News from Amsterdam, of interest to tourists, business travelers and expats.
See also our home page for Amsterdam news media.
If the freezing temperatures predicted for this coming week persist, with any luck we’ll be able to ice skate on the canals of Amsterdam. The last time that happened was in February 2012.
The City of Amsterdam maintains an Ice Protocol that details the various steps the Water Authority should take in order to make ice skating possible.
Updated: Tuesday, February 27, 2018: The Ice Protocol has gone into effect!
Effective immediately, beer bikes — Moron Movers, as many locals refer to them — have been banned from the center of Amsterdam.
After years of legal wrangling, a court has issued a verdict acknowledging that the City’s restrictions are legal.
The National Geographic Channel has admitted that its Scam City TV series uses actors paid to stage crimes.
Presenter Conor Woodman was in on the act, but he remains belligerent about it. The City of Amsterdam did not take the broadcast lying down.
With Netflix rebroadcasting some of the episodes, it pays to take another look at, well, the Scam City scam.
Amsterdam’s Red Light District is home to a bronze statue in honor of sex workers around the world.
Situated in front of the Old Church, the oldest building in the city, it is the first and only such monument anywhere.
Amsterdam is Europe’s eight most popular city destination for international tourists.
It also ranks in 27th place on a listing of the world’s leading cities in terms of international tourist arrivals.
The organization behind the index does not that places such as Venice, Barcelona, Berlin, and Amsterdam, are suffering from excessive tourism.
As part of nationwide policy of discouraging drug use among underage youth, Amsterdam is closing 31 cannabis cafes (known as ‘coffeeshops’) that are located too close to high schools.
But Amsterdam remains the Coffeeshop Capital of the World.
Update, December 18, 2013:: 3 coffeeshops on the list will not have to close after all
A boat tour of Amsterdam’s canals is a sightseeing must — one that frequently tops the list of Holland’s most popular tourist attractions.
Picturesque? Sure. But there’s something in the water the tourist office doesn’t tell you about.