet

At this point I would like to take up some of the psychological criticism aimed at Spinoza by his biographer Gullan-Whur. In making her assessment of a certain flaw in Spinoza's self-perception she provides us with a rather telling description of the house Spinoza moved into in Voorburg. She points out that although Spinoza, in her opinon, plays the role of the isolated sage, being crankily troubled by intrusions, he moved into one of the most bustling, connected locations in all of Voorburg: Voorburg was a rural village, but Benedictus had not choosen to live in a peaceful part of it, for the Kerkstraat houses, huddled on a terrace and generally having only a gable loft above their ground floors, were flanked by the market place and a boat-servicing harbour beside the Vliet. Yet, whole this lodging was feverishly cacophonous compared with sleepy Katwijkerlaan, he never complained...nothing was easier that getting to any Dutch city from Voorburg. The philosopher could leave home almost at the ringing of the horse-boy's bell to catch the trekschuit. Voorburg being on the way to everywhere (the canal system joined the River Schie at Delft, and continued south to Rotterdam and Dordrecht), he should have foreseen a continuous flow of callers (154-155).

She goes onto conclude that Spinoza himself does not own up to his own emotional needs for company, caught up in the production of his own image. I might suggest that Gullan-Whur has severely misread Spinoza's contradictory needs for isolation and for contact. This essentially the mindset of the chronically, if sporatically, ill. Rather than this being a profound conflict of conscience, the inability for Spinoza to understand his own needs, Spinoza's tuberculosis and his philosophical/scientific endeavours, required both isolation and contact. Indeed I would suggest that it was likely the disease that forced Spinoza to reconsider his life, and it was this ever-present relationship to his own body and mortality that made his rationalist philosophy most concerned with the freedoms of the body. Gullan-Whur's example of reading the man is actually instructive for all interpretations which ignore his physical histories. In fact all of Spinoza's metaphysical positions on the body should really be seen in the light of his continual threat of tuberculosis. 

It is persuasive to infer, and least as persuasive as any other reasoning I have encountered, that Spinoza's father and step-mother indeed died of tuberculosis, and that Spinoza had contracted the illness from them. On average, people have a 50 % chance of becoming infected with tuberculosis if they are in close contact eight hours a day for six months. If Colerus's estimate is right that Spinoza had struggled with the disease for more than twenty years, this would put his first attack right at the decisive years of the late 50s, as Spinoza was forming his new political and theological relationships with Van den Enden and Prado, leaving behind the family business. (By stating this length as more than 20 years, Colerus at the very least seems to want to place the illness before Spinoza's milestone move from Amsterdam.) This encounter with a disease that may have killed his father and step-mother surely would have shaped the decisions Spinoza was making. And the resultant dedication to philosophy, science and selective isolation should not be considered outside of this persistent awareness of both his disease and the effects it may have had on others. All the complexities of influence that we can convincingly conjure up may very well pale to the experience of the fatal fever and cough a year after you watched your father and step-mother, and perhaps even sister, pass under similar conditions. It is agreed that this is a time of plagues, and the death of family members and close friends, certainly by 1664 was not uncommon. This does not mitigate the personal effect the disease would have had upon Spinoza in the determinative years of 1655-1658, not to mention the consequences of managing the disease over a lifetime.

Why the timing and substance of the disease has not been well considered by biographers and interpreters of Spinoza's life, I do not know quite understand, except for the recognizeable need to comprehend the man in terms of much vaster, more abstract historical and intellectual factors.

Hideo ya había visitado anteriormente este carísmático lugar, y ya expliqué en una antigua entrada las impresiones que tuvo. Pero esta vez era distinto, ya que iba conmigo ;)

El Barrio Rojo de Amsterdam se encuentra cerca de la iglesia de San Nicolás (Sint-Nicolaaskerk) y también muy cerca de la Estación Central. Es famoso por mostrar a las prostitutas detrás de escaparates y sus locales dedicados al sexo. La prostitución en Holanda está completamente regulada y las prostitutas tienen derecho a un contrato, con su seguro médico, etc, etc.

