Monday, December 30 2013, 10:42AM
The Consulate General of the United States has issued a security warning for US citizens about firework in the Netherlands at New Year's Eve.
The message says i.a.: 'The Netherlands is known for its extensive use of fireworks in celebrating New Year’s Eve. [....]
Friday, December 27 2013, 7:01PM
The national New Year's countdown will again be held on Oosterdok, the water just East of the Central Station.
On this location there will be a grand firework, and the admission is free. The same location was used a year ago, which did not attract as many spectators [....]
Tuesday, December 17 2013, 3:51PM
Three of the coffeeshops in Amsterdam that were to be closed because of being too close to a school, will remain open after all.
The 3 lucky ones are The Bulldog, the Rookies Bar and Get Down To It.
In November, Amsterdam announced it will gradually implement the [....]
Sunday, December 15 2013, 10:43AM
Today, on the day of Mandela's funeral, Amsterdam will commemorate Nelson Mandela on two locations in the centre of town.
The main location will be the Stadsschouwburg at Leidseplein, where the [....]
Thursday, December 12 2013, 1:50PM
The re-opening of the bicycle path through the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has been quite a struggle. Director Wim Pijbes of the Rijksmuseum was 100% against the path, but it was re-installed anyway.
At one point he said frustratedly: 'I am more busy with cyclists than [....]
Thursday, December 12 2013, 9:36AM
The seconde edition of the Amsterdam Light Festival will last until January 19 2014.
The Festival consistst of more than 20 beautiful, large outdoor works of light art, in the center of Amsterdam.
On the
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Tuesday, December 10 2013, 9:31PM
As of December 10, Simply Amsterdam has a brand-new design.
It has now a lot more information for visitors of Amsterdam - and we have just started, more is to follow.
The search engine of the website has been improved, and an AZ-index has been added to make [....]
Monday, November 25 2013, 2:28PM
Amsterdam now has 11 restaurants with one or more Michelin stars.
The new arrival in the list is restaurant Bridges (in Hotel the Grand), with one star.
Restaurant Bord'Eau received a second star, bringing the number of 2-star restaurants in Amsterdam on 3 (the [....]
Thursday, November 14 2013, 4:20PM
Sinterklaas, the Dutch version of Santa Claus, will arrive in Amsterdam again this Sunday (November 17).
The yearly Sinterklaas parade in Amsterdam is the largest world-wide (say the organizers).
Sinterklaas is an age-old Dutch tradition, at which children get [....]
Monday, October 28 2013, 12:04PM
A storm that hit Amsterdam on Monday morning has already caused one death, and left several people wounded.
A tree along the Herengracht canal fell on a 21-year old woman (a tourist). Her life could not be saved.
Many trees in Amsterdam have fallen, some of them [....]
Saturday, October 26 2013, 9:12PM
At 3 o'clock in the night from Saturday to Sunday, the clock will go back one hour.
This means the 2013 summertime (daylight saving time) has ended.
The summertime always ends in the last weekend of October, in the night from Saturday to Sunday.
The summertime [....]
Tuesday, October 22 2013, 12:06PM
Just as traditional as the yearly Sinterklaas party, it has become tradition to discuss the role of Sinterklaas's helpers, the 'Zwarte Pieten' ('Black Peets').
Much like Santaclaus in the US and other countries, Sinterklaas is a children's fest, held very year on [....]
Monday, September 09 2013, 3:05PM
The Van Gogh Museum revealed a newly recognized work by Vincent van Gogh today: Zonsondergang bij Montmajour (Sunset at Montmajour).
The work was found in a private collection, the owner of which wishes to remain anonymous.
The work had been marked as false by the [....]
Friday, August 30 2013, 10:10PM
Like every year, the last weekend of August is the Uitmarkt, the traditional start of the cultural season.
The Uitmarkt lasts the entire weekend, until Sunday evening. A lot of theaters and performers present themselves with free (or almost free) short (30 minutes) [....]
