Overheard: Amsterdam summer

Summer 2026 in Amsterdam gave heatwaves, cloudy days, 200,000+ lightning discharges, World Cup flags, boat trips, WorldPride - and I heard people saying these words:

• Cos everyone wants a unicorn, but no one wants a lumberjack.
  
  
• Wounds can be healed! Wounds can be healed!
  
  
• Brussels? Absolutely not! Brussels? What a shit show!
  
  
• If you go to the UK, to London, they are all orange in the face.
  
  
• It's very, like, claustrophobic here.
  
  
• I think he's straight... but he does play with his hair a lot.
  
  
• The Dutch are pretty much the badasses of the world when it comes to languages.
  
  
• Some nights we sleep together, some nights we don't.
  
  
• What about the consequences, the enormity?
  
  
• Oh, this wine is expensive... oh, this wine is good... This was a lovely wine, I'm going to get more.
  
  
• Like, he will buy three baskets of peaches and five boxes of extension cords.
  
  
• What happens in Chile on a Tuesday evening?
  
  
• I'm following you... Do you know where you're going?
  
  
• Thank God I brought chicken wings.
  
  
• Take your winter coats out!
  
  
• That McDonald's is good, it has an upper floor.
  
  
• I don't think anyone is pretty like me... or prettier.

World Cup Flags in the Netherlands

My favourite thing about the World Cup is seeing flags from countries around the world where I live.

In 2014, I took photos of World Cup flags I saw in London, so I thought I would do the same in 2026 - here are World Cup flags in the Netherlands.

Amsterdam

Orange flags in Jordaan

Teeny-tiny Colombia flag

Small Turkey flag

Rotterdam

The Hague

Utrecht

Overheard: Amsterdam tourist season

As the sun sets on an Amsterdam summer tourist season, here are 17 random things I overheard tourists saying in Amsterdam in summer 2025.

• It was presented as a democratic process, but it was not!
  
  
• The best thing about wearing this skirt is my phone doesn't pull it down.
  
  
• No, no, no, we will just buy the juice!
  
  
• When you're in love, you're in the bubble, like, all the time.
  
  
• Don't get me wrong, I love a good sunset, but I'm not gonna Instagram it! 
  
  
• I could live here. This is the best weather we've had, this is all I fucking care about!
  
  
• He used to be an addict, like a big addict. Did he tell you that?
  
  
• You look stunning! If you'd have come to dinner dressed like that, we'd be wowed.
  
  
• I don't wanna, like, work hard as fuck for that. So I'm not gonna go.
  
  
• You haven't seen it yet, but I can get pretty fiery.
  
  
• Small little boats with little or no entertainment? Ann and Steve did one and they said it was HORRIBLE, and I'll be taking their recommendation!
  
  
• I don't fuck with mixing sweet and savoury.
  
  
• That's like a firecracker, went right off in my throat!
  
  
• She's an actress, a dancer AND an educator.
  
  
• They didn't think about mental illness... that is literally insane! No pun intended.
  
  
• Is that in New York?! Mo-Maaaa?! We'll look it up!
  
  
• You're a troubled lady, aren't you?

A random trip from Amsterdam

I read and wrote about a book on Experimental Travel in 2011 with great ideas to do some of the experiments. And then, I never did any of them! Until now, more than a decade later.

I took a random trip from Amsterdam Centraal - using random number generators to determine my journey.

My instructions were:

• Go to Amsterdam Centraal. Use a random number to choose a platform.
  
  
• Then, use a random number between 1 and 120 to choose how long to stay on the train. Get off at the next stop.
  
  
• Random number 1 and 60. Walk for that long, with random left / right turns
  

Today I started at the train station. Using the random number generator to choose the platform brought me to two platforms that are not currently in use. The third try brought me to the train that just goes to the airport. So instead, I jumped on the train on the adjoining platform which was leaving at that time.

Then, I used the random number generator to work out the duration I should stay on the train = 60 minutes. I'd get off at the next stop after that, which was Anna Paulowna (after 63 minutes).

This was actually a bit exciting for me, as Anna Paulowna is a Dutch town I've not yet visited. Looking it up later, I learn it's named after Anna Paulownapolder, the reclaimed land on which the town is built. That land is named for Anna Paulowna, the Russian wife of Dutch King William II.

The train went through the flat landscapes of Noord Holland, passing fields with cows and sheep and occasional glimpses of tulip fields in full bloom.

Arriving there, I saw: 

- A street festooned with Dutch flags on each home

- A boat and a convertible sportscar for sale

- Three Buddhist monks in bright yellow robes eating ice-creams

- A flower festival in full swing. The 'Bloemendagen' (Flower Days) are in their 70th year

- Two people cycling around, dressed as the two Dutch kissing figures

- Floral tributes to musical acts like Freddie Mercury and, eh, Taylor Swift

- A lovely flower garden with tulips and daffodils. Some varieties were named after cultural figures like Judith Leyster or Giuseppe Verdi or places like Brazil, Île-de-France or Monte Carlo.

