Budapest is a city known for its history, culture heritage and vibrant
character. What’s surprising to the first-time visitor is how accessible
the place is, and how many simple pleasures there are to be had. These
are just a few of the free attractions and experiences offered by this
gorgeous city that straddles the mighty Danube River.

by Anna J. Kutor

In Budapest, like many other European capitals, it’s easy to blow your
budget in just a few days: there’s the boat tour of the Danube, those
expensive glasses of wine and delicious dinners at restaurants, paying
your entry to museum or Turkish-era thermal bath and then buying a
ticket to a concert or operatic show. But with so much on offer in the
Hungarian capital for free there is no need to go come with a maxed-out
credit card.

Rising Treasures

To get the lay of the land, first walk up Gellert Hill (or Gellérthegy
in Hungarian) for panoramic views of the city. The two side of the city,
hilly Buda and flat-as-a-pancake Pest spreads out below, a mass of
tumbling roofs and soaring spires, with the mighty Danube flowing
between. Gellert Hegy is named after the Italian Bishop Gellert who
helped Hungary’s first Christian king, Stephen I, in converting the
Hungarians to Christianity. A grand statue honours the saint who,
according to legend, was rolled down the hill in a nail-studded barrel
by resisting pagans. Standing at 235 m high, the hill is topped by the
famous Citadel and Liberation Monument, which commemorates the Red
Army’s liberation of the city from Nazi occupation. Views of the city
from both sides of the monument are spectacular, and while you can pay
to go up to the upper part, the view isn’t particularly better so save
your forints for something more worthy.

Halfway downhill is another lookout point with an unusual attraction,
the Garden of Philosophy. Circling a shiny metal ball are eight
life-sized bronze statues of religious world leaders including Abraham,
Jesus, Buddha and Lao Tse, as well Mahatma Gandhi, Saint Francis of
Assisi and Daruma Taishi – figures who brought spiritual enlightenment
to people. This sedate  landmark was designed by sculptor Nandor Wagner
who envisioned it as a composition for better mutual understanding.

The Buda Castle, also called the Royal Palace, is a dominating feature
of the city and a definite must-see, even for those on the cheap. Walk
up the steep steps to the historical complex of the Hungarian kings,
which is packed with medieval, Baroque and 19th century houses,
landmarks and public buildings. Castle Hill consists of the royal palace
itself, a frequently-remodeled complex that gives home to several
museums and cultural facilities, including the National Gallery and the
National Szechenyi Library. While well-known sites like St. Matthias
Church and the panoramic Fisherman’s Bastion are well-worth exploring
(although there’s an entrance fee to get in), some of the most
pleasurable experiences can be had by just walking through the winding,
cobblestone streets medieval neighborhood surrounding these sites.

At the base of the Castle is the Chain Bridge, the first bridge to
connect Buda and Pest in 1849. On the Buda end is Adam Clark Square with
the zero kilometer stone from which all distances are measured in
Hungary, while the Pest side boasts Roosevelt Square and the ornate
Gresham Palace and Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Park Pleasures

Budapest is filled with green spaces that promise relaxation and plenty
of activity for visitors. The 2800 meter long Margit Island is the
perfect spot for those wishing to escape the urban frenzy. Spread out
between Margit Bridge and Arpad Bridge, this green expanse is heavy on
the recreation: there is a large public swimming pool, a bath complex, a
small petting zoo, several dining outlets as well as a running track
circling the entire island. Don’t miss the UNESCO-protected landmark,
the Music Fountain, near the foot of the Margit Bridge which creates a
water spectacle to the sounds of the ‘The Blue Danube’ and other
classical favorites.

For variety of attractions, it’s hard to beat City Park. Budapest’s
largest spa complex, Szechenyi Baths, a zoo, an amusement park, museums
and more create enough diversions to entertain a city full of people.
Many of these attractions have an entry fee, but the enchanting
Vajdahunyad Castle is free to walk around. A left-over from the 1896 millennial celebrations, this stone complex incorporates replicas of a
famous church and castles from around the old Hungarian territory. The
surrounding moat is a row-boat pond during the summer and the largest
outdoor skating-ring in Central Europe during wintertime. Seek out the
statues of Winston Churchill, Ronald Reagan and the mysterious
‘Anonymous’, the legendary chronicler of Hungarian history.

