Hello everybody, just a warning for the people that are planning on going and an apology to the people who just left. Amsterdam is a mess at the moment, the cleaning service (forgot the actual English word for it, but I'm sure you'll know what I mean) is on a strike, so all the garbage on the street hasn't been cleaned for about a week now and the sight and the smell is getting worse every day. It's not a total disaster, there's hasn't been a lot of bright sun the last few days, but for the moment it looks just like queensday, only less of a party. Hope you'll have a good time, or you've had a good time, anyway. Floris P.S. does anybody know when it will be over?
Last time I was there in Feb it was a mess only because there was construction going on just about everywhere especially around the RLD where there was no pavement, just sand, has all that been finished now.?
I'm sure that very few people have been through the type of natural disasters mentioned above, but a week or more of garbage on the streets and sidewalks certainly would constitute a "mess" as the poster stated... in fact, the original poster specifically said that it is NOT a disaster but a "mess"... so if you need to post a response, why not just say thanks for the tip and move on? I'm sure it could be worse, but it would be something I would want to know if I was about to leave for A'dam.
I just came back from Amsterdam, had to work at the Sail thing for 5 days. It really is a mess, i hope theyll start cleaning again soon, i heard that it would last for 1 week only so im guessing the strike will be over tomorrow.
i hope they clean it up soon. part of amsterdams beauty is its lack of pollution.im going on the 3rd, so hopefully by then it will be beautiful again!
Garbage strike ended 7AM Monday August 22. They claim they will work 7AM-11PM and have Amsterdam cleaned back up within a week. It sure does smell bad many places.
"It sure does smell bad many places." It smells bad normally, esp. in the RLD. This sounds a bit worse than normal though. It is the peak tourist season too, a real bad time to go on strike! While the Dutch do their best to keep Amsterdam clean, it certainly isn't the cleanest city, and parts can downright nasty at times. During the 8 years I lived there, I watched the city become progressively more dirty, with more grafitti and certain parts like the metro, more seedy. I just realize it's Amsterdam, and it's not too different from where I grew up, New Amsterdam! Part of me likes it when a city gets real gritty. Like it's showin' you it's underbelly, and remindin' you how fast it could become unliveable if services that are taken for granted break down.
"Part of me likes it when a city gets real gritty. Like it's showin' you it's underbelly, and remindin' you how fast it could become unliveable if services that are taken for granted break down." - Skip I wrote this a few days before Katrina hit New Orleans... Now you know what I meant.
There is still alot of construction going on. Especially on the Rokin street. They are building a new subway line.
Now I know But, construction seems to be all over the city perpetually, I don't know,? just the impression I always get when I go.
Hey, talking of Dutch construction, gotta love those man-made polders but some of their staircases are obscure when tipsy, I've witnessed. LOL I've seen some that are almost ladders and some that meander skyward in a spiral with only an inch or two space for the tip of your foot to grab. Descending them is an art, especially if it's one of the old style traditional buildings that happens to be a pub/coffeeshop and you've had a few....
