Albert Cuyp Market, Amsterdam

So we were aiming for the Spui Book Market but obviously my attention to detail once again failed me and instead of reading that it was only held on Fridays. We found this out after venturing into town looking for it, to only be told by someone at the Albert Cuyp market that this was the only market open and there were NO books. Ooops!

Oh well the Albert Cuyp market was a great alternative, we had no idea what the book market would be like anyway. The market is a complete feast for the eyes and perfect for people watching; it has everything from food to tacky clothes to furniture imported from Indonesia and China. It is apparently 100 years old and is said to have over 300 vendors.

My favourite part of the market was of course, the food vendors. If my eyes weren't bigger than my stomach I would've eaten much more but instead I just had a giant stroopen wafel for 2 Euros. It was freshly made and tasted AMMMAZING,  it melted in your mouth and is just the best Dutch dessert ever - two wafels hold a soft caramel centre, it doesn't get better than that.

If I had more time in the Netherlands I would've bought a load of fish and cheese and made a big feast, instead we ate bitterballen (deep fried meat and cheese balls) and drank beer at the pub overlooking the canals. Not a bad second option.

Get to the market on your next trip to A'dam (Amsterdam) -Yum!

Location: Albert Cuypstraat (in De Pijp neighborhood)
Open: Year-round, Monday - Saturday 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Raspberry Maxx


Raspberry goodness packed into a variety of different products. Pics from a street market in Amsterdam.

Felix Meritis
The Felix Meritis is the independent European centre for art, culture and science and an international meeting place in Amsterdam. They cleverly turned these concrete building shields into mini tables, added some chairs and voila, a mini patio.

A great place for enjoying a drink and snack along with some Dutch sunshine along the canal!

Relaxed atmosphereDining al fresco on a bridge overlooking a canal and the relaxed and liberal attitude to sex, drugs and rock 'n roll makes Amsterdam a really chilled out place.

The Smurfs would love theseDid you watch The Smurfs? When the characters went to Smurf village they all went into their mushroom homes. They did live in the deep forest and could never be found by humans - the only way someone could find Smurf village was if one of the Smurfs led them to it. Ahhh the mystery! When I saw these mushrooms at the market in Amsterdam I thought of Smurf village. They are wonderful to look at - the stall was only selling different varieties of mushrooms. The smell was great and they were quite busy. I especially like the pink and yellow ones (which I think are a type of oyster mushroom) and the little Piopinos.

Pedal powered - travelling beer bar
Only in Amsterdam. We gawked at it for so long I only managed to get out my camera at this stage. There are about 10men on that thing, each pedaling and there is one bartender in the middle serving beer. With loud music playing it grabs a lot of attention, very popular with men on stag weekends.

11 Bar & Restaurant, AmsterdamThe entrance - below the restaurant are artists' studiosThe restaurant
Prawn lasagna

My vegetarian tagineThe diagrams in the women's toilet -very educational

Our Dutch friend Talia and the screens showing various art installation videos - one particularly interesting one was the whole screen was cut into 5 sections and in each box a woman was having an orgasm- but all you could see was her face...some of the diners didn't get that - they just thought the women were making strange faces.My oyster starter - I do love oysters!
Website: 11 Restauarnt Bar & Club
Myspace page : 11 Myspace

It won't be at that location for long but if you are in Amsterdam you should check it out! It is very cool and there is a space for dancing attached to it which after 23:00hrs the place becomes a cool dance club. Make sure you don't drink and bike like the Dutch do, they are apparently good at riding their bikes a little tipsy.

:)

Fried Febo
Fried food out of a machine...mmmm! You can find these Febo fast food outlets all around central Amsterdam. They are always quite busy too. Not sure what is in each of the little boxes, I think some were fried cheese, deep fried hamburgers and others friend cheese and meat. At the counter there was also a clear box with some disgusting looking chicken legs and very oily French fries. Needless to say, all of it looks questionable, it is definitely grease laden, has maximum cholesterol potential, is fatty and calorific! Proper heart-attack food.

Am sure it tastes good, I couldn't bring myself to try anything - especially after I saw the man who works there stick his dirty hand in each one to see if they were still warm. If they weren't he pulled them out with the same dirty hand and I'm not sure if he put them in the deep fryer again or under a heat lamp?! It just felt greasy being beside the Febo.

Will have to ask B, who is from the Netherlands what this place is all about.

Can you spot the cow in the pics?



Back from a long weekend in Amsterdam, it is so lovely...I want to live there and ride my bike every day! Will write more soon, but for now - can you spot the cow? The owner of our B&B has a classic jukebox and old album covers adorning the walls of his breakfast bar, as I looked up from my continental spread (toast, ham, cheese and boiled eggs) I saw Grace Jones' album cover - she looks so freakishly weird in it!

Stay tuned for more food fun from Amsterdam.

Gotta love performance artists (performance artist Jesika Joy)
The city came alive last night with Nuit Blanche, TO turned into an all night art festival. There were thousands of people everywhere, art installations everywhere and the mood and atmosphere was fantastic. It was an excellent night and I recommend that anyone who didn't go last night gets out to it next year. This is just what Toronto needs to compete with fantastic cities like London and New York. The vibe and the feel of the night was incredible.

In Zone B -two blocks of Church Street were turned into a red light district with several dancers in windows mimicking the feel of Amsterdam with live sex shows (pretend - of course), can-can dancers, pole dancing in windows and more.

This artist Jeskia Joy (see pic) was drawing quite a crowd in this red light district; she was writhing and sliding across the floor dragging this dead goat or lamb in her arms & on her back - p.s. it stank! She was mumbling and singing to herself to the delight & shock of many onlookers (shock - for those who don't get performance art). Entertaining to say the least - some dum, dums beside me (after they screeched and eek-ed) thought it was a greyhound dog -umm...duh, I don't think a skinned greyhound dog is easy to find, but yes - a goat or lamb is easy to purchase in the city and haul over your shoulder as an artiste for 7hrs.

Some other art installations were more family friendly and easier to comprehend and also entertaining, check the newspapers and online for reviews and photographs. At University of Toronto we stopped at a few other exhibits and at the String of Diamonds piece we ate some cheese and crackers. That is all we had...everywhere else the queues for food and drink were enormous. We got some drinks and snacks at 7-Eleven and saw this yummy cheese under the nacho-cheese dispensing machine - it looks grosser in real life.My only question is when is the city going to allow street vendors to sell anything more than rubbery hot dogs?! Can we not get creative like other cities. How about a Choc-star van? A van in London sells all kinds of chocolate treats (cupcakes, brownies, fudge, cake, cookies and more..) ...well it was a great night - maybe I will enter Nuit Blanche next year with a Choc-star van as a 'chocolate installation'


:)