Ride the Rails

Picturesque panoramas of the city don’t have to cost you an arm and a
leg. For the price of a single transport ticket you can enjoy some of
the most stunning views of the city. Board tram #2 starting from Jaszai
Mari Square at the Pest side of the Margit bridge and take ride past the
majestic Parliament building and take out the camera for a
picture-perfect shot of the Buda Castel. For beautiful riverside views
of the Pest side, hop aboard tram #19 at Batthanyi Square and take it
all the way to Gellert Square.

Eindhoven, a city already known for its high-tech pedigree, is getting a lustrous makeover with a series of projects that bring the concept
of light to life.

by Anna J. Kutor

Over the past century, light in architecture has completely transformed the way people perceive and navigate
urban space. From accenting and decorating everything from indoor domains to
exterior facades and landscapes, light, used as a fashion-forward building
material, has proven invaluable at transforming architectural aesthetics and
creating surprising visual effect and experiences. Architectural lighting
designs of today place high priority on energy efficiency and resource-sparing
technologies, like in Eindhoven, where city officials have joined forces with
electronics giant Phillips and a slew of architects and designers to devise a
new-age lighting master plan for the tech-focused Dutch town.

To improve the efficiency of urban lighting and secure Eindhoven’s ‘Leader in
Technology’ position, a comprehensive citywide initiative was launched in 2004
by Municipality of Eindhoven, CityDynamiek and VVV Eindhoven. An effective
lighting plan wedding optical performance with aesthetic design and
environmental sustainability was devised by Rik van Stiphout, lighting program manager of the city, which identified a short-term priorities and programed projects up to 2010. One of his leading efforts has pushed for the phase-out of traditional light bulbs in favor of energy-efficient LED
(light-emitting diode) lights all throughout the city, which will “save
electricity expended on street lighting in Eindhoven by a minimum of 33 percent
and reduce carbon emissions by nearly 37 tonnes of year”.

Within the framework of the program, the modular and electronically guided Phileas bus connecting Eindhoven airport
with the downtown area received a 30 meter long line of LED lights fitted in
the road surface at each bus station. The line of light shifts in color throughout
the day and whenever a bus is at the stop. Other permanent LED-fitted solutions
include the roundabout at Woensel shopping mall engineered by Paleco Led
Applications and the High-Tech Campus Viaduct, a concrete bridge cocooned in a
glowing nerve tissue, a lighting application masterminded by Har Hollands and
completed in 2007.

Light Ambitions

The initiative reached its culmination with a year-long event series entitled “Eindhoven City of Light 2007”
which shed international light on the city through the illumination of key
urban landmarks and newly-opened buildings as well as a range of provisional
light-themed events, exhibitions, advertising and artistic activities. The
Centrum Kunstlicht in de Kunst (Centre Artificial Light in Art) and Temporary Art
Centre (TAC), for example, held a series of art installations which explore the
use of light in communication, the relationship between light and space and
even a card game of artificial lighting.

More recently, Eindhoven’s councilor Mary Fiers
presented one of the city’s 62 new car park ticket machines that run on light
energy. In direct online contact with a central control unit, these modern
machines reduce local authorities management and maintenance costs. Also in the
pipeline are projects such as the ‘Kristal’ bus shelters in which over 200 new
LED lit shelters will replace the former fluorescent structures as well as the
Light Finder (LiFi), a testing facility set up at the Eindhoven-Noord Sports
Complex in the beginning of this year. Developed for walkers and runners, LiFi
is an innovative guiding system which features smart LED-laden lighting columns
that light up at the arrival of joggers, forming an interactive network of
routes (each with their own color) that not only create a clear sense of
direction but also an more stimulating work-out experience.

