AMSTERDAM - what to see? where to go? what to do?
 

Right, me and few of my classmates are heading towards amsterdam in a week for five days. I guess I could've put this into that europe cities -thread, but since this is rather urgent issue for us I dare and start a new thread.

Please recommend stuff worth seeing (i.e. museums, art galleries, record- and book stores, flea markets, coffeeshops, local bizarrities etc.). I didn't find any gigs happening during our stay, but in case you're aware of any interesting concerts, give a shout.

Also if there's something we should keep in mind, or be cautious about, let me know.
Thanks.

if you want to know about gigs it would be helpful if you mentioned which days you're going to be there?

i don't have a lot of time at the moment, but i'll reply later or edit in here.

You'll see a shit load of trams.

okay, amsterdam can be great.

what people do, they go on boat tours, its like 1:30 hour boat ride around the city. its pretty good for tourists

i went to the van gogh museum, its pretty good, go to the torchure museum its awesome.

theres a big flea market i dont where it is, it close to some important bridge or something. i've been there.

be sure to get coffee in the coffee house near the flea market, its this tall tower, its so awesome, its not entirely straight and its kinda bent.

most of the traditional dutch houses in amsterdam arent straight. which is pretty cool, you can see a lot on the boat tour.

red light district is not very interesting but its a must see. especially at night but not around 1pm because theres noone, everyones on lunch. IGNORE THE NAKED OLD LADIES IN THE WINDOWS YOU STARE ONCE THEY TURN AROUND SHOW OFF THEIR THONGS AND SMILE AT YOU... SICK...


also get one of those canabis lollies will yeh?

We'll be there from 5th to 10th of march.

ticketmaster.nl

check there

My recommendations:

Museums:
Rijks Museum - Jan Luijkenstraat 1
Van Gogh museum - Paulus Potterstraat 7
Stedelijk Museum - Oosterdokskade 5
Museum het Rembrandthuis - Jodenbreestraat 4
Anne Frank Huis - Prinsengracht 267

List of museums in Amsterdam.

Record stores:
Concerto - Utrechtsestraat 52 - 60
Get Records - Utrechtsestraat 105
Boudisque Records - Haringpakkerssteeg 10-18

List of almost all the record stores.

Coffeeshops:
De Rokerij - Lange Leidsedwarsstraat 41
Global Chillage - Kerkstraat 51
Coffeeshop De Tweede Kamer - Heisteeg 6
The Doors - Singel 14

Amsterdam Coffeeshop directory

Music venues:
Paradiso - Weteringschans 6-8
Melkweg - Lijnbaansgracht 234a


Food:

If your in the mood of eating something cheap and tasty along the way, try the Maoz takeaway falafel stands.
It'll cost ya like 6 euros, and you can keep on filling from the salad bar.
There are many all over the city. I normally go to the one on the Leidsestraat 85

This list is just the tip of the iceberg.
Enjoy your stay in our great city!

alright, I still owed you a reply to this. I'll follow tokolosh' list and only link to the places he hasn't already linked to:

Museums:
Tokolosh already listed the most obvious ones, but another (avant-garde) art related one is the COBRA-museum in Amstelveen, which technically isn't Amsterdam, but you can get their by metro/tram within 30 minutes from Amsterdam central station.
http://www.cobra-museum.nl

By the way, take note that the Rijksmuseum is still being renovated at the moment, so there's only a selection of works on display (mostly the famous stuff: Rembrandt, Vermeer, etc)


Record Shops:
Get Records is my favourite to get new CDs. Concerto has a pretty good selection for second hand stuff, especially jazz. Both shops are in the Utrechtsestraat, at a stone throw distance of each other.
Boudisque (close to central station) is pretty decent as a general CD store, though not as good as Get Records and sometimes a bit expensive.

If it's actual records (as in vinyl) you're after then you definitely want to go to Distortion. It's in the Westerstraat, which is only a couple of minutes walking from the Anne Frank house. Their website is www.distortion.nl but keep in mind that the guy doesn't have everything that he mentions he has on the website.

There's a big (several floors) mainstream music store called Fame just off the Dam square in the Kalverstraat. It's not really worth making a trip for, but you'll probably pass by it at least once anyway if you're strolling through the Kalverstraat and you might as well give it a visit if you do. It's mostly expensive, but sometimes you'll find interesting stuff for cheap.


Coffeeshops:
Don't really know... I haven't bought marijuana in ages and when I did on a regular basis I always preferred getting it outside of Amsterdam. The few times I did buy it in Amsterdam it was usually a bit more expensive than in other cities in Holland... not surprising of course with all the tourists visiting. Not an awful lot more expensive though so I'm sure you'll be fine. If you're after mushrooms and the likes then you'll have to look for "smart stores".