En la zona había mucho movimiento, muchos jóvenes (y algunos no tan jóvenes) buscando diversión. Nos dedicamos a pasear y a hacer algunas fotos (algunas no las he colgado por motivos que comprenderéis...)

Paseando por Warmoestraat, la calle principal del Barrio Rojo

Haciendo amigos...

Uno de los muy numerosos locales dedicados al sexo.

Hideo me preguntó que diferencias había entre la prostitución en España y la de Holanda. La primera impresión que tienes es la situación de las prostitutas, tan precaria en nuestro país. Le expliqué que, aunque no es una profesión agradable, al menos en Holanda tenían buenas condiciones.

Cenamos en un restaurante de comida rápida china que había en una callejuela. Era la primera vez que comía comida china en vaso de cartón (como en las películas americanas) y estaban muy, muy ricos.

Nuestra cena!!! Qué rica estaba!!!

Luego cogimos el tren de vuelta a Tilburg. Había sido un día muy largo y nos esperaba Bruselas para el día siguiente.

-----------------------------

Our last stop in Amsterdam was a very special place: the Red-Light District.

Hideo visited this place in other moment and I talked in a old post about his impression. But this time was different because we went together ;)

The Red-Light District is pretty near from Central Station and Saint Nikolas church. It's famous because the prostitutes are showed in big windows and glass doors. The prostitution is legal in Holland and prostitutes have the same rights as a normal worker.

We could see many people in this area, especially young men groups who looked for funny moments. We walked and took some pictures (some of them are not attached, of course...).

Hideo asked me about the differences of the Holland and Spain prostitution, and I said that the main difference is the situation os prostitutes, very bad in Spain (it's not legal and they have to work in street, with not security and health).

After to walk we ate a dinner in a chinese fast food restaurant. It was the first time for me to eat chinese food in paper piece (like american movies). It was delicious!!

After a long day we came back to Tilburg by train. Brussels was waiting for us next day.

HOW do you follow up two, fine bottled ales? With some big name lager of course! Here is a small bottle of Amstel Bier Lager. Let's get this over with.

Amstel is a name I remember being aware of for years. Then not seeing for years. And just recently seeing advertised on posters again before finding this bottle being sold in a local shop. If it really has been resurrected here in Britain, then that is good to see. If anyone can shed some light on what happened to Amstel, do please leave a comment at the end of the post.

In fairness, it doesn't look at all bad. It certainly makes a change from all the green-glass bottles from its competitors.

The neck label doe what you expect of a neck label. It has a coat of arms featuring two horses, hops and barley. And the year 1870. Not bad. Not great either.

The big roundel stuck to the front of the bottle does roughly the same thing. Inside the roundel, they helpfully describe it as "Quality Product". That's good to know. Around the border, the place of origin becomes the centre of attention. Amstel Bier hails from the "Amstel Brouwerij B.V. Amsterdam Holland". Time now to check the back to see if this is the real thing, or in fact made over here.

They certainly keep things simple on this side of the bottle. This should take all of two-minutes to read. Which makes a change from the four hours it took to read everything yesterday.

From the very top, my big question was answered. That's because this was "brewed and bottled by Amstel Brouwerij B.V. for Heineken (UK) Ltd." It then goes on to give Heiniken's south-west London address. So... This was brewed in the Netherlands. Excellent.

Ingredients are the next thing they get to. This one lists water, malted barley and hops. No surprises there. Under some of the usual small print, the web address they give is www.ChilledfromAmsterdam.com. At first I hated their website for being slow and Flash heavy, but stick with it. It's quirky in a Dutch way and has some personality. Not something you find with most big, continental lagers.

Under the barcode are the vital statistics. This tiny bottle is 330 millilitres. And it has huge 4.1% alcoholic volume. Hang on, ‘huge' was the wrong word. ‘Moderate' is the one I'm looking for.

There. That's it. There's nothing more to say about the outside. Time now to open this bottle and see what it's like. How will it compare to the lacklustre competition I tried out a while back?