Future Vision

Linking Eindhoven’s yesterday with its today and tomorrow is the Royal Phillips Electronics, a global conglomerate
operating in the city since 1891. The company’s former industrial campus,
Strijp-S, stands at the forefront of the city’s light-based redevelopment plans
with creativity and culture made visible and tangible in all facets. Across the
27 hectare estate, historic structures are undergoing restoration and
alternation while a whole host of new residential, commercial and recreational
facilities are being developed in a broad range of architectural styles at the
site. Philips Design, contributing to the international BLISS (Better Lighting
in Sustainable Streets) project, has masterminded a public lighting system for
the so-called “Creative City” that utilizes cost-saving LEDs without
the customary pole illumination. This cutting-edge lighting design will debut
in the district by 2010, along with other technology-driven innovations in the
field of litter control, recycling and energy conservation.

Come the first sign of warmer weather, a cornucopia of
tightly-packed tulips and early-spring flowers starts spreading a sea of color
along the flatlands of Northern Holland. Anna J. Kutor takes a pick of the
flower parades, artful garden displays and flower fields that show off the
Netherlands’ petal power.

Flowers, and expressly tulips, are to the Netherlands what
wine is to France or pasta is to Italy - a tourist-drawing card, a major source
of national income and a central constituent of the local cultural identity.
From late February to mid-May, the pristine fields of Northern Holland become
awash with vibrantly colored tulips laid out in symmetrical and seemingly
endless rows, creating an eye-catching patch work that, from a bird’s eye
perspective, looks like an avant-garde Lego arrangement. The visual and sensory
overload of the ephemeral tulip blossom has become an internationally-recognized symbol of the country, drawing folk from all corners
of the globe.

For travelers who rebel against the rigidness of a guided
tour and like to experience natural beauty closer to the bone, one of the
easiest and most delightful ways to view the dreamlike tulip terrain is by
bicycle. The Bollenstreek, or the “bulb-growing area”, spreads out
over 10,000 hectares between Amsterdam and The Hague, but for a condensed
source of flower power, two-wheelers should stick to the bountiful cycle paths
between Haarlem and Leiden.

The fields surrounding Lisse and Sassenheim are the most
popular (and arguably the prettiest) petal pilgrimage spots, and they are also
in close proximity to Panorama Tulipland, a 63-meter-long 4 meter-high painting
designed by Dutch artist Leo van de Ende. This massive cylindrical object
d’art, completed in 2008 after over 6,000 hours were invested in the project,
depicts the flower bulb district as it looked in the 1950s.

Big Beautiful Business

Tulip buds are in full-throttle bloom by mid-March, which is when the Keukenhof
Gardens, the Netherlands’ leading floral landmark, launches its annual
nine-week festival of flowers.

A 32-hectare park located near Lisse, the “kitchen garden” (as
Keukenhof translates) started in 1949 when prominent bulb-growers in the region
joined forces to display their best and newest flower varieties. Over time, the
garden grew in stature and reputation, and today ,more than 90 growers plan
nearly seven million bulbs, including around 2,000 varieties of tulips alone. An
ambitious art-meets-nature attraction packed with ever-changing flower beds,
themed gardens, indoor pavilions, a large pond, several sculptures and a
quintessential windmill, the flowering spectacle stimulates the senses of
nearly 900,000 visitors per annum.

In honor of Keukenhof’s 60th anniversary and New York’s (aka New Amsterdam’s)
400th  year of existence this year, the
grandiose garden (open from March 19-May 21) will feature a variety of
US-themed flower mosaics, like that of the Statue of Liberty, created from a
total of 25,000 blossoming buds.

Since the 16th century, the native knack for business coupled with a passion for
horticulture and creative experimentation with bulb varieties has catapulted the
Dutch into the world’s elite tulip traders. The country now boasts over 3,500
tulip hybrids and producers an approximate 3 billion bulbs annually, of which
close to 70 percent is exported to tulip-loving countries like the US, Germany
and Japan.

Preserving the gene pool of Holland’s flower source of pride of Hortus Bulborum, a museum
garden located in the tiny town of Limmen that cultivates a collection of about
3,500 historical bulbs, including the crimson and yellow-hued “Duc van
Tol” tulips planted each year since 1595.

