On the 1st Sunday of each month there are some ‘flea-markets/swap-meets’ held in various locations in and around Amsterdam. BJ had read a few words about some of these and suggested that we might enjoy visiting one.
It is a known fact, (at least to all married men), that when one’s spouse suggests that something might be enjoyed as a couple…that ‘something’ WILL be enjoyed. There is really no room for contrary opinion. So, we went…..and (whaddya know?) she was right…again!
This particular flea-market is held in the Noord (North) section of Amsterdam. To get there from our apartment in the Oud Zuid burrough (Old South), we rode the tram to Central Station,
Ferry to the Noord
On the way to the meet I joked with BJ, “We’re spending 45 minutes one-way, on public transportation to get to a swap meet that we wouldn’t spend 10 minutes to drive to in San Diego”.
“Just wait”, she answered, “you might like it”.
OK….fair enough.
The NDSM Shipyard (Nederlandsche, Scheepsbouw, Maatschappi) was one of the more prominent of the Dutch boatyards and was responsible for the construction and launching of thousands of tons of merchant and commercial fishing craft from before 1900 until the late ‘70s or early ‘80s. Much of the Dutch shipbuilding industry was failing at that time due to government-subsidized competition from emerging nations and so was either shuttered or realigned. Sadly, the NDSM yard was shut-down.
Old equipment
Further research uncovered the following:
“A former shipyard on the northern banks of the IJ and larger than 10 football fields, the NDSM wharf is now a center for underground culture in Amsterdam. This huge area contains the NDSM hall, a hangar-like structure 20,000 sq. meters in area and 20 meters in height, the 6,000-sq. meter Docklandshal and two historic ship slipways(Hellingen) housing workshops and artists’ studios.
Kunststad (Art City) is a complex of artists’ studios and workshops on one or two levels, connected by a network of long broad streets and narrower side streets. Kinetisch Noord builds the main bodies of these spaces, which are then finished by the resident artists. Each block has electricity, water and sewerage connections. The work spaces vary from 50 to 150 sq. meters, with heights of 3.20 m, 6 m and even more.
To continue;
Our goal was the flea-market held on the grounds of the old shipyard where a couple of Euros each bought entrance to what I’m guessing must have been 6 to 8 acres of flea-market comprised of over 1500 stalls/tables/blankets of goods. According to the rules, anyone can obtain rights to sell but everything must be of ‘used condition’ nothing new can be sold there.
I’m not sure that either of us expected anything on this scale! To call the sight overwhelming would be an understatement. So, not wishing to miss anything we walked to the back corner and over the course of the next several hours we shopped our way out.
We saw everything from used lingerie (who buys that?) to toys (some pretty cool ones), to old electronics, record players, dinnerware, tools, geez….you name it and someone was selling it. Most, if not all, of the vendors to whom we spoke were far more competent at English than we are at Dutch and no one seemed to mind that we were so linguistically challenged. The prices were far more realistic than those we’ve seen at US swap meets and we had a really fun time looking and laughing about all of the things we found.
We actually did find a couple of little ‘treasures’ that we purchased for a Euro or two and put in our day packs to take home. I think that next month we may try one of the other meets…..this was fun!
We bussed and ferried back to Central Station…..took a few minutes to admire the ‘bicycle parking garage’…several acres by several stories of bicycles…..truly amazing, and decided to go walkabout until we’d found something for lunch.
Bike Parking at Central Station
I should know by know that ‘walkabout’ means ‘walk a lot’. We did and as usual, we enjoyed it. The day was sunny and warm, there were people everywhere and the city was overflowing with things to see and do.
Bird Parking at Central Station
We eventually found ourselves in front of the restaurant attached to the hotel in which BJ has stayed on previous visits to Amsterdam. We were seated and the wait-staff all came outside to hug BJ and tell her that they’d missed her (she does make an impression on people). She introduced me around and after exchanging pleasantries with all we ordered a sandwich and a beer upon delivery of which we spent a very pleasant afternoon chatting and people-watching.
A fellow could get used to this lifestyle.