Sunday, August 25 2013, 11:35PM
The Mayor has given a speech at a gay anti-Putin rally on Museumplein, this evening.
The demonstration was because of an official Russian open-air show, given to celebrate 400 years official relations between the Netherlands and Russia.
Russia recently adopted [....]
Friday, August 23 2013, 10:04AM
Tomorrow is the most popular event of the Grachtenfestival: the open-air concert on floats on the Prinsengracht canal.
The open-air concert is freely accessible - and consequently it gets very busy.
This year, the main performance will be by the Royal Concertgebouw [....]
Tuesday, August 20 2013, 10:31AM
Yesterday a Dutch newspaper (Spits) discovered that free WiFi internet has become available on some major train stations in the Netherlands.
The free login appears to be a test by KPN, one of the main telecom providers in the Netherlands.
The free WiFi works on the [....]
Friday, August 02 2013, 10:23AM
Tomorrow is the first Saturday in August, and that means the most important event of the yearly Gay Pride - the canal parade.
The canal tour consists of 80 large decorated boats that sail along the Prinsengracht canal and the river Amstel, mostly with a lot of music. [....]
Wednesday, July 24 2013, 3:48PM
Amsterdam will lose an attraction: the Ajax Experience is going to close down.
Not that many people will complain, though. The attraction, which opened in 2011, never drew many visitors.
The Ajax Experience is an exhibition about the Amsterdam soccer club [....]
Thursday, July 18 2013, 10:24AM
A new bus, tram and metro ticket has been introduced, especially for tourists. It covers the Amsterdam region.
The 'Amsterdam & Region Day Ticket' has been created by the public transport companies GVB (covers Amsterdam), EBS and Connexxion. The latter two have [....]
Thursday, July 11 2013, 11:14AM
Amsterdam has closed down 9 illegal hotels.
The hotels were in 20 apartments, with a total of 182 beds. The apartments were unsafe (according to the fire brigade) and there was no license to run a hotel.
The City announced that a hundred more of these apartments [....]
Monday, July 08 2013, 10:12AM
From July 8 to August 25 there will be no metro services between Amsterdam Central Station and Amsterdam Amstel station.
The closure is due to maintenance work.
GVB operates a special bus line (bus 59) between all closed metro stations (except Nieuwmarkt).
More [....]
Wednesday, July 03 2013, 12:45PM
Train service between Amsterdam Centraal and Schiphol Airport is disrupted this weekend, due to maintenance work.
From Saterday 2am (July 6) until Monday 5am (July 8) there will be no trains to the airport.
There will be buses to fill in, but travellers should take [....]
Monday, July 01 2013, 11:56AM
Parking your car on the streets in Amsterdam has gone complete digital, starting July 1 2013.
This means:
- you enter your licence plate number into a parking machine (also non-Dutch licence plate numbers).
- payment is only possible with a debit or credit card (no [....]
Sunday, June 30 2013, 3:57PM
Tomorrow is the official celebration of the 150th anniversary of the abolishment of slavery in the Netherlands.
The abolishment took place on July 1, 1863. Holland was one of the last countries to abolish slavery, one of the reasons being Dutch parliament took many [....]
Monday, June 17 2013, 4:58PM
The Royal Palace on Dam Square will be open for free for 1 day on June 27, from 1-9 pm.
Earlier that day, Princess Beatrix will open the yearly summer exhibition in the palace. The theme this year will be 'the Palace and Dam Square, 400 years in the centre of the [....]
Saturday, June 01 2013, 3:42PM
On June 22 and 23 there will be a 'Museumplein Weekend' to celebrate that all large museums at Museumplein are open again.
The Van Gogh Museum, Rijksmuseum, Stedelijk Museum, Koninklijk Concertgebouw and Koninklijk Concertgebouw Orchestra will be celebrating the [....]
Saturday, May 25 2013, 12:04PM
The owner of an illegal hotel in the centre of Amsterdam has been fined E 144,000,- . This is the highest fine for an illegal hotel ever, so far.
The illegal hotel was in a house along the Keizersgracht canal, with 6 apartments.
