In Betondorp

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Looking through the architecture section in my Monocle Amsterdam guide before we left London, I found a little section about Betondorp (Concrete City). Oomoo walked past and saw a photo of the clocktower above, stopped in his tracks and asked if we could go and check it out. I was so excited that he found it interesting, and on one of the days when my friend Z was working, we made our own way there. Google Maps sent on us on a hilarious round the houses (haha) way to get to there, with an added stop at the Tropenmuseum on the way (pix from there in another post). Z was already sceptical when I’d showed her the route, but it didn’t deter me from giving it a try. It turned out to be an insane route, through what felt like the middle of nowhere in places, but it showed me and O parts of Amsterdam we would never have seen otherwise. In fact that bike ride is one of my funniest memories from our whole trip. So how did Oomoo react when we finally got there? “Is that it?!”. As in, “Muuuum, you made cycle all that way here for… that?!” I felt so bad for him. I agree, it was a bit underwhelming, but I was so curious to see it with my own eyes.

Betondorp is a garden city that was built in the 1920’s as a way of solving a housing shortage in Amsterdam, and a way of trying out a different way of building houses quickly, using concrete as it was a cheap material. Half of the neighbourhood was built in traditional brick, but as bricks were also short in supply, the other half was built using concrete, in nine new different styles of houses.

The architecture is mixed, and the neighbourhood very quiet. As if modern life has some how passed it by.

Oomoo had totally zoned out by this point, so I had to do my architecture walk quite quickly. I felt too shy to have a proper nosy along this row of houses.

Can you see him in his red beanie? He stayed in the main square

where he almost passed out from boredom, inside a, eh, rabbit?

So, as you can see, I was on borrowed time. I think I had about 10 mins to get a feel for the place.

I really liked the different style and colours of the doors.

See what I mean?

As well as spotting little signs of the the personality of the inhabitants - in unexpected places.

Did some birdwatching too.

A detail from the town hall. Such a great font! And I love the zig zag brickwork.

And the sign of the library.

I would have loved to have stuck my head in there to see what those windows, including the stained glass ones, looked like from the inside.

Betondorp’s most famous inhabitant was Johan Cruyff, one of the world’s most famous and influential footballers, and this is the house he grew up in. As a kid he could be found in the same square that Oomoo almost fell asleep in, always kicking a ball. I made sure we found the house so I could send a picture from there to one of our friends back in the UK, who’s a big Cruyff fan. Oomoo isn’t into football, but by this time we were back on our bikes, getting ready to cross the city (this time going a more central and normal route), him happy that we were leaving, and me happy that we got to see this little ‘hood. You can watch a zany little YouTube guide/film about it here. If you want to see what some of the houses and flats look like on the inside you can peruse some for sale here. I think they look really rather nice, even the one that’s a wreck. So much light! Have a good weekend alles.

A perfect Sunday

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One sunny Sunday in Amsterdam we cycled northwards, away from the dream house.

It didn’t take long before the architecture changed. Seems to me I’m yet to see an ugly building in Amsterdam. There must be some somewhere?

And sometimes they come in all kinds of sizes, which is very cute.

Fellow winter swimmer posing for me as we cycled past.

I can’t remember how long the bike ride took, maybe 4o mins at a gentle pace, and our destination was Het Schoolhuis (The Schoolhouse. See! Dutch is basically a third English, a third Swedish and a third Dutch. Perfect for me to learn) for a bit of lunch. I had some amazing creamy cake concoction for afters, and it was so delicious I ordered another portion - something I’ve never done before. Still, all that cycling seems to do something; we ate an insane amount of sugar for the two weeks we were in Amsterdam (so much so that my teeth hurt by the time we got back home, and I couldn’t stomach anything sweet for another couple of weeks) but! I didn’t put any weight on.

Ahh, here I go with my random pictures again. After we’d finished eating we went for a short wander in the neighbourhood, and for some reason we entered the local tiny church, which was being used as a venue for an art presentation that an artist was doing later in the day. There was some nice stuff there, but for some strange reason all I took a picture of was the floor. Sometimes my brain works in mysterious ways.

Minutes away from the church we got to the water, and my shadow might have been a tiny bit tempted to push Z in the water. But most probably it just wanted to be in the shot.

Leaf it out.

Can’t believe how blue the sky was. Not a single cloud all day.

We then hopped back on the bikes and cycled homewards, past these perfectly single striped cows

snd these two, picnicing, having taken out the car seat so they could sit on it whilst they ate. Clever.

The fields were full of birds (I’ve never seen so many in one place before) and they must’ve all been taking a break on their long journey south. Some seemed to be heading that way here though (if you’re looking at this on your phone you might need to zoom in a bit).

Agh, so pretty.

Coming back through the same trees as in the first picture, but with the sun in a different place and going the other way.