Watch out pourers, this is a head happy bottle. It dies down soon enough, but you'll still have a thick layer of froth to contend with.

Like nearly every lager, this one is pale yellow. And fizzy. No surprises there.

What about the smell? It has that small of a blend of malted barley and hops that all lagers have. The Amstel take on it is pretty good. It smells light and fresh somehow.

How does it taste? A couple of gulps in, and first impressions are ok. Just keep your expectations low. It has an almost invisible malted barley flavour. And it leaves you with a lingering bitter aftertaste. That bitter aftertaste rolls in, and leaves a semi-harsh, slightly tangy bite in your mouth.

What is there to like here? As someone who likes ales, not a lot. But if I imagine for a moment, that I loved lager, there are a few things to like. For one, it is very light and drinkable. It's quite refreshing too. The flavours won't offend anyone. And that lagery "bite" that lager drinkers seem to adore is there and doing its job perfectly well. The whole drink does what a lager should do, very well indeed.

If you're guessing that there are things I don't like, you'd be right. The reason it's so light and drinkable, is because it's got the consistency of water. Flavour is almost totally absent. And that bitter "bite" doesn't sit well with me at all. It's unsophisticated and unnecessarily rough. It's also a tiny bit gassy. But then it is a lager. So all this criticisms don't really apply.

If you compare it to all the other lagers out there, especially the other Dutch or northern-European ones, the picture changes. Amstel Bier suddenly looks light, drinkable and good.

So there you have it. If you like continental lagers, you should try Amstel Bier Lager. It's a fully competent lager. Compare it to a real ale, and it looks laughable. Compare it to other lagers, and it looks respectable. The rating then, becomes meaningless. But, here it is anyway.

Rating: 2.25

Have you tried Amstel Bier Lager? What did you think of it? What reputation does it have in the Netherlands?

Leave your corrections, opinions, insights, requests and recommendations in the boxes below.

Coming next, another bottled lager I don't expect to enjoy!

First of all, last night me and Sophia went to see The Faint at the Melkweg.  The show was amazing, but we had all kinds of fun adventures before and after the show as well.  It was a really fun night for sure.  It started off with some predrinks in vondelpark, which was a good idea because a beer at the venue was 6,50EUR which is re-damn-diculous!  After the predranks I hopped on the back of her bike and we headed into Leidseplein.  It took us longer then it should of for us to get to the venue because we made a few stops.  I peed in a bush...we finished beers in an alley and then we met some british boys (of which whom sophia assumed were aussies) randomly on the street.  We finally made it into the venue with seriously PERFECT timing, we made our way through the crowd to get a good spot and the band came out.  It was dancefest 2008 in there!  Seriously faint shows are so fun.  They played both of our favorite jams (sophias = "take me to the hospital" and mine =  "birth"...which is weird because they are both medical related. lololol............................anyway.) After the show we wanted to meet up with kasper because he went to the concert too..but we didn't see him there. After numerous phonecalls and not hearing from him we decided to eat. kroket and frijtes mmm mmm so delcious after you've had a few drinks. I think while we were eating we heard back from kasper and he told us that he was at some obscure random bar in the jordaan. We hopped on bike and headed there. Along the way we had a runin with the politie. I was just sitting on the back of her bike, cruising along and next thing i know she straight up CRASHED us into a big sign. I looked to my left and there are two cops. (aparently, the crash was to avoid crashing into the cops!) The hot policeman asks us if we've 'had enough to drink?' and we are thinking 'well.....i think i could throw back a few more', but just politley smile and nod and get the heck out of there asap. Eventually we make it to this tiny ass bar JUST in time for last call. We stay and have a few laughs and then go home. I had to take the night bus home. i HATE the night bus! I always have to wait at least a half hour at the bus stop for it to even come up and then it's like a 45 minute ride to my house! It takes forever and I hate it, and i'll be glad when I wont have to use it anymore. (i'm moving next weekend..yeeeeeehaw!). I got home at 2:30 and fell right the f asleep...only to have to wake up 5 hours later and go on this big long walking adventure taking kaitlyn to the doctor for a diaper rash...but we wont get into that.

gosh. longest ramble ever, congrats to you if you managed to sit through all that.

