Going Dutch

How often do you go on holiday somewhere and spend the flight home thinking about moving there? It happens to me quite a lot. Berlin or Barcelona could easily have become home, if I was a bit less lazy and a bit better at languages. My latest future home is Amsterdam – after spending three days there this month, I could already see myself living there.

Amsterdam seems extremely, effortlessly liveable; it feels like a city that a lot of thought has gone into. The Dutch are well known for their propensity towards good design and you can see evidence of it everywhere. Take a copy of the Wallpaper City Guide to find the best bits. Its criss-cross of canals and bridges, tramlines and cobbled streets, are lined with miles and miles of beautiful houses – forced apart from each other by the water, creating space and letting in light. It manages to feel both quaint and modern at the same time.

A lot of these tall, narrow canal-side townhouses have been converted into flats, much like the fancy Georgian houses of Clifton Village but with double-glazing and less damp. And, like Cliftonians, residents often leave their curtains open, so voyeuristic outsiders can peer into their perfectly minimalist Dutch living rooms.

It’s very convenient for us Brits that English is the most universal language (thanks Colonialism). I can pass for Dutch – it was nice to be around a lot of tall people for a change – but could only look sheepish and apologise (in English) when greeted by the locals. Although nobody seemed to hold it against us, unlike in some countries – I’m looking at you, France – there was one exception. On our first night, we had dinner at Harlem, a great ‘soul food’ restaurant, served with Heineken and jazz on the side. We could hear the staff not-so-subtly mocking us for asking if we could “please have the bill”. It’s fair enough, but the alternative was attempting to say: “mag ik de rekening alstublieft”, which would only have made them laugh more.

Amsterdam is one of those places where you can just walk around and enjoy it, with regular stops at its multiple coffee shops, often run by bearded men in checked shirts – being from Bristol, you will feel right at home. You will easily spot the places that the signs misleadingly refer to as ‘coffee shops’, where locals go to smoke pot, because you’ll smell them from a mile away.

From cool to kitsch, you’ll find something you like in Amsterdam. The one thing I kept failing to find was my bearings. The Jordaan area, where we stayed, is a maze of strachts and strasses that all look the same. If you don’t get hit by one of the millions of bikes then you’ll probably lose your way at some point, but will find plenty of independent boutiques, galleries and vintage shops in the process. As long as you have a map you can find your way back out, but I predict you won’t want to.

Sleeping: Max Brown Hotel, Herengracht 13 – “your urban residence in Amsterdam” has great décor, free breakfast and, like everywhere else in the Dam, free wifi (it is a very Instagrammable city).
Art/design: Stedelijk Museum, Museumplein 10 – fascinating mix of art and design, put into a cultural context. Worth it just for the building.
Eating: Mazzo, Rozengracht 114 – architect-designed restaurant/bar with modern industrial stylings, an Italian menu and its name in lights.
Café culture: Pllek, Neveritaweg 59 – On the outside: shipping containers, on the inside: a huge, airy space overlooking the canal with a view of the city.
Drinking: ‘t Arendsnest, Herengracht 90 – old-fashioned, elegant bar with an array of Dutch beers to choose from.

Easy Jet has regular flights from Bristol to Amsterdam Schiphol airport (it only takes 55 minutes! You can barely drive to Bath in that time).