Running a hotel without a licence is [....]
Monday, May 13 2013, 9:16PM
The first cyclists passed through the Rijksmuseum passage way today, after a closure of 10 years.
The cycle path through the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam had been closed for the duration of the museum's renovation, which took 10 years.
Up till the latest moment it [....]
Thursday, May 09 2013, 9:43AM
Here's the problem: Amsterdam has more to offer than just the canals, the museums and the Red Light District. There are various great attractions very near Amsterdam, but how to explain this tourists?
If you go to Amsterdam, you can also visit a real medieval castle, [....]
Wednesday, May 08 2013, 12:28PM
The Van Gogh Museum has re-opened again, after a renovation. The 3 big museums on Museumplein are now complete again.
The re-opening of the Van Gogh Museum means that the 3 large museums at Museumplein are now all open again.
During the renovation the Hermitage [....]
Tuesday, May 07 2013, 10:50PM
The bike path through the Rijksmuseum passage keeps on causing unrest in political circles. The bike path is starting to hit the Dutch national news head lines.
Nobody can deny it's a unique bike path: the Netherlands' most important museum, the Rijksmuseum, has a [....]
Saturday, May 04 2013, 10:15AM
On May 4, the victims of the Second World War (and all subsequent wars) are commemorated throughout the Netherlands.
May 5 is Liberation Day: on May 5 1945, the German Nazi regime capitulated, and Holland was officially liberated.
The main national ceremony for the [....]
Wednesday, May 01 2013, 9:24AM
The inauguration of King Willem-Alexander, yesterday in Amsterdam, drew between 700,000 and 800,000 visitors to Amsterdam. The day's organization appears to have been flawless.
This year's Queen's Day was a special one.
It wast the last Queen's Day, as from [....]
Friday, April 12 2013, 10:37AM
Amsterdam's biggest and probably most important museum, the Rijksmuseum, will be re-opened tomorrow, April 13.
The re-opening will officially be carried out by Queen Beatrix, one of her last official acts as Queen before she steps down on April 30.
On the first day [....]
Tuesday, April 09 2013, 5:48PM
A french fries company has introduced a new culinary treat: french fries with marihuana sauce.
The owner has 3 french fries sales points, 2 in Utrecht and 1 in Amsterdam.
The chain is called 'Manneken Pis' (after the famous statue in Brussels).
The sauce is [....]
Saturday, April 06 2013, 10:18PM
President Putin of Russia visits Amsterdam on Monday April 8. The gay community is preparing a demonstration.
The visit is meant to celebrate the Netherlands-Russia Year 2013. President Putin will first visit the Hermitage Amsterdam (the Amsterdam branch of the famous [....]
Tuesday, April 02 2013, 4:31PM
Placing a parking receipt in your car will no longer be necessary in Amsterdam, as of July 2013.
The City of Amsterdam is making on-street parking completely digital.
Starting July, if you want to park your car, you go to the nearest parking machine and type in [....]
Saturday, March 30 2013, 11:56AM
Today, Daylight Saving Time ('Zomertijd') will start in the Netherlands, and throughout the rest of Europe.
At 2am in the night from Saturday to Sunday, the clocks are moved forward one hour, to 3am. This will happen in all member states of the European Union (except [....]
Wednesday, March 20 2013, 5:35PM
The Amsterdam Tattoo Museum, by Henk Schiffmacher, is no more.
The museum at Plantage Middenlaan in Amsterdam East had to close down because of lack of money and internal conflicts.
The museum opened only in November 2011, so it existed for just over a year.
Monday, March 18 2013, 11:59AM
A new market has opened in Amsterdam: the Rembrandtplein Art Market.
The market is every Sunday, from March to the end of October, from 10.30am to 6pm.
On the market you can find stalls with all kinds of visual art, including graffiti art.
And while you're [....]
Thursday, March 07 2013, 11:36PM
Before the grand re-opening on April 13, the Rijksmuseum closes down completely from March 18.