Now I want to talk about movies but first I will post a few pics from last night, for your viewing pleasure.

captions:

1) mirror shots are our thing

2 and 3) the faint

4) kroket (dont ask me whats inside of it...some kind of mystery meat with a mashed potato consistancy....but so delicious)

5) fries and mayo

6) kasper looks blind and i wasn't really smoking! yuck!

Man. I am done writing, I'll write my movie update tomorrow.

As lentes dos fotógrafos da equipe estão em Amsterdam, Antwerp, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Florence, London, Los Angeles, Milan e Paris. Vou trazer uma foto de cada cidade, aquela que considerei, entre as dezenas de outras, a mais bacana.

Aproveitem as dicas do que está nas vitrines e ruas do Hemisfério Norte!

Amsterdam:

Antwerp:

Cologne:

Dusseldorf:

Florence:

London:

Los Angeles:

Milan:

Paris:

The Live Machinima Theatre cross-reality event 'Club Goodbye Dollar' was a great succes! Please check Lauren Weyland's blogpost and here are some images:

flickr.com/photos/tags/clubgoodbyedollar

Do you know more sites who reported about this event? Please add the links in the comments. Did you also take snapshots or make video? Please upload them to the web and add the URLs here.

Time to play Peeping Tom again, with a quick peek into Dutch life via some of the exceptionally clean windows one finds everywhere here.  This Delft shop window looks just like what you expect from Amsterdam, but how about this

window full of iconic American foods?  There are a LOT of Americans in Amsterdam.

There's also a shop sporting a wacky sense of humor, related to the infamous Archie McPhee's in Seattle,

more Crocs than you can shake a stick at,

and the ubiquitous FEBO automat selling scary-looking sandwiches to the undiscriminating.

On the more serious side there's a window full of ancient armor at the Amsterdam's Historische Museum,

the windows framing this ballad to the lost anchovies of the Zuiderzee in the pretty island village of Marken

and a window world that really gives you something to peep at.

And now we're off to Bretagne, trading in those tongue-twisting Dutch syllables and our friends' warm hospitality for...let's go find out!

September 6: Fly from Seattle to Amsterdam, arrive 7:30am September 7.

September 7 & 8: Amsterdam

September 9: Fly from Amsterdam to Athens, via Prague.  Spend the night in Athens.

September 10: Delphi

September 11-15: other stuff on the mainland (Meteora, etc)

September 15: Overnight ferry from Athens (Piraeus) to Crete (Heraklion)

September 16-18: Crete

September 19-21: Santorini

September 22-30: Island hopping and making our way to Turkey

October 1-3: Istanbul

October 4: Fly Istanbul to London; have a 7 hour layover; fly London to Seattle.  Arrive Seattle 9:20pm.

One interesting aspect of the trip: it's Ramadan.  Ramadan ends September 30.  Apparently near the end of the month, and for 3 days after, there are some pretty nifty celebrations (all after sunset during Ramadan).  So it should be an interesting time in Turkey!  I'm looking forward to it.

There are a range of things I can talk about and lend some insight and guidance into. However I would like to start off talking about something that is near and dear to me and a host of others. That's right, you guessed it, the Amsterdam Missions team. 11 brave, gifted  and courageous people will be ambassadors for the Vineyard Church of Columbus, the people and values of the United States, and Christianity as a whole (whether they know it or not). They will be spreading the word of God and kindness of the spirit to people that might not know God or have any religious ties at all (fewer than 2 out of 10 people attend church at least twice a month), Muslims (33%), fringes of society (addicted to sex or drugs, prostitutes, homeless, etc), and anyone else that a diverse city like Amsterdam will bring forth.