Floating Foliage

One of the high points of the springtime flower extravaganza is the Bloemencorno
van de Bollenstreek  (Bulb District
Flower Parade), a grand procession of flower-laden floats that make a 40-kilometer
journey from Noordwijk via Sassenheim, Lisse and Bennebroek to Haarlem, where
they stay on display for another day. Dedicated to a different theme each year,
the cascade of 20 elaborately designed floats and some three-dozen decorated
cars - hand-crafted from a myriad of flowers by professional florists and
talented volunteers - enchant the thousands of spectators that line the
promenade.

This year’s pageant, held on April 24th and 25th, will center around famous books,
so watch out for over-sized Harry Potters, a unique interpretation of Bakker’s
“The Twin” or even a creepy Stephen King creature cruising in the
cool North Sea breeze. If nothing else, they will surely scratch that itch for
a flower fix.

In recent years, Poland’s popular culture has witnessed the
proliferation of communist-era products and symbols. Once-loathed images,
slogans and sensations - a darker specter of Polan’s history, which lurked from
1945 to 1989 - now prove to be highly profitable ventures breaking into the
new-age fashion zone.

by Anna J. Kutor

A young British couple, a Swedish secretary and a
witty Polish history student are all sitting in a funky red and black Trabant,
discussing the pro’s and con’s of communism. No, this is not the beginning of a
ironic joke nor a surreal road-trip movie (although they would both be really
interesting), but rather an increasingly common sight in Kraków, Poland’s
cultural capital. To explain: the Trabant is a kooky, box-shaped car that was
manufactured in East Germany between 1957 and 1991, and it was a celebrated
communist era commodity that people waited 15-20 years to acquire. Today, these
rattling cardboard-and-plastic-made contractions serve as a reminder of the
difficult days of the Soviet occupation, but they have also managed to develop
a “so bad it's good” cult status amongst younger generations of Poles and
other Central Europeans. In Kraków, the enterprising Crazy Tours company has
injected fresh life into these much-ridiculed commie cars by utilising them as
tour-guide vehicles for a range of ‘Communist Tours’ around the city's
infamous Nowa Huta district.

“Tourists really enjoy the ‘back to the past’
experience,” says 24-year-old Jakub Bialach (aka ‘Crazy Jakub’) who has been
working as a tour-guide at Crazy Guides since 2006. “Now that Poland is safe
and civilised, people are increasingly interested in seeing, feeling and
touching what it was really like to live in Kraków during the Soviet regime.”

The first alternative city tour organiser, Crazy
Guides was launched by young, business-savvy Mike Ostrowski in 2004 in order to
give a “personalised and communist oriented tours of Kraków that will get you
off the beaten path and expose you to things you never knew existed.” The
Trabant tours - populated mostly by British, Scandinavian and American tourists
– take travellers around Nowa Huta (literally ‘New Steelworks’), a model
communist district designed in the 1950s. The four-hour-long Communism Delux
Tour (costing 169 PLN/ 33 GBP), for example, showcases the remains of socialist
planning principles, Stalinist architecture and the super-sized steelworks that
polluted the city through the reign of the dictatorship. The tours also feature
a visit to an authentic communist apartment, lunch at a milk bar (where the
factory workers ate lunch every day) and five different shots of vodka.
“Sometimes people are surprised at what they see. They expect a rougher, darker
and more depressing view, but we show them the real, somewhat sarcastic, side
of the Communist era,” adds Bialach.

Photo courtesy Stol Polski

Communism Commodified

When communism crumbled across the Eastern Bloc in 1989, no one thought the
symbols that instilled such vivid fear and outrage in people would soon make a
commercial comeback. Throughout the 1990’s consumers in Poland and other
Central Eastern European countries collectively shunned Soviet products in
favour of the new, mass-produced Western goods. But by the beginning of the
21st century, nostalgia and a newfound appetite for home-grown products brought
a resurgence in old communist brands and products. Today, the growing
fascination with the paraphernalia of everyday life under communism is a trend
that embraces widespread forms of consumption.