After walking around for around an hour, I made my way back to the train station through very residential neighbourhoods, happy to have seen these flowers. A very pleasing random trip! 

Overheard: emphatic Amsterdam

Spring has arrived in Amsterdam, and as I've walked around the city, I've heard people being very emphatic:

• I can zig AND zag!
  
  
• I learned a LOT about cold weather living in Boston
  
  
• She had a long black coat, VERY sophisticated, with black-silver buttons, very rich
  
  
• Where are you going? You SHOULD go to that expensive store over there.

Overheard: Schiphol airport, Irish flights

I left Schiphol Airport this week, flying to Cork. There were long queues for each part of the journey, where I over-heard Irish voices saying:

• This Guinness shortage is just marketing. Or PR cos they're not paying for it. Guinness and Ryanair - there are some marketing geniuses in Dublin!
  
  
• Get ready to whip out that OV Chip Card!
  
  
• Did your brother marry somewhere fancy?
  
  
• They're just ugly and weird like, the bullies
  
  
• She's from Spain, she's fierce nocturnal. We'd be getting up for the airport at 3am and she'd be making her dinner.
  
  
• Did you see on his Instagram, the alpaca? Why didn't we do that?

Overheard: Hotel lobby, Amsterdam

A group of five business people are sitting in an Amsterdam hotel lobby, discussing an upcoming presentation. Someone says the word innovative a few times.

'Option 1 is hard but option 2 is harder.'

'Option 1 and option 2 are horizons. We need something at the bottom to show their optionality.'

'First, we need a definition of how they are similar and different, and then we need a contrast.'

And then they take out a bag of pick 'n' mix and start snacking. A young blond man picks a sweet from the bag, exclaiming: 'ooh look, it's a mini pizza!'

Overheard: Amsterdam hotel lobby

A hotel lobby in Amsterdam. 

Two middle-aged American women are sipping some wine, while a handsome, muscular, young Dutch guy sits next to them working on a laptop. The women catch his eye, and ask him for some recommendations. They speak a little about museums and such. And for dinner? He then names two restaurants - one French and one Italian.

'And what about the local food?', one of the women asks.

He leans in: 'The local food is disgusting' 😆

Variations on a Brazilian flag

When I was in Belgium, I saw this flag hanging from a building. It's the Brazilian flag re-purposed with Belgian colours.

I love this take on the Brazilian flag, re-purposed to support Belgium in this year's football World Cup.

So I decided to make a few more flags:

 This could be any number of countries - Australia, Costa Rica, Chile, France, Croatia.

Cameroon.

Colombia or Ecuador

Netherlands - though I suspect they're more likely to have a big, bright orange flag.

Germany

 Portugal

1

Iran or Mexico or Italy

Ivory Coast

 Nigeria

Spain

Switzerland

Uruguay or Bosnia and Herzegovina

What's in 'S-Hertogenbosch

While in Belgium, I took a day detour to a city in the Netherlands called 'S-Hertogenbosch.

I went there on a curious whim; I love the name (which can be shortened to Den Bosch) and wanted to see what was there (just like my trips to Andorra, Gibraltar, Monaco and San Marino).

So what did I see there?

A huge cathedral, towering outside and in. The interior was particularly light, impressive and I felt it was unique.

Some delightful old shop fronts have been saved and re-purposed.

As it's in the Netherlands, there are lots of lovely canals. Some of the canals in 'S-Hertogenbosch go underground - it's possible to take tours of these (just not in November!).

A Golden Dragon

There are lots of brick buildings in Den Bosch, including the oldest brick building in the Netherlands.

Perhaps the city's greatest claim to fame is as the home of 15th century artist Hieronymus Bosch.

An art centre in the town shows copies of his many paintings: filled with chaotic, overwhelmingly detailed scenes from the Bible, and full of surreal, weird, wonderful and fantastical characters. Though I quite like the idea that Hieronymus the man was very plain, kind of dull - but when he painted, his imagination went wild.

His paintings are a joy to pore over. I took my favourites and put them in a collage.

High up in the Low Lands

I've recently paid a visit to three cities in Belgium (as well as a day-trip to the Netherlands).

My first instinct when arriving in a new town or city is to try to see it from above.

So in Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp and 's-Hertogenbosch, I ascended the combined 274 metres in two bell towers, one cathedral turned to an art centre and a museum to see these pretty towns laid out before me.

Bruges from the Belfry

Ghent from the Belfry

Antwerp from Museum Aan de Stroom

's-Hertogenbosch from the Hieronymus Bosch Art Centre