Netherlands Meetups

Zoeperman

I love all the ideas (especially the ones with beer involved) but my problem is that I don't drink and drive :'(

So I vote for a non alcoholic meeting (or someone has to be able to provide a couch or anything to crash on :P )

machadinha

No matter where we go, rest assured that juices and mineral water and tea and the likes will be just as available

What's that band like Friday, Indo? His/their site looks like some militant hip-hoppity/funkadelic/D&B stuff or so? I might be game (George Clinton years ago sticks in the mind as one of the best gigs ever). We can PM about it so as not to unnecessarily bore people here.

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machadinha

... So, I'm currently thinking:

-- Meet at Central Station at 13:30. Take canal boat at 14:00 sharp (so aim to be there at 13:30, not 14:00).

-- Boat will be back at station at around 15:00. Head out to meet-up place to regroup and join up with any others who didn't come on the boat ride. I'm thinking De Balie's cafe might be handy for this, it's not my favorite but it's quite OK, it's easily found (smack-bang on Leidseplein, you can't miss it), and it's right next to the Vondelpark. We should be there at around 15:30'ish then.

-- Allow for people to arrive till 16:00; move into Vondelpark at 16:00 sharp (maybe grab some food & drinks shopping on the way. Stuff is on sale in the park near the music stage too, btw.) Hang out here and enjoy the scene & young jazz trio.

(ps: I see now that at night and also in the park, 20:30 and onwards, there's a modern adaptation of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream set in various locations in the park, followed by a classical music program [Mendelssohn] adapted to the same. If people prefer this we could center our plans around this instead. Come to think of it, it's quite possible if not highly likely that this is all in Dutch, it features a narrator and so on. All these performances are for free btw.)

-- Afterwards and still assuming late afternoon, for those who feel like it we can go grab a bite in the vicinity. My favorite Indian take-away is nearby, however it is/used to be (haven't been for a while) tiny. If it doesn't suit us, there are good Surinamese roti shops nearby, for instance.

-- For those who are still up to it then, we could head out to the free IJazz festival, see http://www.ijazz.nl/#/nl/programma/zaterdag/ . This takes place along the waterfront across the northerly IJ river (at and around the NDSM wharf I take it, see their "English" button), should be fun & involving another short ferry ride. Going here could easily be combined with e.g. a walk and checking out some historical ships along the river, and/or with a dash to Indo's favorite IJ Brewery & cafe (Indo: Their beers are available in many places across town though ).

Well... what say? ps If the weather persists as it is now, it should be rather pleasant if not to say hot hot hot It being high summer of course (well, technically just the start of it), count on most or all of these locations and certainly the city center being pretty crowded I imagine.

wonderwomanusa

That sounds like a fantastic meetup, and it's too baf we can't ALL be in Amsterdam on that day. I remember meny wonderful summer days in the Vondelpark... back in the day!

Hope y'all have a truly great day!

Nick-H

Wow, Mach... that's quite an itinerary

Sounds great

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Joph

I'm following this talk on the side line.
Some nice suggestions you gave for this day.
If the date is still on Saturday 21 June I might come too. Probably joining for a part of the 'program'.

Indojingai

Leuk!

The plan looks great, Mac. I had never heard of NDSM before. Will sure want to see it.

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sannna

Hi all,
I do want to join for the meet up but I had thought it would an evening thing... So i have to see whether I can still fit it in my plans.. Will let you know. S.

machadinha

Nice to hear everyone so far finds the plans agreeable WWU: We might just end up at Riaz's If so, I'll light a candle or something (or give a Fernandez toast anyway -- you remember those icky neon-colored Surinamese soft drinks right? Yummy! )

Sanna, if night suits you better, we could arrange to meet up before heading out to the IJazz fest., for instance? It is/should all be quite flexible. Luddite that I am I don't have a cellphone or anything like that, but maybe one of the other sure-to-be-there's wants to send you theirs. Or we can just pick a spot and time, of course. Or meet us for dinner or something if you feel like. (I'm sure there'll be food at NDSM btw for any latecomers. We'll probably just be a few people anyway, although it's looking up to be the bigger gathering so far -- I sure hope you can make it. Would be great to have Joph over too, btw.)

