Amsterdam 2

There’s an Amsterdam industry on the internet and I’ve neither wish nor ability to compete with it. There’s all the information you need there.The Internet Guide sums up the city rather neatly ‘Amsterdam is an unusual city in that it has all the advantages of a big city – culture, history, food, entertainment, good transport – with relatively few of the disadvantages : it is physically small, beautiful, relatively quiet, and largely thanks to the canals, has relatively little traffic.’

You need to choose your hotels carefully. Never go lower than three stars. (I once tried for one awful night a terrible two star hotel, the name of which I have happily forgotten). Seven Bridges in the Rembrandsplein area is delightful, with the largest breakfast ever, brought to your bedroom. Three museums which for me have always been a must. The famous Rijkswmuseum in Jan Luijkenstraat, with many 17th. century Dutch paintings including Rembrandt’s ‘Nightwatch’. Then there is the equally famous (and now greatly enlarged) Van Gogh Museum in Paulus Potterstraat, which is very commercial but if you love the painter as I do, inescapable.

Thirdly the modern art museum, Stedelijk, which, during the present renovation, is housed temporarily near to the Central Station.

I love the Concertgebouw which is the home of the superb and internationally renowned orchestra named after it; a wonderful building and a perfect acoustic. And the modern Muziektheater with its wonderfully spacious auditorium and stage is a splendidly welcoming place for opera and ballet. I once heard Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin there in a gorgeous performance which happily wasn’t spoiled by the orchestral lights failing in the middle of Titania’s Letter song, which she resumed without losing her ardor, twenty minutes later! There are supposed to be a thousand restaurants in Amsterdam; many of them excellent and quite a few of them reasonably priced.

Tips are included in the price; a brilliant idea.

…..this has made me very nostalgic!

Bryan

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  1. Anonymous 17 años ago
  2. bryan 17 años ago

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