Retro fashion is very much in vogue in Poland
right now, from the crazy patterns of the 70’s to the old Soviet military
coats and fur caps of the communist era. To cater to the lucrative trend, a new
generation of savvy designers now blend ‘vintage commie chic’ with modern
elements, injecting new life in products like plastic chairs, synthetic
textiles and even laundry bags. In 2005, Swedish vodka company Absolut asked
ten fashion designers from around the globe to brand the vodka's logo onto
hand bags, launching its Famous Collection of Bags. For this limited edition series,
Polish fashion designer team Aga, Pshemko and Tomek Siereks came up with the
idea to merge the country’s omnipresent blue-and-red-checkered plastic laundry
bag – famously lugged by the country’s most elderly citizens, mostly on and off
buses and to the shops - and decorated it with a large black handle in the
shape of the renowned Absolut vodka bottle. In time, this retrolicious design
might ignite a whole new line of handbags inspired by common Soviet-style
sacks.

An on-going fashion fad for years, t-shirts
printed with iconic communist propaganda images, funky logos and distinguished
brands are the style mantras for fashionistas in the vanguard of cutting-edge
cool. The prints, seen as forms of self-expression and identity validation,
have popularised negative imagery, like the portrait of Marxist murderer Che
Guevara and recognisable insignia of communist totalitarianism. The hammer and
sickle, the five-pointed red star and the Soviet Union’s CCCP abbreviation have
all jumped on the icon-wagon, objectifying the onetime symbols of grim
oppression into something purely decorative. In Poland, communism is now much
more of a fashion statement than a viable political system…at least among the
country’s young and trendy.

This is perfectly illustrated by Leszek, a
28-year-old dance instructor, who wears a Russian ushanka cap and occasionally
flaunts tops with various Soviet-era symbols. “This heavy-duty hat has been in
my family for over thirty years,” he says. “I wear it for purely practical
purposes, as it keeps my head warm and ears covered even in the harshest winter
weather.” The symbol-printed tops are a different issue. “My childhood was
connected to communism so I know exactly what the red star and CCCP stands for,
but I don’t see any harm in wearing t-shirts with these symbols in public.” He
does acknowledge, though: “On the other hand, I would never let my grandparents
see me in a red-star t-shirt, as it would probably really upset them.”

If you are keen to have some communist chic style
for yourself, then go online. Beyond the red star logo, FiberyaPrint.com offers t-shirts bearing the profiles of Lenin and Fidel
Castro and old propaganda slogans. Ironically, the prints are all categorised
on the website under the section called ‘komunó wróc’ (literally meaning ‘Communism,
please come back’). Moda Mix goes a step further and
found the CCCP and hammer-and-sickle symbol suitable for various toddler
garments).
What Polish parent wouldn’t be proud to see their little one playing in the
sandbox in a bold red hammer-and-sickle jumper?

Oldies But Goodies

The revival of products from the paternalistic
state system’s period – in both old and new packaging – is another
manifestation of the 'communism is cool' fad. Going 'back to basics' has
major earning potential in Poland, where the older population harbors strong
nostalgic sentiments toward products they got accustomed to during the forty-year
rule of the Communist authorities. For Poland's elderly population, capitalism
has not worked to their advantage: they have been pushed aside and left behind
and slipped between the cracks. For them, the ‘bad old days’ of oppression and
fear have become the 'good old days' when they had steady jobs and free
medical care – such as it was - and they long to recapture some of this
nostalgia with items and services from the communist era. Thanks to this brand
loyalty by Poland's oldest citizens, producers of items such as Ludwik dish-washing liquid, Inka coffee substitute and SDM table butter are still
assiduously pushing forward and profiting, despite the growing invasion of
competitors – both domestic and international.

Perhaps the greatest ‘oldie but goodie’ coup
took place in 2005, when Polish grocery stores witnessed the reintroduction of
various processed meat products under the label “Wędliny jak za Gierka”
(“Sausages like they were under Gierek”), launched by meat producer and
distributor company, Stół Polski. The fleshy products bear the name of Edward
Gierek, a politician who represents a time of modest prosperity for the Polish
middle-class…and they are the consumer that the brand is now targeting.
“During the numerous sampling actions we organized for our products, the
50-to-60-year-old ladies complained about the monotonous taste of all processed
smoked meats that were available on the market,” explains Natalia Lewicka,
marketing and advertisement specialist at Stół Polski. “That inspired us to
produce meat based on an original recipe from the 1970s; we wanted to recapture
that bygone flavor, one resembling the ones made in the ‘better days’ that are
so close to the heart of our parents.”