I'd like to hear from Londoner if he's still coming over or not. Where are you, mate?

ps Since we all seem basically agreed then, I'll repeat the above post closer to the date in shorter version and/but with some definite directions.

machadinha

Oh ps Indo, be sure to ask your other two friends that I've met to come along if they feel like, would be great to see them. Others too for that matter: Friends, family, lovers & hangers-on all welcome, of course.

Tarotray

I can almost certainly be in front of A'dam CS at 13:30, next Saturday, but how will we all know each other? I've probably never actually met anyone, who will be there. Do we all have to wear a rudraksha necklace or a ganja leaf in our buttonholes or what? I can visualise in my mind's eye, Machadhinha standing there with a big sign saying "IndiaMike delegates!"


Seriously, perhaps we should choose a specific place at the station to meet up or we could have folks wandering around, looking for each other.

machadinha

Of course, I was going to fill in precise directions as to where we actually meet closer to the date.

For starters, you could look out for the backside of the two guys to the left in this pic : Netherlands Meetups . You can click that pic to enlarge it. Come to think of, the woman next to us (third from the left) was also planning to come along.

I plan to wear that same hat, and while that shirt isn't clearly visible here, it's a white shirt with the IndiaMike logo on both sides, this one: http://www.cafepress.com/indiamike.114327211 . I'll wear that, too.

Anyway I'll leave clear directions here later, it shouldn't be too hard to find one another. I'm thinking the bridge in front of the station, where the canal boats leave, could be handy. There's a lot of construction going on there, so I think I'll go check out the scene first to make sure.

Cheerio and till then ps Word has it there may be a special surprise attendant if a few events this weekend (now) take a turn for the good, so let's all keep our fingers crossed to that effect

pps Sanna, would say 18:00 suit you? I'd rather not be too pinned-down with the evening's events, but we could arrange to meet you in the park or so at that time, then move on together.

machadinha

Just a wee update, I think I just figured out how to produce a personalized map using Google Maps. Don't expect to go over the process again now, so will probably drop some maps + instructions tomorrow (Thursday NL time).

Keep an eye here.

machadinha

OK let's see if this works, if all's well this should be a map including all meet-up points, click to enlarge or zoom out and move around and so on at will, and find a legenda covering all those spots to the left, so to speak, you can click those as well: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=nl...,0.105743&z=13

By way of explanation:

1) Meet-Up Point! This is obviously the first meet-up point, to take the canal boat. Try to make it here at 13:30, we'll leave at 14:00 sharp (so do not aim to make it at 14:00 or you may miss us). You will want to zoom in on this point on the map.

The situation at the station is indeed a little chaotic due to construction work (new subway forever being built), but don't panic: The meet-up point is the (short) bridge that runs in an almost straight line from Damrak to the Central Station's main entrance. Situated here is Reederij (olde spelling for shipping company) P. Kooij, whose boat I probably want to take. Other outfits have their boats nearby, on the same stretch of water (but probably elsewhere in the vicinity too).

(If you click on Satellite view, then zoom way in, the boats I'm talking about are the ones closest to your left here, btw )

Now, the station's main entrance is in fact closed-off due to construction; what they use for closing it off are sort of like big blue plastic-coated (?) boards. You'll see these all over the place here, so it makes it visually a little confusing. Instead, there are now two entrances to the left and the right in use (with all those blue boards inbetween), namely what they call the "east entrance" (there are English signposts) and the so-called "main entrance" (in fact this would be a little to the west of the real main entrance).

The situation inside the station is likewise a little chaotic and visually confusing. If, by the way, you find yourself walking out of the station to face a river (called Het IJ) and see ferries leaving and barges go by and stuff, you're at the northern end of the station and need to retrace your steps through it to make your way out of the southern (main) end. We will be taking the ferry here later to NDSM btw, see below.

