It was somewhat surprising (back then) to find out that there was no dedicated or seperated gay neighborhood in Amsterdam but that is was sort of mixed into the regular RLD, mostly along Warmoes straat.>

Maybe not that early but by the 80s and 90s Regulierstraat a block north of the floating flower market was a blatantly gay street - I walked thru a gay festival there and it was so nice to see these folks out having fun and not being closeted.

http://www.reguliers.net/english.php

Say about 50 years ago first gay cafe opened.

THE MILKY WAY AND PARADISO

Two very famous places in Amsterdam are these two non-profit 'youth centers' though you also see older folks there - especially for concerts of some of the most famous music groups in the world. Both are located just off the Leidesplein.

THE MILKY WAY (MELKWEG IN DUTCH) occupies a really neat old dairy processing plant - it's main entrance is over a drawbridge over an old small canal - no longer used but providing a distinctive fixture you cross to get in. Inside there are several venues for music/lectures, etc. with a large main concert hall. There is also a Tea House and a restaurant/pub - if you do not want to pay to enter the Milky Way but want to see the iconic place come in the day and have a drink or snack in the cafe and poke around the rest of the place.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melkweg

The dairy vacated the building around 1970 and the youth center opened shortly late and came to gain a bit of notoriety in the 70s as a hippie gathering place, in keeping with the times. Later as it became more established it begin to draw all types of folks. The Milky Way was perhaps the first place in Amsterdam TMK selling hash to anyone - in the rather remote top-floor tea house.

NEX PARADISO

So, if looking for something iconic in Amsterdam check out the Melkweg, a name that was a play on the buildings former use as a dairy.

THE PARADISO

Located on far side of Leidesplein area from the Milky Way, the Paradiso occupies a former large church. When the church was abandoned (like many in Holland) in the 1960s, squatters took over the place. Eventually the city of Amsterdam took over ownership and a concert venue was set up. Unlike the Milky Way, the Paradiso is just one large concert venue and attracts big-time groups including some of most famous in world. But it also hosts lectures and amateur groups, etc. (Of all the music I heard there the night devoted to Barbershop Quartets from around Amsterdam was the most fun!)

So if looking for top-notch music offerings check out the Paradiso - just look for the large church-like building with its famous tilting cross on top - a cross illuminated that rocks back and forth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradiso_(Amsterdam)

this says many groups also recorded concerts here and the Rolling Stones 1995 two semi-acoustic concerts according to some Stones members was their best concert ever

Things have moved on maybe some of these will give an idea of what Amsterdam is like now.

Great - have to watch all that - bike lands have always IME been a bane of naive tourists not knowing that the bike sign means a bikes-only path or lane lots of locals get irate at that - city of Amsterdam should have, if it does not, big explanative signs explaining pedestrian lanes v bike lanes and the dangers of walking into one, with many bikes zooming by. I do wonder how many tourists get hurt and bikers too. Many folks on Fodor's toy with idea of renting bikes and riding around Amsterdam like the locals do, but IMO and others familiar with the situation strongly advise against this due to the often crowded bike paths - not for the inexperienced.

If one gets out of Amsterdam then there is always space for a tourist to practice two wheeling.......Well except Kinderdijk!:devil:

Before that, COC was the place to go in the late 60ties and early 70ties (Shakespeare Club), and around 1950, people went to Coupé de Paris and Reynders and Eijlders on Leidseplein. And of course there has always been Het Mandje, owned by Bet van Beeren on Zeedijk: it still exists, but as a quasi museum.

Greet van Beeren, Bet's sister speaks about Het Mandje

One of the coolest and funniest series about Amsterdam in recent times is A'dam + E.V.A.
sadly without English subtitles.

Yes if you want to bike get out of the city and have miles and miles of nice bike paths without mobs to enjoy. menachem is a expert on advising that.

OTHER MUSIC VENUES

A neat thing about Amsterdam in 80s was impromptu music venues - like in squats - one neat one was in the old jail next to the Paradiso near Leidesplein - I especially like an illegal pub (I assume) that was in the basement with Jamaican reggae music and such - there was no charge to enter and groups just always seemed to be playing. In the upper part of the jail was a nice pub that also seemed illegal - beer was sold out of cases from a supermarket and I understand that meant it was an illegal pub - but there were many of these at that anything goes time.

I really got hooked on live music and ventured all over Amsterdam - out to De Meervaart for another youth concert club and to Cruise Inn by the harbor for great rock. And to the Last Watering Hole - a dive in the red-light district that was a large pub with country rock - the owner was from Texas and I recall sitting at the bar and hearing him say over and over 'Don't mess with Texas,' where he was from.

GRUNGY HOSTELS AND 'HOTELS'

Being young and on a low budget I stayed at a potpourri of dives which proliferated in the 80s when young people from all over Europe came to Amsterdam because of its wide open reputation. Bob's Youth Hostel, Hotel Entree-Arrivee, Ebener Christian Hostel (not a dive), even a few nights in Vondel Church with squatters and all had a grungy atmosphere with hash being smoked everywhere and a sleazy clientele (moi excepted!) etc. For a splurge I'd stay at the Hotel Kabul, in the red-light district. I think these low-budget hostels either have spruced up a lot or disappeared. Amsterdam was so cheap to stay in - not the case now I believe with hostels costing $40 or so.