Photo courtesy Stol Polski

Popular Propaganda

The ideologically imposed utopian visions of
communism were disseminated in very visual ways, with political propaganda
posters being one of the most memorable (and one of the most internationally-recognized). Posters, dramatically displaying images of strong
men and vigorous, childbearing women working the land of robust machinery, were
coupled with slogans like 'Socialism, work, welfare, peace', 'We work as a
threesome, but we build like a dozen people' and 'We will fulfill the six-year
plan early'. All hearty and heartening, all designed to inspire the populace
to work for the greater glory of Communist principles and ideals…and all
sources of derision and fear under the regime.

Today, however, these posters are seen quite
differently: in recent years, propaganda posters have found their way back into
mainstream media and advertisements, in addition to becoming sought-after
collectible items as examples of communist art. Empik, a Polish nationwide
chain of stores selling books, magazines, films and music, published an assortment
of calendars with well-known propaganda posters. In one compilation, the
January poster portrays a handsome young man sternly pointing to the public
with the slogan reading “What did you do for the realization of the plan?”,
while the February placard shows a scary old man’s words of warning too-late realized: “Moonshine leads to blindness”. It's worth noting that in Poland,
these calendars are selling like hot cakes.

Milking the Communist Cow

To get a sense of what it was like to live and
dine during the People’s Republic of Poland (PRL), stop by one of the remaining
milk bars (bar mleczny) for an affordable, home-made-style Polish meal.
Launched by Communist comrades in the mid-1960s, these state-subsidised
fast-food eateries served milk-based products to a broad cross-section of
society, from the low-income workforce to students and pensioners. With
capitalism came an overwhelming blitz of gastronomic goodies and a major cut in
federal subsidies, both of which forced the majority of milk bars out of
business. Insistence toward tradition, bargain prices, familiar fares and the
enduring yearning for the atmosphere of a bygone era have kept a handful of
milk bars alive; one of the best (and most faithful to its original spirit) is
in Warsaw, and many tourists visit it to get the 'real' milk bar experience.

Situated right next to the Warsaw University
complex at ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 20/22, Bar Uniwersytecki (University
Bar) is the quintessential, must-see milk bar. Unaltered for decades, the décor
boasts oversized photographs of cold-cuts and vegetables and plastic flower
arrangements on the walls, while the uncomfortable red stools, brusque kitchen
ladies in worn aprons, chipped plates and aluminium cutlery all just add to the
nostalgic ‘charm’. The place is packed from morning to night with
budget-conscious professionals, pupils, police and other types of people
forking down pierogi, pyzy (potato balls), pyzy śląskie (dark dumplings),
pancakes or a number of different staples of Polish cuisine.

At the other side of the scale is Oberża Pod
Czerwonym Wieprzem (The Inn Under the Red Hog), a tavern-like restaurant in
downtown Warsaw that claims to be “the last secret of the PRL” and which takes
'communist chic' to a whole new level. According to the story, during the
construction of the restaurant, workmen uncovered fragments of a damaged fresco
depicting the images of Marx, Engles and Lenin, as well as a wooden chest
filled with old army uniforms, medals and decorations. Although the
'findings' are the result of a cleverly concocted marketing gimmick, the
place stays true the spirit of the socialist system through both the interior
design and menu, which is divided under headings such as “For Dignitaries and
the Bourgeoisie” and “For the Proletariat”. Patrons can choose from creatively-named
dishes like Kadar’s Hungarian Potato Pancake, Mao’s Chicken, Fidel’s Cigars and
Wild Boar Roulade a’la Tito. Clearly, communism is now in vogue!