The entrance to Damrak and some of the intermediate roads are likewise partly boarded up with these blue boards. All this makes what should really be a straight line from Damrak-over "our" bridge-to the station's main entrance not at all that visually straight at the moment.

In any case, it all sounds much more complicated than it really is: Find the station's main facade with its two entrances currently to the left and right; "our" bridge is right in front of this (and trams ply over it running away from the station, don't hang around standing on or close to the lines and get run over btw; they run to the station over two other bridges, further to the west and east again, but within eyesight from here); and in an extension of this, the bridge feeds right into Damrak (with a major artery crossing between both), a very busy and touristy street with lots of tacky shops and so on. So if you end up here, turn around and walk up to the bridge.

Again, I'll be wearing my black hat and white IndiaMike T-shirt, as in post #147 above

2) To regroup at De Balie: Just follow the map. If you stand on Leidseplein (a small and lively and touristy square; "plein" means a square), with its main Leidsestraat to your back, De Balie is just a little to the left, you can't miss it and it's (quite) visible from there. Situated between a cinema and the famous Paradiso pop music hall and former church if I'm not mistaken.

Again, aim to be here at 15:30, we will leave at 16:00 sharp. Note: we may not even be here at 15:30 sharp ourselves, after the boat ride and getting there; if not, just settle in and we'll soon be there. I imagine we'll be standing at the bar, although if it's very busy, behind it is sort of a larger lounge area in a grand hallway, where you then may find us. Don't worry, we'll find one another.

3. I'd rather be flexible with later dinner and possible jazz festival and perhaps just walking around some, not looking at the clock too much. However, if people wishing to join us later want to, we could agree to meet up right in front of the stage at the Vondelpark's Openluchttheater (Open Air Theater) at say 18:00. If you have trouble finding this, just follow the crowds/and or the music (which may well be over by 6 though)/or ask around/and look for the large'ish white semi-domed structure next to a large pond. It's sort-of central to the park, shouldn't be hard to find, or just ask around for it, of course.

Of course, if people want to meet with us at a later time than that, then just let us know and we'll think of something.

4. Finally, the jazz festival takes place at the NDSM wharf; on the map, "huurdersvereniging" indicates where the terrain (tenants) is, while the "veer" is where the ferry stops. These leave from the northern end of Central Station & run 24/7 I believe. I don't know the terrain well and wouldn't know where to meet up here, but real late-comers could just take their chances and see if they can spot us here I guess. The festival appears to end at around midnight btw.

Well, hope this is somewhat clear

Costs for the day: The canal boat is 8 Euros I believe. Some of the other shipping outfits cost a little more.
Drinks & food according to your own wishes.
The rest (barring any individual souvenir hunting and so on): Zero.
It would be handy for people to carry a strippenkaart (national all-purpose public transport card), barring any cycling Amsterdammers of course I'll be on foot and able to guide non-cyclists around. Since the ferry is free I believe btw, we're probably just looking at 2-3 tram rides.

Current weather: Fairly pleasant, lots of sun, not exactly hot though, with occasional showers. Could merit light sweater/jacket by day, certainly something mildly warm by night. Chance of rain is not impossible. Saturday's forecast: 11-18C (51-64F), lightly clouded, dry.

Well, hope to see you there. I wonder how many of us will show up in the end Looking forward to it in any case!

machadinha

btw and ps, Of course Holland will be playing the quarter-finals against Russia that evening, starting around 20:30. Surprised no one has whined about it interfering with our plans yet (or is that why this thread has gone a little silent? And no, I don't follow the games at all.)

In any case, at the NDSM apparently they have screens to follow the game as well, so we could aim to be there in time if it's a must to some. Don't mind me if I go watch some bands instead though.

More practically, esp. after the game and no matter what its outcome, people may want to take just a little care with the possibility of there being drunken idiots roaming about esp. downtown, notably concentrated around the Leidseplein and Rembrandtplein (and possibly the station) areas. The game should finish at around 22:30.

This shouldn't greatly affect our above tour and besides one can never predict how the public mood will be; just a word to the wise to keep half an eye open as you move around town, when using public transport, too.