Last year our former mayor Eberhard van der Laan stated that Amsterdam had entered its ‘Third Golden Age’. He referred to two earlier prosperous and successful periods. Of course he was right: economically things couldn’t be better, the city is clean and safe – and beautiful! Amsterdam now is a magnet unlike any other Dutch […]
‘There is no better unifier than a common enemy’ – politicians know this lesson well. Their problem is that during the early 1990s, the ‘Red Scare’ ceased to exist. Interestingly enough, in the west a form of national disintegration is visible not much later. For if ‘we’ are no longer (unified) against the Soviet Union, […]
Coffeeshops and Capitalism, Bicycles and Bridges, Red Lights and Religion: Amsterdam is an odd mix of things that both shock and surprise. Few people really understand this city… what is it that makes Amsterdam so different? On this tour we show you the major historical sights of the old inner city, explore the red light […]
To the north-east of Amsterdam lies the magnificent Waterland. This tour takes you from hectic Amsterdam to this green natural area within 15 minutes. We cycle via the IJsselmeerdijk to the most idyllic villages with their typical wooden houses. We view the polder landscape along narrow country lanes, through extensive waterlands and along the prettiest lakes. […]
Bicycles and Bridges, Past and Politics, Rebels and Religion: Amsterdam is a surprising blend of past and present. That’s what makes Amsterdam so great! Let historian Dio de Hoog show you Amsterdam’s grand history and explain to you which historical secrets are hiding in plain sight today. We’ll take you into the historical city center […]
Monty Python’s satire ‘The Meaning of Life’ is a modern portrayal of life divided up into segments and stages. In the Dutch Golden Age, moralists also recognized life to be a sequence of phases, each one with their own attributes. In the seventeenth century, the first self-help books included illustrations of the ‘Ladder of […]
You are familiar with quite a number of faces from world history. Few of us don’t recognize the iconic picture of ‘Che’ Guevara by Alberto Korda and everyone has seen a picture of ‘Mahatma’ Gandhi … but who really matters in world history? …and why? What does the list of ‘Greats’ really look like? Historian […]
Overview course of the history of the Cold War It was such a joyful moment, when the leaders of the capitalist and communist world powers finally shook hands. A very exciting period in world history had come to a positive end. The fall of the wall in 1989 and the disappearance of the communist ‘threat’ […]