One final nightlife area deserves consideration, because it represents a phenomenon that is fast disappearing from Europe, and that continues to exist in its classic form only in Amsterdam, Hamburg, and a few other cities: a full-fledged, rip-roaring, wide-open sailors entertamment area, which in Amsterdam comprises the dismet on and near the winding Zeedijk.
Here there are not merely dozens of bars, but scores of them-sporting such names as “Casa Blanca,” “City Lights,” “Sailors’ Place,” “Salon Mexico,” “Skip 0 Hoy Bar” -and it’s a highlight of your European trip to stroll alongside them, peering into the taverns, and then walking along the equally bawdy streets nearby (particularly, the Oude Zijds Achterburgwal and the Oude Zijds Voorburgwal). For those of you who would like to do this area in an organized manner, I suggest the following evening foot tour:
From the Krasnapolsky Hotel on the Dam Square, walk down the narrow Warmoesstraat until you come to the bottom of the Zeedijk, near the Centraal Station. Then walk up the entire length of the Zeedijk until you reach the Nieuwmarkt. From the Nieumarkt, walk across the Barndesteeg to the Oude Zijds Achterburgwal, and walk down the O.Z. Achterburgwal to its end, near the station; then cross over to the parallel Oude Zijds Voorburgwal and walk up that canal until you reach the Damstraat, where you can turn in again to the Dam Square. Did you ever expect to find this in Amsterdam?
