Amsterdam First Aid

by Terje Raa

Amsterdam tends to be habit forming - a visit is commonly followed by withdrawal symptoms. The usual souvenirs are no cure, stronger measures are needed, like the first-aid kit presented below. It's a collection of typical Amsterdam attributes; all you need to reproduce a mental image of a spectacularly composed city.

Places of interest, that's up to you, but they should cover traditional Amsterdam themes: red lights; canals, with or without houseboats; colored bricks in jaunty angles; painted art; pot in popular qualities; tulip bulbs; a royal family wrapped in orange; Amsterdammers, immigrants and an occasional extremist; squares to hang around in; a fleet of bicycles; a bouquet of sexual orientations.

One obvious starting point is the Central Station, unavoidable whether you come by train, tram or bus - from the Schiphol airport as well. This station is a New Renaissance palace, by some mistaken for the Rijksmuseum. It's not built on solid ground exactly, but rests on thousands of poles. The front square is at this point under reconstruction, so efficiently that my bus stop is relocated every few hours.

The canal tour captains do their best to delay their first departure, until the number of new customers exceeds those who walk away tired of waiting. A canal tour is a one-hour hit regardless of weather or waiting - and so it is on this morning in March. The old city's semicircle unfolds, structured around the canals of Heren-, Keizers- and Prinsengracht, the first abounding in mansions, the last in houseboats, one of them a museum. Gabled narrow facades look down on me, often from odd angles.

The Red Light District is partly a canal tour on foot, day or night, bathed in neon and with prostitutes lined up in shop windows. Quality seems to increase clockwise - in the mornings when demand is low, elderly unshapely ladies occupy a window here and there. They say the ladies threaten to leave due to stricter health control. Perhaps they end up in the attic of the Historisch Museum. That's what happened to a little local café, 't Mandje, the first gay and lesbian café from 1927.

Business Talent

The authorities apparently wish to diversify the Red Light District, away from crimes and sex as the predominant trade. The true reason why a tolerant and liberal attitude toward prostitution suddenly changes, could possibly be found centuries back. The Netherlands was then a colonial power and world trade leader, their reputation based on hard work and talent for business and trade, at a time when non-tangible values were hardly taken into account. Similarly, the modernization of the Red Light District may be a promising investment, the damage of a liberal image not being considered.

The gay community, too, is embraced by the celebrated tolerance, to such a degree that the tourist authorities promote Amsterdam as a gay paradise, no word about gay bashing on the increase. Actual improvements are, however, the result of the community's own fight for equal rights. Now, they have become an attractive market segment, characterized by extra money to spend on shopping or eat and drink. A thriving bar scene is also exploited by investors from outside, it's big business disguised as liberalism.

The Netherlands or Amsterdam seldom hit the headlines here in the Nordic countries. The Dutch make no fuss, work hard and ride their bicycles, although it's a mystery how they find their own again in the chaos of bike parking. Only once in a while, the conflict-free impression explodes in violence, triggered by some extremist in immigrant questions. As a tourist, you do take your precautions when spotted by flocks of young people, origin unknown, drifting about in the main streets.

One way to get off the streets is by entering the Historisch Museum, easy to reach from the pedestrianized Kalverstraat. From around 1200, history unfolds stretch by stretch through the display of art, photos, furniture and tools, supported by audiovisual guides, short films and reconstructions - exemplarily conveyed in the fine buildings of the city's old Orphanage, where a roofed yard serves as a gallery of immortalized Civic Guards. Let a pancake lunch in the museum café prepare you for the Royals.

A temporary exhibition at Historisch Museum - "Amsterdam and the House of Orange" - marks Queen Beatrix's 70th birthday. The Queen is laughing with delight on the orange-colored exhibition poster. Your own smile will broaden as you proceed through the humorous setup, wishing you were here on Queensday, the last day of April, a national holiday, on which the entire Netherlands turns orange and goes amok in garage sales, even prepared to sell their own grandmother.

Shopping Around

Amsterdam is constitutionally the capital city, although the Queen resides in The Hague and so does the government. The Royal Palace at Dam Square, once a city hall, is ready for her any time. The grand Dam is a hangout for pigeons and the Grim Reaper who is available for photos. There are other squares - and other queens, freshly shaven and yet sporting a five o'clock shadow, they appear sporadically in the gay bars near Rembrandtplein, a more "gezellig" square on the southern side. Two of the drag queens made it all the way from Café Rouge to the Historisch Museum to join their queen idol, Beatrix.

Rembrandtplein is for all orientations, and so is Leidseplein, also on the southern side and possibly the most popular going-out quarter. Leidseplein pulsates with partying in the light of fearless fire eaters. A bit north of it, lies the refreshing Jordaan district, traditionally a working class area. Jordaan presents renovated houses in peaceful streets, exotic cuisine in busy eateries - and soft drugs in drowsy coffee shops, a very Dutch and pragmatic way of preventing hard drugs.

The street of Leidsestraat could be the start of a shopping safari. Proceed along the Singel canal to the flower market at Munteplein Square, still too early for tulips. From here the two main streets, Rokin and Damrak, take you to Dam Square and then the Central Station. Rokin boasts two department stores facing each other, C&A and Bijenkorf. C&A being the cheaper, Bijenkorf competes through price reductions matching the Queen's age.

The first-aid kit contained characteristics enough to sketch an outline of Amsterdam. Visitors are much more ambitious - lovers of art head for the Rijksmuseum; houseboats and architecture inspire people to cruise the canals; the Red Light District has its own audience; so do the coffee shops with their legalized hashish; the Historisch Museum shows a full picture of the past; while the Tourist Information, opposite of the Central Station, responds to frequently asked questions.

2008 is truly an Amsterdam year. Tulips will blossom in due time, nothing special about that. Special is this year's Queen's Birthday, her 70th. You may be a republican on entering, but you risk leaving the Historisch Museum as a royalist, in case you by mistake use the open door between the regular exhibition and the temporary House of Orange. Everywhere, there are surprises in store for you, substantiating the theme of 2008 - "Amsterdam's Hidden Treasures".