I am personally vested in a particular family that will be a part of the 11, the Nash's. John, Amanda and baby Grayson are dear friends of mine and will be starting their 5 year commitment October 1, 2008. I have been friends with them since 2002 (before they were even married!) and have had the privilege to watch them grow stronger in their faith and become incredible leaders, including Amanda being ordained as a pastor in the church.

So why Amsterdam, Why now? Here are some of the points that can be found on the site.

1. Amsterdam needs Jesus. It is one of the most secular cities in the world. Less than 5,000 people in Amsterdam attend the Dutch Reformed Churches on Sundays. 47% say they never attend church. 4 in 10 don't know if there is a God or don't believe in God.

2. Amsterdam has lost its soul.

• legalized drugs resulting in horrible addictions
• legalized prostitution in the Red Light District
• the age for consensual sex is 12.

3. Amsterdam is a doorway to the Nations. People from 177 different nations live in Amsterdam, making it the most multicultural city in the world.

4. Amsterdam is one of the most influential cities in Europe. It is the most important cultural and artistic center north of Paris and between London and Cologne. There are 50,000 university students in the city.

The Goal

The goal of the mission is to start a healthy, vibrant church in Amsterdam that embodies these values. It is our plan to establish a church and fully transition the leadership to indigenous Amsterdammers within five to seven years. At that point, the mission will be completed and the mission team will return home.

So why am I telling you all this? This event, these people, this church is changing my life and will be impacting potentially millions more and I am proud to say that I am on the front end of it. I may not be able to go to Amsterdam, but I can support them by giving money, time, support, and prayers - and that is exactly what my family is doing.

Nash's - we love you!

Additional Resources:

Follow the Nash saga @ http://nashamsterdam.blogspot.com/

Learn more about the church plant in general @ http://www.vineyardamsterdam.org/default.asp

Learn more about the church that is starting it all @ http://vineyardcolumbus.com/index.asp

R:B

Selten so gelacht. Kosten drücken, bezahlt durch die Tänzer, denen man wohl bald noch ihren eigenen, recycelten, Urin ins Glas kippen wird. Betriebswirtschaftliche Totalverwertung eines Vergnügens, für dass der knallhart durchkalkulierte Gast nicht nur mit dem Einritt sondern auch mit seinem Schweiß bezahlt. Der Türsteher sortiert dann freilich nicht mehr nach Gesicht oder Kleidung sondern nach „Transpiranz“. Verschwitzte produzieren mehr Kondensschweiß und bringen mehr Energie auf die Tanzfläche als „coole“ Typen.

„Die bis zu 2000 Clubgäste erzeugen die Energie selbst! Die 30 Quadratmeter große Tanzfläche hat eine bewegliche Oberfläche: Sie gibt bei jeder Bewegung nach. So entsteht Energie, die in Strom für die Beleuchtung und das DJ-Pult umgewandelt wird. Je wilder die Party-Gäste tanzen, umso heller leuchten die LED-Lampen im Club.
Weil das allein noch nicht ausreicht, kommt der restliche Strom bisher aus regenerativen Energiequellen. Der Energieverbrauch soll bis zu 30 Prozent geringer sein als in normalen Clubbetrieben.
Auch bei Wasser und Müll wollen die Betreiber sparen. Die Toilettenspülung wird mit Regenwasser gespeist – und in Zukunft auch mit dem kondensierten Wasser aus dem Schweiß der Clubbesucher! Zu den Drinks gibt es einen Getränkehalter zum Umschnallen, damit die Plastikbecher mehrmals verwendet werden.“
Quelle: Bild; Im „Watt-Club“ gehen beim Tanzen die Lichter an

Doze, as many of you will know, is one of the original members of the Rock Steady Crew. He started putting up on the walls and trains of New York City in 1974; in the mid-80s his work was being exhibited in galleries such as Fun and Tony Shafrazi. And he is still working: check out his website HERE to see some of his recent activities.