And just like that, we were back in the city again. I keep thinking about this Sunday every now again - it really was perfect in every way. Sun out and riding bikes. Good food, good friends, good times, so easily taken for granted. What a flippin’ crazy world we live in, where life now continues as normal for some of us, whilst others have had theirs turned into a living nightmare in the space of just a few days.

The dream house

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Just a week after I went to Stockholm in October, me and Oomoo went to Amsterdam for two weeks to see our bestest person, Z, and to check out her and her other half’s new digs. I think hands down it’s the dreamiest house I’ve ever stayed in. It obviously helps that Z lives there, and that Amsterdam is my home from home. I’m so glad that the people I know with the nicest homes are the ones who have worked like dogs - they really deserve it. As our summer had been such a dud, with Mr Famapa working for most of it, I thought that there was no way me and O would just sit at home for two weeks at half-term, whilst he had a five week long job. When I booked the tickets the rules were that I would’ve had to self-isolate for a week, so to cover it I booked tickets for two weeks. However, by the time our travel date came round the rules had changed, and I wouldn’t need to isolate at all. We timed our trip immaculately as the rules changed back again three weeks later. Oomoo had a solo guitar performance at school a week after we’d get back, so he had to bring his guitar with him, and I can’t tell you how nice it was to be in the house with classical guitar being played in the background.

There’s a small lake/inlet coming off a canal right in front of the house, and even though Z has seen people swim there in the summer, I didn’t bring my cossie, which turns out to have been a wise choice, as the Netherlands has some of the most polluted waters in Europe (due to farming practices apparently). I made do with watching the ducks and cormorants instead.

Z & L’s interior style is minimalist, which is the complete opposite to ours, and I wish some of it could rub off on me. I just can’t do it, probably because we’re so rubbish at de-cluttering. Coming back home after having stayed in such a serene place was quite a shock. So much stuff everywhere! Honestly, I thought our house looked like a hoarder’s. My eyes hurt looking at it all. It took a good week before all the clutter blended into the background again, haha. And no, I haven’t gotten round to de-cluttering yet.

Anyway, three animals live in the house too; Nero, who has since sadly gone missing,

his mum Bella,

and Duana, the tortoise.

Human coming back in, cat going back out.

Oomoo and I shared a room, which I always enjoy doing - it’s just so cosy! We’d lie and read our books in the evenings before turning the lights out.

In the mornings we’d watch families cycling to school on the other side of the water. Best way to commute.

As well as living minimally, Z & L hardly buy anything mass-produced, and so as a result almost everything looks like something out of a styled cookbook.

See what I mean? And it’s not contrived either, it’s all functional and just happens to look good too.

Turns out it was a good thing that we were there for so long; Oomoo caught a cold (remember those?!) not long after we arrived (and no, it was not Covid), so we had to stay at home for a couple of days so he could recover.

Which he did rather quickly.

It also meant that it didn’t matter that the weather wasn’t always great.

Luckily the rain wasn't constant. Isn’t the light in the house great?

Even the shadows were good.

One sunny afternoon, when we got back in from town, hanging out on the balcony felt like being somewhere warm, like Spain. Like a holiday within a holiday.

Nero liked it too. Come back home fool! Your human mama and cat mama miss you.

Part of a sunset.

And a half rainy one. I wish we could see sunsets from our place too. I must say I spent quite a lot of time just looking out of these windows.

I loved seeing how different the water would look on different days. I tried to convince Z that she should take a picture of the water at the same time every day for a year. One day she might.

This neighbourhood has sprung up in the past few years, with a tube that gets you in to Central Station in 6 mins. And if you cycle 10 minutes in the northwards, you’re in the countryside. In the first lockdown I started looking at houses for sale in the area, and found one on the same street as Z’s (although nowhere near as nice as this one) for half of what our house is worth. So tempted! But we missed that window with Brexit innit. And coming from a family with parents who moved countries with kids in tow, I’m very wary of doing so myself. For the first few days of this trip I kept thinking that we should move here (as I always do when I’m there), but by the end of it I realised that I love my life in London, and that it would be exhausting to try and start a new one somewhere else. I also know that if Z ever moved away from Amsterdam, the city on its own wouldn’t be enough for me to want to live there. Funnily enough she keeps saying that we’ll move there once I’ve finished my Dutch lessons. I have less than a year and half left. Imagine if she’s right?!

In the evenings Z, and sometimes O, would light a fire. As they moved in just before the arrival of Covid in 2020, they hadn’t got round to fix the place up completely. At times it felt like glamping. One night I had to cook dinner by candlelight as there weren’t enough light to see with. Funny.

Z placing a light so we could see a bit better.

Some evenings we’d play Rummikub which neither me or Oomoo have played before. Good game.

This lady’s laugh is one of the best sounds there are. Someone should bottle it up and sell it as an anti-depressant.

Bella begging for some yoghurt. She was successful.

One night we watched a Swedish film, which was such a nice thing to do. See those piles of magazines? Guilty as charged. The only clutter in the house was mine and Oomoo’s.

In less than two and half months I’ll be back here again. Can’t wait.