Anyway I really had great times in Amsterdam during that era and was glad to catch the city at that time. That the city was serenely gorgeous day and especially at night only added to the joy as did the Amsterdammers I met.

THE SLEEP-IN IN THE OLD AMSTEL BREWERY

I omitted one of the more unique places I stayed in Amsterdam - the Sleep-In(n) in the old Amstel Brewery - though really cheap - city-owned non-profit I guess - it was cleaner than the scruffy hostels mentioned above - it did have about 20 bunks in a room however. But, it had good vibes - long gone now.

THE HEINEKEN BREWERY TOURS

For years, the main Heineken HQs and Brewery was right in the center of Amsterdam, not far east of the main museums on Museumplein. and every younger person going to Amsterdam went there - not just for the tour but for the free-flowing samples provided in the tasting room after the tour. The brewery is long gone, being demolished as the beer making moved out of congested Amsterdam - a pleasant housing project and neat open space has replaced it. But the front of the old brewery is still there and now the Heineken Experience takes the place of touring an actual brewery - an audio-visual show of the beer making and then limited free tasting. Nothing I would recommend going to but many do. Interestingly enough the last time I did the brewery tour they were actually canning Amstel Beer! (also owned by Heineken).

" they even slept in cars sometimes"

Can ya believe it? What is (was) the world coming to?

Well they were really mobile homes!

One night I slept on the platforms at the WTC_Zuid train station - getting there about midnight and catching first train to Schiphol Airport. No one bothered me and I felt it was a safe area. Then caught train a very early train to Paris and when I fell asleep in my seat around Den Hague a conductor rudely shouted "You can't use this train as a hotel' which surprised me.

But IME Dutch train conductors were amongst the most unpleasant of any - one time when leaving Amsterdam C.S station I had a first-class railpass and sat in an empty compartment that said on the reservation placard on the compartment's window that the window seats in it were reserved from Antwerp to Paris. I sat in a window seat and the conductor told me to move out of that seat. I refused and the conductor said 'when I come back you better be out of that seat.' It just seemed silly and I knew that I had a right to sit in an unreserved seat until the folks reserving it showed up. The conductor came back and gave me a scowling look and I did move as Antwerp approached.

Another terrible thing with a Dutch conductor was one who claimed that I had changed a date on my flexipass - he had a big magnifying glass to prove that. I had not changed the date but it was a night train and I put the next day's date in - (the 7 pm rule saying with a pass on a night train you put the next day in as your unlimited travel day). But, when the French conductor just out of Paris date-stamped the box he mistakenly punched that actual day the night train started when he should have entered the next day. I had not noticed as the date stamped was in tiny numbers but when after midnight the train was near Den Hague a Dutch conductor with a magnifying glass looked at the date stamp and saw the previous date there and accused me of changing the date to get a free day (often possible as many conductors did not date stamp the days but just glanced at the pass) - I had not changed the date but it appeared so because the date stamp and day I entered were different. He fined me about 35 guilders or so. Man I was irate and tried to explain what happened but he would not listen. If he would have looked carefully he would have seen the wrong date was date-stamped by a conductor on that train the night before as train numbers also appeared on the date stamp.

So. i went into the Information office at Amsterdam C.S. and explained it all and got the fine refunded. Ironically, I had previously changed the date from say 11 to 17 but the conductor sleuths did not realize that and thought I had changed the date from 17 to 18 and thought I had used the pass all day the previous day. Hard to explain but I only saw this type of pass scrutiny in zillions of train trips routinely in the Netherlands.

It seems that in those times with so many scruffy young tourists on trains and disdained them. Anyway I grew wary of doing anything wrong or perceived wrong on Dutch trains.

HQ still is, in a non-descript building on Weteringschans. However, when you enter and are brought to the floor where the "C" managers and their staff are, there's a full size brown cafe, beertap and all that they use to receive guests.

Oh, how well and fondly I remember that Heineken brewery. I spent a time in the mid '70s living with friends on a barge in a canal not far from there. I was very low on funds (read that "flat broke"), and the tasting room was a godsend. The brewers were not stingy on the samples, so when the early tour would finish around 11:00 the doors to the street would be thrown open and all of the tipsy tourists and freeloaders like myself would pour out into the street. It got so the police would block off the street after each tour for a bit to prevent cars and bicycles from mowing down the happy drunks.

It was really good beer, BTW!

It's weird though. If you think of the 90s, not only in Amsterdam, but generally, what a relaxed time that was. Today, Dutch racism was on full view again, and we grew into that in an incredibly short time, in about 10 years.

On Dutch trains, the conductor is God.

Oh my think about what you are posting.

Not in the mood, ribby. Yesterday was a horrible day. Racists and neo-nazi's well protected by police, citizens exercising their constitutional rights thrown under the bus. Daily De Telegraaf published a huge spread about the anti-blackface protesters, claiming they are "funded by Soros". A group of protesters was assaulted by members of well known nazi groups (I was there) who shouted: "Dirty Jews, fuck off" when they were pushed back by police.

So shut it.

Maybe move to Curaçao
No demonstrations in the Caribbean abut black-men.