Doze was in Amsterdam in June, collaborating with Fefe Talavera for an exhibition at K-Space Gallery. Fefe is a 26 year old Sao Paulo artist, who also has credits to her name of opening for Missy Elliott on tour. Her artworks often feature monsters and fabulous, vaguely terrifying creatures, like THESE. For the K-Space show, each artist produced some solo works, and collaborated on a huge piece, which blended Fefe's monsters with Doze's characters using a palette of rich, lush colour:

Check out some of the detail in this work:

The K-Space site contains many great shots of the artists working on this piece together. The exhibition opened with a big party, with both Fefe and Doze present. I had been standing around quietly taking photos, when one girl asked who I was and why I was taking pictures (she thought I must be a journalist). I explained about my research, and she asked if I would like to meet Doze and Fefe. Like to!!??!

And so I was introduced to them - one of street art's new stars, and one of hip hop's pioneering legends. And here they are together:

Also present at the party was Orlando Reyes, someone else with an illustrious hip hop career, and now running the 58 Gallery in New Jersey. While we were chatting, standing in the small area outside the gallery, Orlando's attention suddenly was distracted by something happening inside the gallery. 'Excuse me', he said, 'I have to go tag'.

And he rushed inside to join Doze, who was tagging the sound equipment set up for the opening. Here they are, hard at work:

As you can see, a fun time was had by all...  And if you are in Amsterdam, apparently Doze and Fefe did some works under some of the canal bridges too. What better reason to rent a pedal boat and head up and down the canals than to search for the work of a legend?

The driver arrived on time.  We make it to the airport and it's time to pay the bill.  I hand him my American Express Corporate card and he tells me that he doesn't take Amex.  I said "Your site says that you take all major credit cards.  This is a major credit card."  He then asks me if I have Visa or cash. I said "Yeah, but you said you take Amex."

Paying with my Visa or cash wouldn't have been a problem ordinarily.  But, with all the traveling I've been doing, and the fact that I'm paying in Euros, my out of pocket expenses can add up quickly.  As a result, I look for any opportunity to pay expenses on the company's dime.

The guy quickly realizes that I'm not going to give any ground.  So, he calls his dispatcher Hans and tells him the situation.  He then passes the phone to me and Hans proceeds to tell me that his taxi was contracted through the company I made the taxi reservation with.

I said "Well, the taxi service say they accept all major credit cards.  This is a major credit card."  Hans replies "But, we don't."  I reply "And that's my problem?"  He replies "It's not my problem either."  At this point in terns contentious.  I'm just not going to give any ground.  I think to myself "If Hans thinks for one minute that I'm just going to let him off the hook and pay him the dollar he expects to get, he's about to be put on to something new."

Getting to Know The American, Express!

I tell Hans that since he can't take Amex that he needs to call the company he contracted through and resolve it with them.  He says that they don't open until 9 a.m.  I say "Well, I have time."  At this point, the taxi driver shuts the engine to the car off.  I'm thinking... "Wow, this is pretty funny!  I'm going to sit here and make these guys fix this.  They're not going to okey doke me."

Hans gets rude with me on the phone.  I hand the phone back to the driver and say "You talk to Hans and fix this situation."  The driver talks to Hans a little longer.  Hans then asks to speak to me.  I say "I'm not speaking to Hans.  I want this situation resolved."  The taxi driver gets out of the car and walks to a taxi behind him.  The entire time I'm thinking "Mark, you are crazy.  They're going to call the airport police on you, destroy your laptop, or something crazy."  I turn around occasionally to see what's going on.  I've made up my mind that I'm going to hold my ground.

Finally, after waiting about 5 minutes, I get out of the car.  Shortly thereafter, the driver comes back with a card imprint machine that the other taxi driver loaned to him.  He swipes my card and I'm on my way.  I say to the taxi driver "If Hans had worked with me I might have been a little more agreeable.  He thinks I'm an idiot."  The taxi driver, as gracious and polite as he can be says, "It's not my fault."  I walk away thinking "I bet Hans will think twice before he tries that stunt again."

