I'm happy to say that Rotterdam Museum Night 2010 was a success! Held last Saturday evening, the city was alive with participants and participating locations were brightly lit and full of interesting performances and artwork. We saw live acts (both music and drama), political artwork, and contemporary photography. We learned about luxury on the Titanic and admired giant mushroom sculptures. In essence, there was something for everyone.

We didn't make use of the free transportation (both tram and boat) but for a beginner, it's good to know that many exhibitions are clustered in the center and within walking distance. It was quite some exercise (and freezing cold!) but unnecessary to hop on a tram to get around.

Rotterdam Museum Night is an annual event, so make sure to attend in 2011. It's well worth it.

Utrecht has a bit of everything, including music events covering a variety of styles and interests, from jazz to death metal. For example, the Utrecht Jazz Festival is taking place this week, March 9-13, at various locations around the city, including SJU, RASA, and the Vredenburg Music Center. The theme of the event is Jazz With a Bite. Each day will see a variety of jazz musicians exploring some of the edgier sides of jazz and braving the world of improv. The events range in price from free to €18, with the Saturday performance by the Jan Garbarek Group going for €29.50. The full festival line-up and ticket information can be found on the website.

On the other hand if death metal is more your thing, there's the Suffocation concert at Tivoli on Friday, March 12. The doors open at 17:00 and the show starts at 18:00. Included in the line-up, along with the band Suffocation, are Annotations of an Autopsy, Nervecell, Fleshgod Apocalypse, and Burning the Masses. Tickets are €17, and the show is at the Tivoli De Helling location (Helling 7, Utrecht).

Dutch writer, Joost Zwagerman, author of the book, Duel, will be at Utrecht Central Library (Bibliotheek Utrecht), located at Oudegracht 167, from 15.00-17.00. Award-winning author Charlotte Mutsaers, who grew up in Utrecht, will be speaking at the Stadhuis, Korte Minrebroederstraat 2, from 14.45 till 15.45. Both events are free. There are a number of other events going on around town, as well. Check the official site for the full schedule.

The events are in Dutch, of course, but if your Dutch isn't that good yet, go along for the practice. You may also want to pick up a Dutch book this week. If you spend €12.50 or more on a Dutch book during the National Literary Week, you will receive Joost Zwagerman's book Duel for free. Then, on Cultural Sunday, March 14, take the copy of Duel with you when you ride the train to show to the conductor and you can ride the train for free all day throughout the Netherlands.

Expatica.com is well known for their expat speeddate events in different parts of the Netherlands. The turnout is quite good and according to several reliable sources, lots of those dates go well and occasionally end up becoming long term partnerships.

Building on their respected reputation in the realm of speed dating, this month expatica will host a Gay SpeedDate night in Amsterdam. On Saturday, March 20th, gay men are invited to Café Esprit in Amsterdam, and for 35€ you get two drinks and a chance to briefly meet other singles. According to their page there is only room for about 50 men and the average age of participants is between 30 and 45.

Doors open at 7:45pm and the event runs til 10pm. At which time an after party will start, for those who still think the night is young. The site makes no mention of women, so we can assume this is not a lesbian SpeedDate night. When that event does occur we'll be sure and post that info on trippist as well.

With the growing concern and interest in environmental concerns and the impact of large-scale agricultural food production, you may be interested in viewing the documentary Food Inc. There will be a free screening of it Sunday, 7 March, at 20:30, at the ACU in Utrecht, located at Voorstraat 71.

As the ACU does every Sunday (and Tuesday through Thursday), their café will be serving vegetarian food for a minimal cost. The café is open from 18:00-20:30.

In just a few more weeks, the Movies that Matter Festival 2010 will begin. From March 25 to 31, Den Haag will be the site of this inspirational film festival. Fascinating filmmakers will descend on the city and discuss their work on topics roughly centered around human rights. Visitors can expect seventy films and dozens of introductions, discussions, interviews and talk shows. There are also a number of world premieres at the festival, including the film Shout by Dutch directors Ester Gould and Sabine Lubbe Bakker.

The films are held mainly in the Hague, at the Filmhuis Den Haag and the Theater aan het Spui. There are also a limited number of screenings in Amsterdam and Nijmegen. Tickets are €7.50 per film (€6 for CJP card holders, students, and seniors). Two screenings are €12, and a Passe-partout can be purchased for €25. Sales begin on 11 March.

It's almost upon us - Rotterdam Museum Night 2010 will be here this Saturday! On March 6th, 45 museums and galleries will open their doors for the 9th edition of this very special event. From 20:00 to 2:00, visitors can see incredible art and thought-provoking exhibitions.

How to get access to the museum night? All participating museums and galleries will be accessible with a passkey. This passkey is additionally valid for travel on the Museum Night bus and the Museum Night boat. The organizers advise purchase of the passkey in advance, as only a limited number will be available on the night itself.

For some sample routes that will ensure you see the highlights, see this page. Passkeys are EUR 12 if bought in advance, EUR 10 if you have a CJP card. Children's passes are also available (up to 12 years old) for EUR 6.

Plato, a music store in the center of Utrecht, periodically features free concerts in the store. Tomorrow, 4 March, they will be hosting a free show by El Pino & The Volunteers, an alt-rock/Americana band from Rotterdam. The free show is at 16:30. If you like what you hear, the band will be playing a full show later on in the evening at Ekko, where the doors open at 20:00 and show starts at 20:30. Tickets are €8 for the Ekko show. Plato is located at Voorstraat 35, and Ekko is located at Bemuurde Weerd WZ 3, Utrecht.

You'll probably want to read this first line twice to make sure you understand it correctly:

The Giro D'Italia is coming to The Netherlands.

I'll wait while you read it again.

That is correct, the Italian equivalent of the Tour De France, has 3 legs of the race not in Italy, but in fact in three Dutch cities: Amsterdam, Utrecht, and Middelburg. Why you may ask? Because the Dutch love bike riding, and they love big bike tours like the Giro. Italians know this so they did us a solid this year and threw us three dates from their race.

The nice part, especially if you're at all curious about this world famous race, is that we can enjoy Italy's big event with the lovely Dutch countryside as a backdrop. A funny mesh of Europe North and South.

Quoting the details direct from their website:

1 08/05 Amsterdam - Amsterdam 8.4 km
2 09/05 Amsterdam - Utrecht 209 km
3 10/05 Amsterdam - Middelburg 209 km

This should get you on your way when it comes to making plans of what town to be in at the beginning of next week. I'll make sure to be out there at least one of the days with my video camera, and share that action with you right here on trippist.

It's a boy! News out of the Artis Zoo is that a baby Madril monkey was born last weekend. His name is Yaro (son in Swahili) and he is doing well along with his mother (Ndoki). According to officials everything went fine and the two are enjoying themselves in the new Monkey Shelter area of the zoo.