We love having ramen here - it's a beautiful space, feels a bit like being back in NYC, and the food is incredible. There are two locations, the one in De Pijp is bigger, so easier to get a table, but the other location is very cosy, so get there early if you go to that location.

I've always been inspired by old industrial buildings like factories, but unfortunately such buildings have become rather rare in the Netherlands. At the moment you can still find some of the remains of the old harbour of Amsterdam called the ‘NDSM werf’ on the other side of the river ‘IJ,’ but this area seems to be in transition as well. For the time being the NDSM werf is a creative place where a lot of activities are taking place. The best part for me is the 'Y-helling' to enjoy the (modest) skyline of Amsterdam and to write graffiti.



Surrounded by the growing business area of Amsterdam Zuid, this modernist historic monument from the 60's oozes freedom. The clash of strict, grey, practical architecture of Gerrit Rietveld with the chaotic, colourful, anarchic bustle of art students working in these spaces is amazing. The 5 years I spend here as a student changed my life and shaped me to a great extend to who I am today. Now, temporarily walking these corridors again as a guest teacher, I realise how much I had missed this place since graduating 8 years ago. This is not a common art school. It's a family, a movement with a very personal and radical approach. Many students coming for a temporary exchange end up staying, because after wandering through this twisted Mondrian painting you will never be the same…

The Oostvaardersdijk is huge dike that protect the polder of Flevoland from being flooded. It's near the city of Almere that was founded in 1975 on the just recovered land of the Flevopolder. It is a great place to see the skyline of Amsterdam and look out over the Markermeer, the former Zuiderzee. When you turn around you can look down in the polder on an impressive group of modern windmills, in the distance you see the city of Almere. This is Holland at it's core: endless flats with the endless skies you know from Seventeenth century painting. You can drive the Oostvaardersdijk north to Lelystad and cross the lake to Enkhuizen and back to Amsterdam. On the way you drive past Oostvaardersplassen nature reserve, a large area of marshes and wild land in the Flevopolder, where they introduced wild horses and prehistoric cattle.

A great music venue with ping-pong tables used to be a squat.