Airport Check-In

I check in at the KLM kiosk.  The kiosk says it can't find my reservation.  It's now time to pull out the laptop.  I find the reservation and realize I had been putting in the wrong reservation code.  "That why I couldn't check in via the Web."

I go through the screens.  The kiosk displays a 7:05 boarding time.  "WTF!  Was my 6 a.m. flight delayed / canceled?"  No, there was no 6 a.m. flight.  That was my original itinerary, which my admin booked incorrectly.  she had me going from Copenhagen to Amsterdam.  That flight was schedule for 6 a.m.  "You mean I woke up at 3:45 a.m. for a flight that leaves at 7:55?  I am not happy!  I only got an hour of sleep.  I'm here way too early.  I just got into with Hans.  Now, I have a full 3 hours and 30 minutes before my flight leaves... and there's no way I'm going to be able to sleep in this airport... DAMMIT!"  So, I decided to start blogging...  It's 6:10 a.m. and I still have a good way before my flight.  It's going to be a long day!

Signing off...

I meet up with my realtor.  We walk through the apartment.  Everything checks out.  We go over some paperwork, talk to the property manager, and settle up.  It's now home sweet away from home!  I'll take some pics and post them as soon as I get a chance.

I head for work after meeting up with the realtor.  When I arrive, I hear two co-workers buzzing about some even they're planning to meet up at.  I didn't really pay them any mind because they could have been chatting about something completely uninteresting.

Sticky and Sweet

10 minutes later my co-worker says that she's going to back out .  My other co-worker tells me that she has an extra ticket to see Madonna tonight at the Amsterdam ArenA.  My initial reply, "I have a 6 a.m. flight tomorrow. Well..."  Before I could get another word out my co-worker said "You're going", and turned her head back to her computer screen.  That was pretty much her way of saying "end of story".

I know Madonna's music.  I'd hardly call myself a fan.  But, what the hell, it's Madonna and the ticket is free.

We meet up Tuesday evening.  It's cold and raining pretty steadily.  But hey, it's Madonna and we're in Amsterdam.  We can't pass this up!

We find our way to the Amsterdam ArenA.  When we arrive inside this place is H U G E!  Perhaps Amsterdammers call it an arena.  That place is a dome stadium.  Most arenas I know of hold about 25,000 people.  This place easily holds 60,000.  It's typically used to host soccer matches.  So naturally, it should have decent capacity.

From our vantage point, the people on stage looked like ants.  I'm pretty sure that stage was about a 1/4 mile away from us.  The big projection screens on the sides of the stage seemed too small.  But hey, it's Madonna and we're in Amsterdam!  How cool is that?!

The opening act was pretty good.  I don't know who she was.  But, she had a nice voice and put on a great performance.  I'd like to find out who she is.  I'll have to add her music to the collection.

Sidebar

Europeans do "The Wave" at music concerts.  It's pretty stupid, in my opinion.  We're not at a sporting event.  Oh wait, they like soccer too.  They can't help it!

Madonna comes out around 9:30 and the crowd goes nuts.  Add to that some unbelievable stage, lighting and video effects, anyone would be hard pressed not to be hyped for the show.

She started out doing some of her more recent songs like Candy Shop.  She then spun that into a fitness theme with gym attire, jump rope and pole dancing.  She had this really cool part where she had two people simulating a boxing match.  It was so well done that it seemed animated.  You'd have to see the visual effects to really understand.  I was very impressed.

She went through a few different themes throughout her performance, she was a soloist in one, gave the audience a worldly feel in another with Flamenco dancers and a Spanish ballad singer.  She then did another theme around political and environmental consciousness.  The bass notes in that particular set were unlike anything I've ever heard.

Overall, it was a phenomenal show.  She's a true performer.  Plus, her visual effects were all high definition.  Her show is high definition.  I'm glad I accepted the invite out.  I enjoyed the show much more than I expected.

Monday night a group of my co-workers decided to take the VP of my group up on his offer to celebrate his birthday with him at a local bar.  I wasn't expecting it to be a few drinks, dinner, and every one would be on their way.

