Celebrating Gay Pride 2014

I went down to Prinsengracht on Saturday and took photos of the boats in the Gay Pride Canal Parade. Lots of great performers this year, and very enthusiastic crowds. Followed by parties across the city, this is something Amsterdam celebrates. Here are some highlights from the parade, there’s also a video taken from near the end of the parade.

The best performers – a swim club performing “Carwash”

If only I could commute like this.

The police with their slogan “pink in blue” supporting gay pride

A reminder that not all countries support gay rights

HIV+ awareness “positive and proud”

Gaymobil = playtime?

D66 – a political party

PvdA – another political party

“Vier Gay” a Dutch pun; vier means both four and celebrate

The public transport company, with a blow-up bridge.

Is anyone still in the closet?

Even the church supports Gay Pride (Westerkerk)

Prinsengracht Concert

Making plans for the weekend?

There’s a free outdoor concert on Saturday night on the Prinsengracht. Yes, ON the Prinsengracht. A podium is built outside the Pulitzer hotel with enough space for the performers and a small audience. Amsterdammers jam the canal with tiny boats and line the canal.

Every year it finishes with the very traditional song, “Aan de Amsterdamse Grachten” (on the Amsterdam canals) with the whole audience joining in the chorus.

If you want a good view you’ll need to get there early, the boats start tying up early in the canal. If sitting outside isn’t your thing the concert is broadcast on Nederland 2 and online at klassiek.avro.nl.

Grachtenfestival

Every year there’s a festival of classical music centred on Amsterdam’s canals known as the Grachtenfestival. It starts today.

Lots of the events are free, including the highlight event, when boats cram the canal outside the Pulitzer Hotel, and the canals are lined with music lovers for the Prinsengrachtconcert. The concert is free – but be early to find a space! It’s also broadcast live on a couple of TV channels. The last song of the night is always “Aan de Amsterdamse Grachten” which means “on the Amsterdam canals” which cute since most of the audience is literally on the canal.

For other events check the official Grachtenfestival site – it is available in English and tickets are sold online.

There’s a promotional video out, conceptually it’s an Opera flash mob in the reception of the Amstel Hotel.

Canal Festival

Banners for the canal festival

The “Grachtenfestival” (canal festival) has started. This festival of concerts and performances along the canals of Amsterdam is a summer highlight.

It culminates in the Prinsengrachtconcert, a free concert on the Prinsengracht, a pontoon is built outside the Pulitzer Hotel for the performers (and honoured guests), the concert starts at about 8pm, but Amsterdammers will park their boats across the canal and seats across along the canal quays from about 4pm. If it’s a nice evening it’s a trully gezellig way to relax with friends.

This year’s concert features the Storioni Trio playing Haydn and Dvorak, followed by soprano Daniele de Niese. If you can’t make it the concert,
the second part is broadcast live on Nederland 2 from 9.30pm.

There are a lot of events this week, during the day as well as in the evening. Some events are free, some are already sold-out! If you want to book tickets you can do so through the Grachtenfestival website.

Countdown to Gay Parade

This time next week the Prinsengracht will be lined with crowds supporting the boats in the Amsterdam Gay Pride parade.

There are already flags flying on all the bridges across the Prinsengracht, along the route.

The parade is the most visible part of the event, but there are three days of events and meetings. Including the fabulous Drag Queen Olympics.

It’s a lot of fun, and the whole city turns out to support the participants. It’s a fun day out.

“You don’t get that in Australia”

On the way to work this morning I saw a whole lot of police, a crane, and the calamity truck on a bridge over Prinsengracht. As I got closer I saw they were pulling an ecotoilet out of the canal. I started taking pictures and I overheard…

“We don’t get that in Australia, do we Mum?”

“No, we don’t really have canals in Australia”

“No…. we’ve got beaches but”

Anyway, here’s a video of the rescue operation.

Prinsengracht New Year

Beste Wensen! Happy New Year!

Last night at midnight I was standing on a bridge in subzero temperatures.

The bridge crosses Prinsengracht, where it meets Brouwersgracht, from here we could look down canals in four directions. As the churches, Noorderkerk and Westerkerk began to strike 12 everyone in Amsterdam let off fireworks, we turned from one direction to the other as coloured explosions lit the sky behind the house gables. Someone let off a mega string of ‘double happy’ firecrackers.

This is how the Dutch, normally rather restrained about spending money for nothing, celebrate “Oudjaar” or New Years Eve. The fireworks go off for about two hours, while everyone drinks champagne, wishing each other “Beste Wensen” and exchanging kisses.

One couple got a little carried away with exchanging kisses, just as a police car tried to cross the bridge. With a whoop from the siren they jumped apart and stepped to the footpath, as the police car passed they called over the loud speaker “Happy New Year”.

Happy New Year indeed, we started in a good way!

Merry Christmas Prinsengracht

Tomorrow, 5 December, is the Dutch Sinterklaas. All over the country families will gather and gifts will be given in the name of Sinterklaas. The tradition includes ‘surprises’ hiding your gift inside something, and creating a teasing poem. For the last few years I’ve had Sinterklass party at my house for Dutch and non-Dutch friends. Seeing how the non-Dutch interpret the tradition is always a surprise.

So shopping season begins early here, and one interesting place to shop in Amsterdam is in the “Negen Straatjes“, or nine little streets, which are actually adjacent to Prinsengracht. They are genuinely little, each one is about 50 metres long. Most of the stores are expensive so it’s usually only window shopping in the area for me!

At this time of the year it is completely dark by 5pm, and the streets are all lit up, with the light reflecting off the canals it does look magical.

sorry no photos; my camera has died. Guess what I’m asking Santa for!

Prinsengracht

From the Oldest Pub to Anne Frank

At the top of Prinsengracht, where it meets Brouwersgracht is the oldest pub in Amsterdam; Papeneiland. Yes it serves Heineken, obviously. It’s got big windows, and the light streams in and bounces off the blue and white tiles. In summer there are chairs outside with ingenious glass holders attached, you can sit in the sun and inhale the fumes as cars pass you on two streets. For me it’s more of a cosy winter pub, in the weak winter light it looks even more like a Vermeer painting.

It’s name means “Pope Island” and comes from the period when it was not possible for Catholics to openly practise their religion in Amsterdam. There were many secret churches, and one was opposite this bar at 7 Prinsengracht, apparently there was a tunnel joining the secret church on one side of the canal to the bar on the other. This seems a little unlikely to me, knowing the shifting sands Amsterdam is built on, but apparently this bar was used as a refuge for worshippers and that’s how the name came about.

From here Prinsengracht lopes around the city in a long arch, only the first part is really part of my neighbourhood. Crossing the first bridge and walking down we come to one hofje (courtyard), it’s open on Sunday and pushing the door reveals a peaceful, orderly garden. Many of the hofjes were originally part of the city’s almhouses and now are public/private spaces. You need to know which doors reveal hofjes, and when the doors are unlocked. This hofje is a very formal old fashioned garden, others are more wild. Once inside it’s important not to disturb the peace, these are people’s homes.

Anne Frank House is at number 263 Prinsengracht. There’s nothing but a small white plaque to distinguish it from its neighbours on the outside. Which was rather the point since Anne Frank and her family were to hide here for years before being betrayed in 1944 and sent to concentration camps. The museum entrance is two doors down and is in a larger building with a cafe and bookstore. The facade of the museum entrance is unexpectedly modern. I was rushing past one rainy day and a woman sheltering under its eaves asked me “where is Anne Frank House?”.