Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
(the f irst issue contained a page of
smokable paper made from marijuana),
staging pro-pot events, and promoting
innovative (but ultimately unsuccessful)
campaigns to provide free white bicycles
and white electric-powered cars to city
commuters. You can trace the evolution
of Amsterdam's “no war on drugs” and
even listen to a Ted Koppel interview
of former New York mayor Ed Koch
and his Dutch counterparts on the pros and cons of legalizing
m a r i j u a n a .
In Room 24, you enter a reconstruction of the famous Café
't Mandje from 1967, a gay bar on Zeedijk street. See a photo of
owner Bet van Beeren and her motorcycle in the window, then
step inside to see her hanging collection of neckties, which she cut
off delighted customers with a butcher knife. (For more details on
the café, see page 97.)
• Go down the stairs, and as you leave the museum, don't miss the room
opposite the ticket desk (between the WC and the exit door)...
Former Orphanage and Regents' Chamber
The first small room tells of the former orphanage located here.
Originally a cloister, it became an orphanage in 1570 and took in
kids until the 1960s.
Finally, you enter a stately Regents' Room (for the orphanage's
board of directors), where you'll see grand, ego-elevating paintings
honoring big shots. Many of the Dutch Masters' paintings you'll
see in the Netherlands' museums were commissioned to decorate
rooms like this.
