What a fantastic trip we had to our beloved Amsterdam! And, for a change,
there were five of us, as the usual "Tarts on Tour" (Me, Madam Arcati, Baby
Steve and Houseboy Alex) we were joined by John-John - which made it all the
more fun, as we were able to introduce him to things that he didn't see when
he was there last
[which was for
my 50th birthday
- gulp - thirteen years ago!]...
Five days of people-watching by day (at
Trinity Cafe opposite our
hotel on
Oudezijds Voorburgwal, or St James Gate on
Rembrandtplein, or the bar formerly known as the much-missed
Amstel Taveerne, now The Mill),
drinking, eating
FEBO
and at
Eetsalon Van Dobben, wandering the grachten, more drinking, and generally enjoying
ourselves - bliss.
We paid tribute to my favourite building in Amsterdam, the
Tuschinski Theatre:
[click any pic to embiggen]
We "went true Dutch" at traditional bars such as
De Haven van Texel,
with its beautiful canal-side view, and the historic
bruine kroegen ("brown café")
Café Hoppe on the
wonderfully-named
Spui
[the square at the end of the shopping street Kalverstraat; we went there
for a welcome beer after trekking round loads of stores including
C&A (a
clothing shop that was beloved in the UK until it closed all its branches in
2000), and coming away with nothing]. We even spent an afternoon at Amsterdam's botanical garden
Hortus Botanicus -
with its fascinating butterfly house:
Our gorgeous student boys were back, getting up to their usual hi-jinks
[often with their tops off, but we have no photo evidence of that,
unfortunately]
for their equivalent of "Freshers' Week":
We [obviously!] spent a few nights in some of our fave gay
bars, including
The Queen's Head
[which, we discovered, really only comes into its own on weekends
nowadays], the sleazy-and-fab
Spijker Bar, and the
ever-friendly and jolly
Café Montmartre
[now in another new location, as part of the busy "gay village" in
Reguliersdwarsstraat, and renamed "Montmartre XL"].
Our very favourite of all is - of course - the oldest gay bar in Amsterdam
[and possibly the world]
Cafe 't Mandje, and its raucous traditional Sunday lunchtime Dutch sing-alongs:
On our very last day, before catching our plane, it was off to the Zeedijk
again for the utterly joyous
Hartjesdag
festival, with its street party, complete with a free breakfast on trestle
tables the length of the street, more traditional sing-alongs, followed by the
traditional men-dressed-as-women and women-dressed-as-men parade! We love it:
Only one thing marred the celebratory mood, however. Our lovely hosts Karl and
Josef at Hotel Anco -
where we have stayed every year for at least a decade - are retiring, have put
the business up for sale and have a new apartment just around the corner on
De Wallen! How very, very sad. They've been like family to us. We have put our
reservation in for next year just in case, but Karl said he will let us know
if the situation changes
[if it is no longer a hotel by then, for instance].
Now... what did we miss while we were away?
Our "colander obscura" captured dozens of little crescents, as the moon
obscured the sun
-
Well, we didn't miss
the partial solar eclipse on Wednesday. It threw a weird early-dusk-like shadow over the extensive gardens here
at Dolores Delargo Towers, but we're a bit too far east to have caught the
best effect, by all accounts.
-
We did miss
the hottest day of the year in the UK
on Thursday, as temperatures reached 38.1 C (100.6 F) in west London. It was
hot in Amsterdam, too - but not that hot! The garden suffered, as we
discovered when we got in last night at around 8pm, and I immediately needed
to do some emergency spot-watering. We've done a more thorough job today.
Only once things settle down we will discover if there were any
casualties...
-
We also missed:
-
Nigel Farage
won the Clacton by-election that he called, beating a man dressed as a bin.
-
An article that explains
how big penises and bigger breasts help athletes compete
in sports like swimming and cycling.
-
Hot on the heels of
Sky's takeover of ITV in July, another beloved British institution
EasyJet agreed a takeover by US private equity giant Apollo. The future of
"Cheap Flights"
looks to be in the balance...
-
Yesterday (17th August) was the centenary of the birth of the
magnificent Mr
George Melly, trad jazz aficionado, snappy-dressing camp icon, humanist, raconteur
and wit, who we loved dearly.
[See my posts about "Gorgeous George"
here,
here
and
here]
-
Also yesterday, the
funeral of the lovely Bonnie Tyler
took place in her native Swansea, Wales.
-
...and
[one for
Norma, who loves them]
we missed the
international Corgi Race, held annually in Vilnius, Lithuania!
But... did I bring anything back for your delectation, dear reader?
Of course - one of the Netherlands' most popular singers, whose songs were being played
all over the place while we were there:
Is it good to be back?
NO!
[Vanaf vandaag gaan wij weer dansen = "From today we will dance
again"; part of the lyrics of one of Mr Bronkhorst's songs in that medley,
Kom allemaal maar in mijn armen]
UPDATE 6.05pm, Wednesday 19th August
I posted this at about 8pm yesterday, and it still hasn't shown up in the Blogger Reading List!
I tell you one thing I haven't missed, and that's the bastard Google gnomes and their broken systems.
