Whereabouts and Whatnot: North Holland

For the past few days we have been exploring Amsterdam and the region north of Amsterdam called "North Holland". Because Holland is a real society that exists in the modern world, it isn't all just a fairytale of legalized drugs and prostitution. That's fun to see, but there are other aspects of the country too. From modern art to 500-year old pubs, there is such a juxtaposition of sights in this city that it is hard to convey it all. I'll cover a few different aspects in the next couple of posts.

So over the weekend we stayed in a super-hip hotel in the southern outskirts of Amsterdam. Here is a view of the (entire) room. The green-lit cylinder is the shower. All trendy and post-modern, this is Monocle magazine turned into a hotel. Very nice, although the kids at the "front desk" (there is no front desk) could never figure out if we had paid for breakfast or not.

This area (Amsterdam-Zuid) is very different than the touristy areas at the centre of the city. It's mostly residential and the apartment buildings date from the mid-twentieth century. Right around the corner from the hotel is the World Trade Centre business park, where tens of thousands of sleek, well dressed 20/30-somethings work in finance and shiny insurance offices. It's actually reminiscent of the "La Défense" area of Paris, with its gleaming office towers and futuristic open spaces. Of course, this being Holland there has to be a quirky twist to things. Note the architecture of this office block:

This sort of playful take on things permeates Dutch society. Look very closely at this sculpture: this piece of industrial equipment is made up of a filigree pattern of coats-of-arms and fleur-de-lys:

Then it was off to the core of Amsterdam. Within only five minutes of stepping off the tram, Christine had already remarked on the smell of pot, we had seen a rastifarian dog (all covered in dreadlocks), and a posse of Hell's Angels rode by. It was very crowded and filthy.