During the 4 weeks of closure the top pieces of the museum are moved to the main building.
On April 13, Queen Beatrix will (just before her abdication on April 30) reopen [....]
Monday, March 04 2013, 2:22PM
The Water Board Amstel, Gooi en Vecht (which contains Amsterdam) has announed an agreement with 14 windmill owners, to help regulating the water level in the polders in and around Amsterdam.
Water boards are governmenteal bodies set up in the Netherlands to keep the [....]
Friday, March 01 2013, 12:37PM
The Mayor of Amsterdam has announced the general programme on the day of Inauguration of King Willem-Alexander, on April 30.
10 am: Queen Beatrix signs the act of Abdication in the Royal Palace on Dam Square, and becomes Princess Beatrix.
From that moment on, her [....]
Sunday, February 24 2013, 2:13PM
Hardly had the fences of the Amsterdam Royal Palace's latest restoration been removed, or men had there go again.
The natural stone which covers the Palace on Dam Square is easily damaged by urine, but this does not stop men from public urination against the [....]
Friday, February 15 2013, 2:14PM
The owner of restaurant Piet de Leeuw, now admits the restaurant serves horse meat, not cow meat. And they have been doing this from the beginning, in 1949.
Yesterday,
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Thursday, February 14 2013, 3:51PM
The Amsterdam newspaper Parool has found out that a well-known restaurant in Amsterdam has served horse steak instead of cow steak.
The restaurant, Steakhouse Piet de Leeuw, famous for its steak dishes since the [....]
Tuesday, February 12 2013, 4:47PM
Today Dutch Parliament voted in favour of a total ban on smoking in all cafes, bars and pubs.
A smoking ban has been in effect since 2008, but in 2010 an exception was made for small pubs (maximum 75 square meter), without employees. These small pubs were allowed to [....]
Wednesday, February 06 2013, 9:23PM
A new point of interest was found in the centre of Amsterdam: the house where Hans Brinker was born.
This wouldn't be very special, were it not that Hans Brinker is a fictional character from a (famous) American novel.
Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates (1865, [....]
Monday, February 04 2013, 2:27PM
Confusion has arisen about the legal status of apartment booking websites like AirBnB and Wimdu.
An article on [....]
Tuesday, January 29 2013, 12:01PM
Beatrix, Queen of the Netherlands, announced her abdication yesterday, in a nationally televised address.
Holland will have a king, Willem-Alexander, and Queen's Day will become King's Day - which will move to April 27.
Queen Beatrix will end her reign on April 30, [....]
Sunday, January 27 2013, 12:58PM
The local celebrity and 'living work of art' Fabiola has passed away last night, at the age of 66.
Fabiola was the artist name of Peter Alexander van Linden. Fabiola grew up in Germany and Belgium, and in the 1960's she moved to Amsterdam.
She became famous in the [....]
Thursday, January 17 2013, 1:27PM
As of today, boats are not allowed on the canals in Amsterdam.
The prohibition is meant to make it possible for ice to form on the water, so that the Amsterdammers can skate. Skating on natural ice is a favourite pastime for the Dutch, and especially skating on the [....]
Tuesday, January 15 2013, 10:22AM
This morning was the busiest rush hour in the Netherlands ever.
For the first time, the total length of (car) traffic jams was more than 1,000 km. On various motorways traffic came to a complete standstill, particularly in the West part of the country, around the 4 [....]
Friday, January 11 2013, 10:52AM
A remarkable hotel opens today in the outskirts of Amsterdam: the Fletcher Hotel Amsterdam.
The hotel is 60 meter high, and on the outside it is decorated with eye-catching blue circles.
The tower is visible from miles around, and is therefore a new landmark for [....]
Wednesday, January 09 2013, 1:27PM
Amsterdam has started to issue licences for 24-hour clubbing and dancing.
A maximum of 5 venues will be allowed to be open 24 hours, and of these 5, there will be a maximum of 3 dance clubs.
These 3 dance clubs are:
- Trouw Amsterdam (
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