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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

Friends of mine from France wrote to inform me they were coming to Amsterdam, to see the Magnetic Fields. At first I pictured a large open field with metal poles, but then I remembered the beloved musical group from the US.

Indeed on Wednesday the 31st of March, the Magnetic Fields will be playing in Amsterdam, and not at your typical concert venue. Instead of the usual big name concert halls, they will perform at the very beautiful De Duif (the Dove). Built on the site of a church that goes back to the 1700's, the current church was built in 1857 along the very beautiful prinsengracht.
Tickets for the concert are still sold via the paradiso website (like most big acts in this town). Doors open at 7:30pm, and tickets will run you €19 plus the paradiso membership.

Spring is starting to break through here in Amsterdam. So as a welcome to the new season, I went for a ferry ride to the north, passing along the way one of my favorite areas of this fine city. Watch the video, I'll explain in my own voice:

Anyone who enjoys running -- whether competitively or simply for fun -- is invited to take part in the Hellas Athletics 7-Loop this Sunday, March 21. Choose from distances of 2.5 - 5 kilometer, 10 or 15 kilometer. Registration is done that day in the canteen at the track. Changing rooms and showers are available. Registration is €1.50 for youth up to 15 years of age, and €3 for adults. The path takes you along the Kromme Rijn, through Amelisweerd to the Fort bij Rijnauwen, before back to the track. The event begins at Maarschalkerweerd Atletiekbaan, located at the Mytylweg Sportpark in Utrecht (behind the FC Utrecht stadium). All events begin at 11 a.m. Information (in Dutch) can be found on the Hellas Utrecht website.

Starting this Sunday, March 21, the Catharijne Convent museum in Utrecht will be offering a series of three master classes/workshops to teach about the way paintings are painted. These three-hour sessions will explore the layers involved in creating a painting, from the underpainting to the highlights of the main figures, through both discussion and hand-on labs. The classes are taught by Luke Stofferis, from the Department of Ancient Painting Techniques. Each class will focus on a different painting medium, such as egg tempera and oils.

The cost of each workshop is €30, which includes coffee, museum entrance, and all materials. The classes run from 13:00-16:00, and are held at the Catharijne Convent in Utrecht. More details can be found at the Utrecht Uitburo website, which includes information on discounts.

This is big news especially for us who have had to - for years - painfully throw our plastic garbage in with the rest of the rubbish. Keep an eye out for this new option. If you want to practice your Dutch and learn more about plastic, check out the Plastic Heroes site. It gives comprehensive information about plastic in general and the situation in the Netherlands.

Spring is here, so it's time to head back outside! Better weather is such an inspiration for exploring the Netherlands. One place to start planning summer trips? The cheese markets! Every summer, the traditional cheese market trade is recreated in certain places. Of course, it's more than just tradition - there's plenty of cheese to admire and consume!

Example one: Alkmaar. Cheese carriers operate on the Waagplein square every Friday between 10-12 (during the summer). There's also a Cheese Museum in Alkmaar.

Example two: Edam. The cheese market takes place weekly during the summer months. If you didn't get enough you can head to the nearby cheese warehouses for more dairy goodness.

Of course, if you prefer to sample your local variety there's no doubt that a fabulous selection awaits you at the weekly market.

For expats living in the Netherlands, there are many ways to learn Dutch. Most, however, cost money and/or can be difficult to arrange for those with busy schedules. Plus, many people (like me!) never did well with language learning in a large classroom setting.

So what to do? Well, if your Dutch has reached the conversational level, there are other options. You can try to find a Dutch "intercambio" - someone who spends an hour with you, sipping a beer and speaking half the time in Dutch and half the time in your native language. This is usually most useful if your native language is not English, of course.

Another option put together by the Gilde SamenSpraak Leiden aims to put Dutch learners in contact with local, mostly older Dutch people. They make the arrangements and then you meet up once a week to chat. The sessions aim to improve your Dutch (of course!) but also gain an understanding of Dutch culture.

The Gilde SamenSpraak Leiden is located at Herenstraat 61. They can be reached via the web or via telephone number 071-5123715.

