Died and Gone to Heaven

I stumbled upon a very special kind of sale in the weekend. ABC (The American Book Center) were having their “book by weight” sale.

No kidding, 5 euros for a kilo of books.

I only managed to find 820g of books, and still paid 5 euro for that, but hey, the two books new would have been about 45 euro.

One of the books is “Treasures from the Attic” the background to the Anne Frank story based on documents found in an attic. I can’t wait to read it.

It’s a weekend only thing, so you’ve missed out on Amsterdam. However next weekend the ABC in The Hague are running the same event. If you buy one kilo you’ve probably saved more than your train ticket.

The Netherlands, on a Normal Day, in Numbers

World Aids Day

Today is World Aids Day, a day dedicated to commemorating those who have died, and acknowledging the progress made in treating the disease. There have been vigils, community outreach, promotions and all sorts across the world.

Of course there have also been activities in Amsterdam, a city sometimes cited as the “gay capital of the world”. Before anyone shouts that AIDs is not a gay disease, I know, however it’s a disease that initially had a high impact in gay circles, and may still have a higher impact there than in the straight community in western countries.

So of course Amsterdam had to do something special, some thing big… they did, they put a condom on the Munttoren, a 35m condom. It got photo of the day in one of the city’s newspapers Het Parool.

You can also see the official er, unrolling on youtube, along with interviews with young men talking about their first time and their experience with condoms. Gotta love the open nature of Dutch culture!

image from the World Aids Day website/presskit

Strike

Yesterday there were announcements on every loudspeaker in every station I went to (which was 4, not counting transit) announcing that there will be a public transport strike on Sunday – no buses, no trams. It’s to protest the government’s cost-cutting plans for public transport systems. We’ve had strikes before but never on a Sunday, which is logical since a Sunday strike will affect fewer people and disrupt their leisure time more than their work time.

So I couldn’t figure out why it would be on a Sunday this time, until I saw this notification at Amsterdam Central station. The strike will disrupt the opening of the new entrance to the metro station, the entrance that is part of the project to build the “Noord/Zuidlijn” the new metro line that will run directly from the North to the South of Amsterdam. You can see the progress made on this project on this website (in Dutch only).

Just for fun I snuck a photo of the new station. It’ll never look this clean again.

It’s back!

The Opstapper has been re-invented as the Amsterdam City Centre Line.

I spotted on last week in the distance but couldn’t be sure it was really a service yet.

But it’s back, with a slightly changed route, a more limited schedule and a higher price.

It still runs right along the Prinsengracht, but there area a couple of detours, and the route in the area of Central Station has changed. It’s only running every half an hour (I think it used to be every 20 minutes?). The price is now 2 euro for a single trip or 6 euro for a day pass.

There is bad news the GVB pass no longer works. In even worse news, it no longer stops on request but has regular stops, so you’ll have to plan a little.

However I will try to support it, and hope that the service grows with good use.

For all the official information and a map you can download they’ve created a website.

Occupy Amsterdam

Well actually, occupy everywhere. There are demonstrations planned for Saturday 15th October across the Netherlands, in Amsterdam it’s in Dam Square and outside the Dutch National Bank (near Frederiksplein).

I’m fully aware that there is plenty wrong with the current monetary system. But I’m not sure how “no debt” + “no taxes” can still equal “free healthcare”. But perhaps more of the tax money should have been spent on educating people on simple maths.

Things you did not know; Without the Dutch there would be no Facebook

Part of the campaign for the renewed National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam.

Zombies on the Noordermarkt

Apparently my neighbourhood was invaded by zombies, I was at work – I missed it thankfully. The woman interviewed at about 5 minutes found the whole thing shocking and inappropriate since it was on a children’s playground.

Dance the Night Away

Dancing on the Noordermarkt

On Saturday afternoon when I wandered out to the supermarket I could hear salsa music.

Down on the square there was a party, lights in the trees, a live band, and couples dancing away – in full daylight.

The party went on into the night, I could hear the music wafting up the street much later as the party went on.

Wet

Amsterdam’s climate is not dry, so the average rainfall is enough. This summer hasn’t been average. Here are the graphs showing daily rainfall from KNMI (Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute), note that three days in this period were off the scale.

	June Total rainfall; 114 mm, 66 hours Average rainfall; 66 mm, 43 hours
	July Total rainfall; 179 mm, 96 hours Average rainfall; 81 mm, 40 hours
	August Total rainfall; 96 mm, 62 hours Average rainfall; 73 mm, 38 hours
	Record Rain Summer 2011 is officially the wetest since 1906.Apparently we’ve never had so much rain in June, July, August since records began in 1906. No wonder my feet are webbed.