World of KJ
http://worldofkj.com/forum/

Hey, Dutch people!
http://worldofkj.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=81868
Page 1 of 2

Author:  Dr. Lecter [ Thu Jan 05, 2017 8:09 pm ]
Post subject:  Hey, Dutch people!

The lesser evil and stuffp, obviously.

I am going to Amsterdam this weekend. Not my first trip, but I haven't been ina while. I have seen all the tourist-y stuff before, so I am looking for some suggestions that are, well I guess different. Anything will do. ;)

Author:  stuffp [ Fri Jan 06, 2017 12:38 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Hey, Dutch people!

Hey!
I'm not that familiar with Amsterdam myself, think I did pretty much only the tourist-y things myself as well. Might have been in the city maybe 6 or 7 times all together, last being in 2015 for a few days but that was for a business trip.
Would have no clue what kind of alternative things I could recommend.

Author:  the lesser evil [ Fri Jan 06, 2017 2:51 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Hey, Dutch people!

I've probably been to Amsterdam more often than stuffp, but except for two times they were all business related boat trips through the canals. Other than that I've been there twice with friends, and both time made the same tourist-y circle through the city. The Dam, Rembrandt square, Museum square, Vondelpark and the red light district (which really doesn't have as much as it used to). If you haven't seen Amsterdam by boat yet I recommend that, but other than that I am not a huge help. I mean, you probably know where the main movie theatre is near the city centre, so you can just fill any spare time watching movies without Germans yapping over the original line. :P

Author:  Darth Indiana Bond [ Fri Jan 06, 2017 6:43 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Hey, Dutch people!

I can ask my girlfriend. She is from Holland.

Author:  FILMO [ Sat Jan 07, 2017 12:50 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Hey, Dutch people!

Dr. Lecter wrote:
Anything will do. ;)



Define "anything" please.

Author:  Dr. Lecter [ Sun Jan 08, 2017 6:30 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Hey, Dutch people!

Okay, this was a fun weekend.

Author:  the lesser evil [ Mon Jan 09, 2017 10:25 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Hey, Dutch people!

What did you end up doing?

Author:  Dr. Lecter [ Mon Jan 09, 2017 11:02 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Hey, Dutch people!

Van Gogh museum, then a Banksy exhibition (caught it on its last day), went do the NDSM-werf to see some things outside of the tourist-y area, spent some time in De Pijp, watched The Founder in Tushinsky (amazing theatre, though I might have been too stoned to properly follow the film), went to a strip club and other than that, just went to a whole lot of different bars.

Author:  stuffp [ Mon Jan 09, 2017 12:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Hey, Dutch people!

Does sound fun. Nice.

Author:  the lesser evil [ Tue Jan 10, 2017 2:45 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Hey, Dutch people!

Drugs, tits and other stuff, sounds like a visit to Amsterdam to me! :funny:

Author:  Dr. Lecter [ Tue Jan 10, 2017 9:50 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Hey, Dutch people!

Yes, the quintessential Amsterdam trip.

Author:  the lesser evil [ Tue Jan 10, 2017 10:56 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Hey, Dutch people!

Have you ever explored the city by water before? I feel like you can't really experience Amsterdam as it is without doing that. It lets you get around faster and reach places you wouldn't as easily reach by foot or even by tram/subway.

Also, how did you do with the bicycles? I've had friends over from England who thought they were horrible accidents waiting to happen, with one guy being startled pretty much whenever one rode by. :funny:

Author:  Dr. Lecter [ Tue Jan 10, 2017 11:37 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Hey, Dutch people!

I did the canal boat tour on my first visit many many yeas ago. And this time we took two ferries.

The bikes were fine, it wasn't THAT different from here.

Author:  Algren [ Tue Jan 10, 2017 5:06 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Hey, Dutch people!

Look forward to visiting Holland.

Author:  the lesser evil [ Wed Jan 11, 2017 4:12 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Hey, Dutch people!

I might be biased, but I think it's a pretty great country. The people I've had over and went around Amsterdam and The Hague with all enjoyed it very much. Even the pasty white Brits who visited me on the hottest day in years this past summer had a good time, even if we were all sweaty, broken messes at the end of the day. :funny:

Author:  Algren [ Wed Jan 11, 2017 10:03 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Hey, Dutch people!

I've been in Schipol a few times while transferring to China, but never long enough to get out and take a look. So Amsterdam is the best place to go in Holland then?

Author:  Dr. Lecter [ Wed Jan 11, 2017 10:44 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Hey, Dutch people!

In my opinion it is not, no. But it is the first place you should go to.

Author:  the lesser evil [ Wed Jan 11, 2017 10:49 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Hey, Dutch people!

Well, a lot of people seem to think Amsterdam is the best place to go. I'm from The Hague and think it's a better destination than Amsterdam, because it's not as big of a city and doesn't have the same mass of tourists roaming about, but still has plenty of attractions (plenty of museums and old architecture) to keep you entertained.

The biggest advantage of the Netherlands in general is that you don't really have to make a choice when it comes to where you want to go. If you're staying here for a few days you can go pretty much anywhere, since all of the four biggest cities (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht) are within an hour of each other by train. Pick one to stay in, then just visit the rest if you want to. There's several other tourist-worthy towns near the major cities too, like the very picturesque Delft or Volendam, and other attractions like the 'Keukenhof' (one of the world's largest flower gardens).

I might have some bias, but I would say the Netherlands are definitely worth paying a visit. ;)

Author:  Dr. Lecter [ Wed Jan 11, 2017 10:52 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Hey, Dutch people!

Is there anything to do/see in Utrecht?

Author:  the lesser evil [ Wed Jan 11, 2017 11:10 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Hey, Dutch people!

http://www.visit-utrecht.com/

Honestly, I never really go there. :funny: It's got one of the bigger theatres for musicals, and a giant convention centre where they organise all sorts of cons ranging from cars to household products to comics, but there's not really anything there that makes me go "Oh, I should go there". Like, when my boyfriend visited for the first time this year I took him to Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Delft and all over the Hague, but didn't bother with Utrecht because why. It's not a bad place to stay though, I imagine, because it's more centrally located in the Netherlands than the other major cities.

Author:  Algren [ Wed Jan 11, 2017 11:18 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Hey, Dutch people!

Any movie-related places to visit in Holland? I'm not interested in smoking weed, theatres, or museums. Anything interesting to do in Holland? What are the things that everybody should do when they visit Holland? Like, the Venice/gondola Vegas/gambling type thing...

Author:  Dr. Lecter [ Wed Jan 11, 2017 11:19 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Hey, Dutch people!

Yeah, that's why I asked since I have been to Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Delft, The Hague and Maastricht and I feel like I've seen everything.

Author:  stuffp [ Wed Jan 11, 2017 11:35 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Hey, Dutch people!

Holland is nice, but I couldn't wait to get out of there 9 years ago. Now I do miss it though, but the I found the Dutch people to still be "hangen me the keel uit".

Author:  the lesser evil [ Thu Jan 12, 2017 5:56 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Hey, Dutch people!

I'm sure the Dutch are still sick of you too, stuffp. :P

Algren wrote:
Any movie-related places to visit in Holland? I'm not interested in smoking weed, theatres, or museums. Anything interesting to do in Holland? What are the things that everybody should do when they visit Holland? Like, the Venice/gondola Vegas/gambling type thing...


I'm not sure what you'd consider movie related places. Like, there's not really anything like Hollywood over here. I guess Amsterdam would count as movie-related because there's been plenty of films that took place there - including somewhat recently what I'm sure is a big Algren favourite, The Fault in our Stars.

Like many European cities, there's plenty of old architecture everywhere that might be worth seeing if you're into that sort of stuff. Renting a bike for that might be worth it, because it makes getting around easier, and it's sort of a Dutch thing too considering we have the most bikes-per-capita in the world for some reason. In Amsterdam the sightseeing cruise stuff through the canals I mentioned before is a thing too, and I've always enjoyed going through the city by boat. Granted I was generally really drunk during these trips, but still. Even if you're not planning on paying anyone there a visit, the red light district in Amsterdam is something you should probably have seen too if you go there, though it's really not what it used to be.

Do you like flowers? Because flowers is something we have a lot of as well, and if you visit during the spring there's areas of the country that are just endless seas of (mostly) tulips. It looks pretty, but then I'm the sort of guy who feels like I could enjoy it just as much in pictures so I sort of assume most people would think they're boring too. >.>

There'd be stuff you need to eat too, like stroopwafels (syrup waffles), poffertjes (tiny pancakes) and a shit ton of cheese. It's impossible to go more than twenty feet in Amsterdam's city center without running into a cheese shop. I always stop by the cheese shops when I'm in Amsterdam, because they have free samples of all their cheeses and I REALLY love cheese. >.>

I'm not really good at the tourist-y thing though, so if you're going here at some point it might be worth checking some tourist-info online.

And Lecter, I am pretty sure you've not even nearly seen everything. There's plenty of smaller towns like Volendam that I mentioned earlier with a more traditional/cliched sort of Holland (traditional clothing, clogs, windmills, architecture) that you don't see in any of those cities you mentioned, and there's several major cities (Groningen, Leeuwarden and Den Bosch, just to name a few) and entire provinces that you haven't been to. Maastricht aside you've only really been to the part of the country that's actually called Holland (North and South-Holland) without seeing the rest.

Author:  Dr. Lecter [ Thu Jan 12, 2017 10:09 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Hey, Dutch people!

What I meant is that I feel like I've seen most of the noteworthy stuff :-P I am a city guy, so landscapes and provinces interest me significantly less. And, yeah, I know about the other cities, but like with Utrecht, I have never heard anymore more detailed about them and know no one who has ever went there...

Page 1 of 2 All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group
http://www.phpbb.com/