Enjoy knitting and crocheting and wouldn't mind a bit of company while you work? Then join up with one of the 90+ Stitch 'n Bitch groups in the Netherlands. A new group here in Utrecht began this year and they meet every Thursday, from 19:30 to 21:30 at the Huiskamer van Zuilen (Buurthuis Zuilen). Additional groups meet all around Utrecht, including a group that meets at the Winkel van Sinkel, also on Thursday nights, starting at 19:30, and another group that meets at Keek on Twijnstraat, on Saturday mornings at 10:00. There are no formal lessons; this is just an opportunity for fellow yarn lovers to get together and work on their projects while sharing their interests with like-minded people. Participation is free and open to anyone. Just bring along your own supplies and projects and enjoy a bit of company while you work.

For a full listing of groups, times and locations in the Netherlands, visit the Stitch 'n Bitch website.

If you want to take a trip to Peru or learn more about the Incas, but can't afford the airfare, visit the culture and tourism promotional tour that's making a stop in Utrecht on Sunday, March 28. Experience food from Peru, presentations about the importance of the Incas, dance presentations and workshops and more. The event takes place at the Café Tropical, Verlengde Hoogravenseweg 203, Utrecht, and runs from 13:00 to 17:45. You can get detailed information about times and presentations, along with future dates of the tour in other Dutch cities, at the Inkapacha website.

Looking for something to do this Friday? Your Own Gallery, a "young, contemporary art gallery" is holding their first show on Friday, March 26th (tomorrow!). For the next four months, a total of nine artists will exhibit here. First up is Gijs Kast, whose exhibition is called "Show" and consists of illustrations that were drawn during shows.

The show can be seen between 7-10pm on Friday evening. Your Own Gallery is open weekdays (Monday through Friday) from 10am-6pm, and is located at Oude Waal 35 in Amsterdam - not far from the Central Station.

Ever wanted to watch a major bike tour pass through a quaint little town like Leiden? On Monday, May 10th, that opportunity presents itself. The 2010 Giro d'Italia, which starts in the Netherlands and runs from Amsterdam to Middelburg, will pass through the city of Leiden between 10am and 2pm. Stop by the Breestraat to get a good look at the professional cycling teams. But don't bring a car - many surrounding roads will be closed down for this special event.

The stage in the Netherlands begins in Amsterdam at the van Gogh museum and continues through Utrecht, Leiden, and onto Middelburg. After a Dutch start the participants head to Italy. For die-hard fans, here's a summary of the route through the Italian countryside:

This Giro covers much of the Italian peninsula, and runs counter-clockwise from its start in Amsterdam to the finish in Verona. The Giro rolls from Piedmont on the northern border with France to the Amalfi Coast, then travels across to Adriatic Coast. From Bitonto, the Giro travels north along the Adriatic and passes through l'Aquila in a commemoration of the earthquake which caused widespread destruction in the city. Then, it's on to Venezia and the Monte Zoncolan near Italy's northern border. The final week lingers in Trentino and Lombardia in the north near Switzerland before the final time trial in Verona. The Giro celebrates the career of Fausto Coppi with a stage in Novi Ligure.

The site I was told about is specific to South Holland, but upon further examination it seems that Angloinfo is a global network with sites in many countries including Belgium, Brazil and Hong Kong.

You can become a member to post and reply to classifieds and discussion topics. This might be something to look into, as they boast 7,151 registered members.

The American Book Center in Amsterdam is hosting The Urban Culture Event. Where design meets crafts, this festival will be held on June 27 at ABC in the Spui in Amsterdam. The entire Spui square will be taken over by passionate craft-lovers, designers and artisans all enthusiastically making, displaying and putting their art up for sale.

If lessons and workshops are more your cup of tea, there will be many running concurrently in the ABC Treehouse at Voetboogstraat 11, located very close to Spui.

The ABC blog lists all participating artists/authors, including:

Umbrellart: an Xstreets Collective initiative. Bringing art back to the streets and bringing artists from all over the world together.

Idle Hands: I'd rather be knitting! The new community for people that love fibre crafts: be it knitting, crochet or sewing!

Pia Jan Bijkerk: author, Paris: Made by Hand

Mark June 27 on your calendar and get ready for a day full of cheerful creativity.

After a long weekend in Barcelona, I'm back in Amsterdam.

Before I left, I caught the Owen Pallett show at "The Dove", a wonderful old church in the heart of Amsterdam. Instead of trying to describe how excellent it was using lofty words, I will instead provide a video: