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Fortean Amsterdam

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Sooooooo I will be over there soon and we have had a number of Foretan travel thread already so........

Anyone know of anything strange and unusual to see and do over there (other than the obvious I suppose ;) )?

For the sake of my sanity I will probably have to dump my friends and go to visit a few museums and art galleries and if there is anything weird(er) worth seeing then I'm always up for that too. So any ideas, tips, etc.

Emps
 
Not necessarily Fortean but checkout the Rijks Museum. Was there in 2000 and it blew me away, best museum i've visited. We also went to Anne Franks house but she was out....:D
 
'Ere, why is 'e feeling 'er tit?
The Night Watch is definitely worth a look when you get there. It's HUGE and apparently is supposed to be set in daylight but the background is dirty (no, not that kind of dirty, that's the sex museum)....

Digressing slightly, i was in Hamburg in 2001 and some colleagues and i decided to visit the ReeperBahn. With us was a German lady called Monika.We found this sidestreet that was closed off at both ends with walk in access only, this was where the tom's hung out. The lads wanted a look and being a tourist i said i would go with them. Monica kept saying "not a good idea for girls to look" but i shrugged it off.
Away we went behind the wall and along the street to see the ladies sat in their 'living rooms' with the red lights on. I turned to say something to one of the lads when this huge fat whale in an extremely stressed basque threw a glass of water over me out of the window and started berating me in German.
I had to laugh, she must have been having a bad herre day!!!!!
 
Oooooooo I found this discussion at the Beed which might be handy:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/holiday/programmes/ycts/series1/amsterdam_wacky_na.shtml

Shoarma kebab - count me in.

Heineken Brewery (Stadhouderskade 78) - hmmmmm.

'The Supper Club' (Jonge Roelensteeg 21) - interesting.
http://www.supperclub.nl

Condomerie (Warmoesstraat 141) - I'm unsure how good this would be but.......

Torture Museum (Damrak 20-22) - I'm there!!
http://photos.innersource.com/group/4916
http://www.frommers.com/destinations/moreattract.cfm?a_id=22217

Theatre Museum (Herengracht 168-172) - not sure.

The Amsterdam Tattoo Museum (Oudezijds Achterburgwal 130) - sounds good.
http://www.tattoos.com/xxx/mus01.htm

Climbing to the top of the NEMO (New Metropolis Science and Technology Center) - not sure.

Emps
 
there is a medical specimen museum in the south east of amsterdam. if you want the address let me know and i will hunt my book out. lots of jars of freakish things

edit: found this link the Museum Vrolik
 
Ooooooooooooo I might just take a sleeping bag and stay there. Thanks for the tip I lookd aorund for English language info on that and found this:

http://www.channels.nl/knowledge/23705.html
http://www.channels.nl/knowledge/22306.html

which lead to:

http://www.ladraquona.com/vrolik/

[edit: Also:

The MUSEUM VROLIK at the Academic Medical Centre/Universiteit van Amsterdam, has its origins in the beautiful collection of anatomical, pathological, teratological and zoological specimen of the two professors Vrolik, father and son. After son Willem's death in 1863 the collection was acquired by a committee of citizens and saved for Amsterdam. It has been used for academic and non-academic education since.
Click to expand...

http://www.universeum.de/museums/amsterdam.html ]

Emps
 
The torture museum might have shut down, at least when I was there in 2000 there was an empty unit where it should have been two doors down from the Sex Museum.

The design of the houses there is almost Fortean in itself, there's some old city planning law that favoured them all being built with the narrowest frontage, quite odd from an English perspective and they all lean forward and have a hoist at the top for getting furniture in through the windows.

I can't think of anything specific but it is a beautiful city architecturally, and there's some nice fish designs lurking around the place. Enjoy :)
 
BRF: Thanks for the tips.

I'll see what I can find out about the Torture Museum as I ran across a couple of addresses for it (probably worth finding the Tourist Information centre and harassing them).

I've just speed read all the guides I could get my hands on (which seemed oddly reticent on some of the musuems mentioned above) and they mention some other things to do so I suppose when in Rome and such like... (although to be honest they sound a bit dull):

Hash Museum:
http://www.amsterdam-museums.com/museums/hash_info.html

The Prostitution Information Centre (acordig to a couple of guides you can get a guided tour of a mock up of a prositute's window booth):
http://www.pic-amsterdam.com

----------------
Other things on my list to see while I'm there would be:

http://www.amsterdam-museums.com/museums/van_gogh.html

http://www.amsterdam-museums.com/museums/rembrandt_house.html

Emps
 
I had a jolly long weekend in Amsterdam in March. The Rijksmuseum is
indeed under rennovation but the modern (Philips) wing has a concentrated
exhibition of Dutch history and the most celebrated masterpieces from their
collections. I don't think I have seen so many great paintings cheek by jowl!

The Van Gogh Museum is fully open with a massive Rossetti exhibition providing
a chance for a Mancunian to meet up with a few familiar Pre-Raphaelites on tour!

The Torture Museum is indeed still open and well worth a visit. Their exhibits do
not carry any guarantee of authenticity. You will need to sniff the tip of the pyramid
to see if it ever split a rectum. (Probably last weekend at a private party).