Music venues:
Paradiso is a nice venue and good for the bigger names and also the smaller stuff the upstairs room. Melkweg is the other big name venue, but it's a bit crap for my tastes... Jazz and improv can be found in the BIMhuis.
http://www.bimhuis.nl/index.php?&lang=en

As far as the more underground/do-it-yourself/squats/etc places go there isn't that much interesting stuff in Amsterdam in my opinion. OT301 and OCCII are the best, but I never find myself going to either of them more than once or twice a year on average... and usually it's less than that. There's usually better gigs in Rotterdam or Den Haag.
OT301 (http://squat.net/overtoom301/pages/home.html) is heavy on the EAI/improv kind of stuff and also has members of The EX playing at least a couple of times a month. OCCII (www.occii.org) has a lot of boring punk and hardcore, some noise and other things.
Furthermore there's places like Zaal 100 and Bitterzoet, but I doubt you'll find anything interesting there.

If you're not actually leaving on the 10th then this might be interesting:
Muziek Kapot Moet !
little howlin' wolf (usa)
r.o.t. (be)
dinosaurs with horns (usa)
http://www.occii.org/nightdetails.asp?id=407


Food:
There's a good vietnamese place close to Nieuwmarkt that I would recommend if I remembered what it was called...


Free entertainment if you're short on cash:
- The flea market at Waterloo square (waterlooplein). It costs nothing and it's fun to walk around.

- Strolling through the Vondelpark (weather permitting) near Leidseplein and checking out people.

- Walking along the canals is also free. A boat trip sets you back maybe 15-20 euros for about 60-90 minutes... i don't know what it costs to be honest... or how long it lasts.

- Red light district. Not all that interesting to be honest, but you can't really skip it I suppose. Probably draws more tourists than Rembrandt and Van Gogh together, especially in the summer. It's busiest during nighttime.


Things to watch out for:
Pickpockets... especially at central station, in the trams and in the trains between the airport and central station. you snooze, you loose your money.

there is a coffee shop called Hill Street Blues, its near the red light, look that place up, its fair cool, also, the Van Gogh Museum is fuckin BORING.
Heineken Brewery is pretty buzzy, they give you some booze - although i did go with my two buddies who dispise Heineken (unlike me) and drank all theirs.

There's actually only one floor in the museum that has Van Goghs if I recall. The (former) Heineken brewery is a popular place to visit with tourists.

also, if you see a sign like this


it means you're not allowed to smoke weed on that street! :D

Cheers you guys!
Damnit, that Occii place looks interesting, but we are indeed leaving on 10th.

What's the government's stance towards public smoking (of cannabis); I've been under the impression that it's prohibited outside the coffeeshops. and as far as mushrooms are considered, I take it they're legal, or what's the deal with them? (though the chances are I'm not gonna take them as I've never done it before.)
As a sidenote, we're not making this trip for the drugs, that would be lame, but the open-mindedness does provide an alternative to the regular and boring booze consuming that's so prevailing here.

I love Boudisque's arthouse video corner. I've found some good films there.
At Get Records almost every SY cd costs around 10-12 euros, at least when I was there the last time. Their record assortment is minimal though. Don't know Distortion. Will check it out the next time I go there. Thanks.

Unfortunately you'll also arrive a day late for Racoo-oo-oon and Warmer Milks...


This is on the 9th, but I don't know if it's your thing:

STEIM concert
9 March 2007 at 20:30
STEIM presents Turntable Music Night vol.1
Martin Tetreault (CA) & Ignaz Schick (DE)
Maria Chavez (PE/US)
dj sniff (JP/NL)
http://www.steim.org/steim/activity.php


Your compatriots Mi and L'au are playing in Paradiso on the 9th
http://www.paradiso.nl
...and no, "Boris" on that same night is not the japanese Boris, but a dutch pop idol... stay away!

subterranean no longer exist as a physical store, but their old site has a handy list with cd stores
http://www.subdist.com/store/cdstores.htm
and improv music venues
http://www.subdist.com/store/podia.htm

^ dude, really? theres a dutch pop idol called boris? shit! i was gonna buy tickets for boris at the paard.

he is so helpful that young man isnt he?

was thinking of taking a trip there myself in a few weeks or so. maybe some other european cities too.

haha :D
"pop idol" as in the winner of the tv programme "idols", yes...
I just saved your little ass from this, young man:
http://www.borismusic.nl/

thank you......i would have totally gone to that show thinking it was the real boris. you deserve rep

that's not necessary, but thanks anyway.
i would have had a great laugh if you had actually gone to that and started a thread about it though!

Aside all the drug and record store talk, what's the weather like this time of the year? (warmer than here without a doubt)

anywhere between 5-10C.
sometimes sunny, but the last few days there's been quite a bit of clouds/rain.

what's it like in finland?