Aside from its rich art and design heritage, the Netherlands
is also home to an impressive number of museum dedicated to the surreal, the
seductive and the just plain silly.

by Anna J. Kutor

As a country heralded for its culture and artistic heritage,
the Netherlands features a multitude of museums devoted to many different
genres of art. The Vincent van Gogh and Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, The Hague’s
Mauritshuis and the Museum Boijmans-Van Beuningen in Rotterdam are not only
world-renowned cultural institutions but they also top the ‘must see’ list of
every traveller craving a classic art fix. These timeless temples of culture
are revered and appreciated by the masses for many good reasons, but it has to
be said, they offer little by way of thrills to most people. For a real
artist’s adventure, urban explorers should check out the country’s expanding
selection of weird and wacky museums that are inspiring in more ways than one.

The premier jumping-off point for explorations in eccentric
and esoteric domains is Amsterdam, the Dutch cradle of contemporary culture. Celebrating
the art of love making in all its diverse flavors is The Erotic Museum (aka the
Venus Temple), the world’s first sex museum, set up in 1985. Part sexual
education, part voyeuristic entertainment, this culturally-savvy erotic
store-house hosts three storeys of adult-only sexual art in a 17th century
building located just a hop, skip and a jump away from the Central Station.
Amongst the over-growing selection of titillating objects - arranged in a
succession so sinuous rooms, each named after amorous historical figures such
as the Marquis de Sade, Oscar Wilde and Peruvian painter, Joaquin Alberto
Vargas - are lewd paintings, pornographic cartoons, ivory dildos, fornicating
Indian sculptures and antique fetish wear, to name but a few of the intimate
items.

Deadly Displays

When it comes to cultural institutions that speak to the
grandeur of the absurd and the downright ridiculous, the Amsterdam Dungeon
takes the country’s blood-curdling crown. A petrifying playground slap bang in
the heart of Amsterdam’s tourist artery, this turbocharged attraction promises
a hand-on guide to the historic horrors of Holland, from horrible atrocities of
the Dutch East India company to the dramatised subterranean labyrinth mimicking
the shady streets of Amsterdam Phillips illumination. Abandoning fun-park fear
tactics for true-to-life tactics for more true-to-life trauma, the Torture
Museum, adjacent to the Flower Market on Singel, positions itself as a weird
half-house of torture and education. The two-floor exhibition is a
fear-inducing affair presenting a potpourri of pain-inflicting instruments,
including iron gags, skull crackers, heretic fork and an inquisition chair that
“should subject the body to total torment”.

Channelling a similar eerie vibe is the Nederlands Uitvaart
Museum ‘Tot Zover’, or Dutch Funerary Museum ‘Thus Far’, one of the newest
additions to Amsterdam’s art scene. Rather aptly located on the grounds of the
Nieuwe Oosterbegraafplaats cemetery since the end of 2007, the mournful museum
spotlights the ephemeral nature of human existence through a series of
death-related objects and mourning rituals. The collection is organized around
four themes: the body; rituals; memento mori; and mourning and remembering.
Amongst the displayed ritualistic items are seven wooden coffins each filled
with culture and religion-based funerary heirlooms (including Jewish, Hindu,
Chinese and Catholic) that range from flower blends to holy books, candles to
cigarettes. This room also boasts the moving “You and Me”
installation comprising a vast number of suspended images of deceased loved
ones. Elsewhere, in two smaller back rooms, visitors can learn about cremation
practises and view a variety of quirky artefacts along the lines of plastic
skeletons, black crow birds taxidermy, sinful substances and even an old-school
computer spelling out the worlds Game Over.

Safeguarding the past

For a glimpse into the reality of army life during wartime
years, militarily and historically interested day trippers should head to the
Bunker Museum WN2000 in the northern town of IJmuiden. A series of coastal
strongholds converted into exhibition space, the museum features a sizable
stock of World War II memorabilia, including weapons, uniforms and tools of
communication from both the German occupation and the Allied armies. There’s
also a completely reconstructed residence, a distance meter and a large
assortment of photographs. This sombre spectacle of concrete structures was
saved from destruction by the WN2000 Foundation (an abbreviation of the German
word for stronghold (Widerstandsnest) and the year in which it was established),
refurbished and opened to the public in 2004. Each year, the premises can be
visited from May throughout the summer season.