Other mainstream must-does are the barge-tour and an Indonesian Rice-Banquet
meal. Rich and spicy and about the same price as a Chinese banquet here. The most
obvious tourist bars can be expensive but by the end of your trip you will have
discovered some pleasant and very reasonable places to drink and/or sample the
green stuff. Enjoy! :)
 
Ruigoord

!0 kilometers from Amsterdam http://www.ruigoord.nl
An alternative way of life for over 40 years.
Enjoy one of there parties and especially the Landjuweel at the Full Moon in August.
You can get bus 82 from the Marnixstraat (in Amsterdam)but if you have a car there is a route map on the website.
Enjoy
Bill
 
Fleeble's right about the dope museum, the only interesting exhibit that I remember was a hash packed dildo (for fooling customs), though the growing room at the back is very nice if you've never smelt the aroma of fresh pot plant before. :cool:
 
BlackRiverFalls said:
though the growing room at the back is very nice if you've never smelt the aroma of fresh pot plant before. :cool:
Click to expand...

if you go in the seed shop next door to the museum you can access the grow room without paying for the museum ;)
 
Realy Fleeble

You seem to get around,you would like the Festival in August at Ruigoord (Full Moon)take a tent with you.
Seez Ya
Bill
 
OK I'm off tomorrow so last minute checklist:

Avoid hash musuem: check

Green stuff (which I assume means Guiness): check (sort of - I don't drink but my friend are planning on making up for that ;) ).

Sniff pyramid for rectum: check.

Torture museum: I'll grab the various addresses and see which is the right one for future reference.

Any other recommendations?

Emps
 
There's a 'Lee Harvey Oswald Museum', in nearby Haarlem, apparently.

Otherwise, try and find 't Docktertje bar. If it's open, it's well worth checking out... if you can find it.

Oh! And it's 'Koningin Dag' tomorrow, the biggest nationwide street party you ever did see.

;)
 
AndroMan said:
There's a 'Lee Harvey Oswald Museum', in nearby Haarlem, apparently.

Otherwise, try and find 't Docktertje bar. If it's open, it's well worth checking out... if you can find it.

Oh! And it's 'Koningin Dag' tomorrow, the biggest nationwide street party you ever did see.

;)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips - I can't find mention of the bar (in English) online but I'll keep an eye out for it.

Queen's Day and I don't have anything orange to wear!! The shame :(

I suppose I have enough time to track Dale Winton down and skin him but........

Emps
 
RE;Queens Day 30 April

Yes the Queens Day party was hot and sunny,i ended up on Fredricks Plein at a trance party,lots of shrooms and good vibes,but the centre was to crowded for fun.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't forget the Ruigoord Festival(the web site is on this thread)look up LANDJUWEEL on the site.
They start setting up 2 weeks before,people come from all over Europe with truck busses,teepee's,tent and good vibes.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Also on the 19/20 June TRANS ORIENT EXPRESS a trance party you will never forget.
Bring a parachute.
Bill.
 
Yep it was an excellent day for a party and everyone certainly threw themselves into the swing of things. I'll be booking this weekend back again next year :)

Unfortunately most of the things on my intineray went unchecked. I'll consider this a fact finding mission for my next venture but I'll throw in the bits and bobs I've found and possibly dig out a map and mark stuff on so people can pick up the baton ;) After what the experts might describe as "a lot of farting around" I did find the Vrolik Museum but it remained solidly locked. I did enjoy the Torture Museum - notable exhibits include the Spanish Horse, The Scavenger's Daughter and the Judas Cradle (I wasn't tall enough to have a sniff but I did give the tip a quick rub for luck). The leaflet I picked up pointed me to their web site which seems to largely contain the contents of the leaflet (but it might be handy):

http://www.torturemuseum.com

More interesting than some of the devices (which didn't look very practical as instruments of torture) where the numerous illustrations and this site has quite a few of the same ones:

http://www.shanmonster.com/witch/torture/

including the Judas Cradle:

http://www.shanmonster.com/witch/torture/judas.html

Ouch.

Emps
 
I went to the torture museum in Prague. It was very grim.
 
I'm off to Amsterdam on Thursday, I'll let you know what I find!
 
Hi guys, just got back!

We spotted these two little mosaic critters around the city, does anyone know any more about them? Is there some kind of Space Invader trail to follow around whilst stoned?

Invader1.jpg


Invader2.jpg


Quite cool street adornments I'm sure you will agree, but are they as cool as this stained glass we found?

Decep.jpg


Nothing else particularly odd or strange, I'm afraid.
 
Was the stained glass owned by the Decepticons?
 
Kmossel, may I ask you a question?

I've been to Amsterdam a couple of times but not for a few years now. I remember seeing a building that had really interesting and slightly weird stone animal carvings around the top. The only thing I can compare it to is the building in Ghostbusters, with the oddly carved gargoyles and things.

I have looked for references on the internet but can't find anything about it. Do you know the building I'm talking about?
 
kmossel said:
Hi Carlos. For the Space Invaders mosaics, have a look at http://www.space-invaders.com/ .

Where did you find the decepticon stained glass? I live in Amsterdam, would be cool to look it up.
Click to expand...

The stained glass is on a comic book shop where Zeedijk meets Geldersekade.
 
@Fizz32: The only building that springs to mind right now is one of the buildings of the local zoo, "Artis" (short for Natura Artis Magistra). I didn't find any pictures of that particular building online, so I'll see if I can take some and post them.

@CarlosTheDJ: Thanks!
 
Fizz32 said:
Kmossel, may I ask you a question?

I've been to Amsterdam a couple of times but not for a few years now. I remember seeing a building that had really interesting and slightly weird stone animal carvings around the top. The only thing I can compare it to is the building in Ghostbusters, with the oddly carved gargoyles and things.

I have looked for references on the internet but can't find anything about it. Do you know the building I'm talking about?
Click to expand...

Well, 6 months later I finally remembered to take some pics of the zoo building I was thinking of. Re-reading your message, this building may not be what you were looking for, but have a look, you never know.

IMG_0018.jpg


IMG_0019.jpg


IMG_0020.jpg


IMG_0022.jpg
 
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