The celebration ended up being dinner, what seemed like free flowing beer, and 4 shots.  My boss, being Australian, showed what celebrating is all about.  The restaurant cleared out, I mean literally cleared out, at 10:45.  You'd think there was an emergency evacuation.  I've never seen anything like that.  It all happened very quickly and silently.  Places tend to close early in Amsterdam.  So, I guess everyone clearing out meant it was about time for the bar to start closing up.

Anyway, I stayed until about 12:30.  It was pretty funny watching the bartender glare at my VP after each of drink orders.  I mentioned to one of my co-workers that the bartender was probably going to be driven to visit careerbuilder.nl to find another line of work after the night's madness.  To fix that, my VP had the bartender participate in a few of our shots.   Well, as we approached the midnight hour, my VP ordered again and the bartender looked at him and said "I hate you.  I want to go home."  It was pretty funny.  My VP is a regular there.  So, I guess the bartender felt perfectly comfortable saying what's on his mind.

Dicono che ad Amsterdam si può vedere di tutto, eccetto cose normali!! Guardate la mia espressione dopo che abbiamo filmato un "mini-rave" in una barca, che stava passando per uno dei due principali canali della cittadina olandese.

[blip.tv ?posts_id=1208043&dest=-1]

]]> http://concertagenda.wordpress.com/?p=123 Thu, 04 Sep 2008 15:12:49 +0000 redactie http://concertagenda.wordpress.com/?p=123 Alain Clark treedt op 27 december op in de Heineken Music Hall. Clark heeft voor het optreden, genaamd 'Alain Clark & Friends', een aantal bevriende artiesten gevraagd om hem te vergezellen. Dat maakte promotor The Alternative gisteren bekend.

Amsterdam pełen jest zabytków, które z uwagi na swój urok na długo pozostają w pamięci. Koniecznie trzeba więc zobaczyć Oude Kerk- najstarszy XIII- wieczny kościół w Amsterdamie z potężnymi organami uchodzącymi za najlepsze w całej Holandii. Przy Placu Dam mieści się z kolei Nieuwe Kerk- „Nowy Kościół" powstały w XVI wieku. W kościele tym odbywają się koronacje oraz śluby rodziny królewskiej. Jest też protestancki Westerkerk- „kościół zachodni" położony w Dzielnicy Jordaan. W tej samej dzielnicy znajduje się dom Anny Frank, w którym ona i jej rodzina ukrywali się podczas II wojny światowej. Dziś mieści się tu muzeum. Wizyta w nim jest ważną lekcją życia i historii. Są jeszcze dwa protestanckie kościoły: Zuiderkerk- „kościół południowy i „Noorderkerk „kościół północny". Przy Placu Dam zwracam uwagę na dawny Ratusz a dziś Pałac Królewski oraz Muzeum Figur Woskowych Madame Tussauds. W Amsterdamie- mieście handlowym nie mogło zabraknąć też wagi miejskiej, w której odbywało się ważenie towarów. Ta znajduje się przy Nieuwemarkt. Jest jeszcze szlifiernia diamentów, do której trzeba zajrzeć aby zapoznać się z procesem szlifowania. Jest ich właściwie kilka. Potem znów udaję się na spacer wzdłuż kanałów, których w Amsterdamie jest ponad 150 aby zobaczyć niezwykle urokliwe XVII i XVIII- wieczne kamieniczki mieszczańskie. Można też udać się na rejs po kanałach lub wynająć rower wodny i samodzielnie eksplorować miasto. A kiedy na niebie pojawią się gwiazdy udaję się na wieczorną wizytę do Dzielnicy Czerwonych Latarni słynącej z legalnej prostytucji oraz licznych coffee shopów. Żarzą się tu czerwone światła, w witrynach stoją prostytutki... Taki jest Amsterdam. Niezwykły i niepowtarzalny. Jedyny w swoim rodzaju.

Nasze hotele w Amsterdamie:

hotel Amrath

hotel Botel

hotel Dylan

hotel Jan Luyken