Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Monday street market fills the street all the way to Noordermarkt
at Westerstraat's western end.
• Just past the next bridge going west along Egelantiers canal, on the left
at #107, is the entrance to...
St. Andrew's Hof
(Sint-Andrieshof)
Enter—quietly—through the black door
marked
Sint-Andrieshof 107 t/m 145
(open
Mon-Sat until 18:00, closed Sun, push hard
on door) and encounter a slice of Vermeer—a
tiny courtyard surrounded by a dozen or
so residences. Take a seat on a bench and
immerse yourself in this still world. This
small-scale version of the Begijnhof is one
of scores of
hojes
(subsidized residences built
around a courtyard) funded by churches,
cha rities, and the cit y for low-income
widows and pensioners.
Hungry?
There are several recommended restaurants in the area. Especially
good are
Café Restaurant de Reiger
and
Café 't Smalle.
For full
descriptions of these and more Jordaan eateries, see the Eating
chapter, page 179.
• Your tour's over. It's a short walk back to Dam Square. But old hippies
have two more stops: Heading back toward the center of town along
Egelantiers canal, make a right turn on Tweede (2E) Leliedwarsstraat,
where you'll find...
Hippie Highlights
A small shop with a flowery window display,
Electric Ladyland:
The First Museum of Fluorescent Art,
hides a fluorescent won-
derland. It's the creation of Nick
Padalino...one cool cat who really
found his black-light niche in life.
Downstairs, under Nick 's shop, is
a unique and tiny museum featur-
ing f luorescent black-light art. Nick
lovingly guides you, demonstrating
fluorescent minerals from all over the
world and f luorescence in everyday
objects (stamps, candy, and so on). He
seems to get a bigger kick out of it than even his customers. You
can see the historic first fluorescent crayon from San Francisco in
the 1950s. Wow. The label says, “Use with black light for church
