Are you a fan of culinary delights? Don't miss this year's Taste of Amsterdam! There's no better opportunity to get a comprehensive idea of what Amsterdam has to offer in terms of food. From the website:

Welcome to Taste of Amsterdam, a celebration of the finest cuisine the capital has to offer. Mingle with top chefs as you sample signature dishes from 17 prestigious restaurants. Improve your culinary skills and discover a stunning selection of fine wines and specialty food and drink, all in the beautiful surroundings of the Amstelpark.

Taste of Amsterdam is being held 24-27 June in the Amstelpark. There are between 1- 2 sessions daily and tickets can be purchased for either the afternoon lunch or the evening diner session. See this link for detailed information about the schedule. Admission is € 15 (presale) and tickets are € 17.50 at the entrance. Eet smakelijk!

Beginning Jun 24, Utrecht will be celebrating the Rietveld Year, in honor of Gerrit Rietveld, the great Dutch architect and designer. A member of De Stijl movement, he first made a name for himself with his chair designs, including the famous red-blue chair. You can see it and some of his other chair designs in the video below, which also features a few well-known Utrecht residents, including C-Mon & Kypski. Ultimately, Rietveld became famous for his great work of modern architecture, the Rietveld-Shröder House, which joined the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2000.

As part of the special celebration, the house will be open for free guided tours on June 26-27, beginning at 11 a.m. Guided tours of the council housing that he also designed in the Hoograven area are also available, since once of the apartments has been turned into a museum. Reservations for the guided tours are recommended and can be made by calling (030) 23623. More information about Rietveld, his work, and the festivities can be found at the Rietveld Year website (in English and Dutch). If you can't make it this weekend, you can still visit the house. Combination tickets and guided tours are available from the Utrecht Centraal Museum.

In the meantime, enjoy this video of the famous blue-red chair as it makes its way from the Rietveld House to the Utrecht Centraal Museum, with stops at the Stadhuis, Griftpark and other locations in between.

The Hague Festivals are held between 10 and 27 June. These festivals boast over 200 cultural, musical and entertainment events for a wide variety of tastes. A few of the better known events include The Hague Jazz, Festival Classique (18-20 June), The Hague Sculpture, PopHotSpot Summer Festival, Shopping Night (17 June), Dutch Veterans Day and Parkpop.

Many of the events are free, and others have promised to contribute their support to War Child. It's a great time to head to The Hague, experience the summer and lots of interesting events.

Visit the website for more information, including details on all events, pricing, and locations.

This Sunday, 20 June, head to Lepelenburg Park in Utrecht for the first crowd-sourced Twitter Picnic. From 1 p.m. until 7 p.m., you can meet up with your fellow Twitter users and enjoy a social afternoon. Bring your favorite food and drink and enjoy music performed by various artists who feel inspired to perform. The whole event is what you make of it, so make the most of it in a beautiful setting. You can find some more information about the event and its organizers here (in Dutch).

Up here in Northern Europe, late June means midsummer night, the shortest night of the year. This occasion is traditionally cause for many parties and other rituals. One in particular is not often talked about in international circles, the midsummer festival in Bourtange.

Bourtange is known as the star fortress. An amazingly beautiful fortress from the 1500's that once protected the only route between the city of Groningen and Germany. Restored to its original state around 1960, the fortress today is an open air museum.

Vestivale Bourtange is a new festival that hopes to become a midsummer standard for years to come. Its focus this year will be the work of William Shakespeare, who wrote in the same era that the fortress was in heavy use. 2 Shakespeare plays will be the centerpiece of the festival this year. These events will be taking place even beyond midsummer, with renaissance style fairs taking place throughout July and August.

Two upcoming dates of particular interest for Vestivale Bourtange are June 19 and 20 when:

The Amuse theatre group will show an adaptation of the comedy 'As you like it' by William Shakespeare under the title of 'Wat u wilt!'; a light-hearted family performance which includes songs, music and dance. In addition to the performances, there will also be musical performances, lectures, stands, booths and people wearing historical dress.

Bourtange is one of those destinations in the Netherlands that you don't often hear about and few have the pleasure to experience. Yet with such a gorgeous summer ahead and such a great list of activities taking place, now is your chance!

If you're in the Netherlands, you've no doubt noticed the orange craze that has swept the country. In case you still hadn't figured it out this is due to the World Cup 2010, the global football competition that is being held 11 June through 11 July.

If you're looking for a place to watch the game with fellow expats, I have a couple suggestions. First, ADO Den Haag stadium at business park 'Forepark' is showing all games - for more information check this website.

If you're closer to Leiden, there are a couple places that are particularly expat friendly and will be broadcasting the games. You can try Duke of Oz (Oude Singel 2) or Bad Habits (Pelikaanstraat 64), which are both quite close to the Central Station.

Enjoy the games, and may the best team win!

The Hague sure is getting a lot of play on this blog lately! It's probably because I don't live very far away, but it seems to be exploding with events as summer approaches.

Coming up this weekend is Jazz in de Gracht, held from 11-12 June. A free festival, held at De Bierkade en Dunne Bierkade (also known as Avenue Culinaire, and in The Hague) it offers the audience a chance to relax and let all the performances come to them. How is that possible, you ask? Well, the performances are on boats, and the boats stop at specified places in front of the audience. The audience is then treated to 20-minute performances.

The stops are located by the restaurants Afasika and Serengeti, between the cafés Paas and Pakschuit and at M-restaurant. See the website for a full program, which runs from 6pm Friday until 10:30pm Saturday.

AIDS/HIV is still a threat, unfortunately, but in an effort to raise awareness, the Red Ribbon Rock Festival is taking place this Friday, 11 June, in Utrecht. This isn't an evening of preaching and scare tactics; it's a night of provocative art, music, cartoons, and fun-but-safe filth. On the musical lineup is DeWolff, Pornorama, Kensington and The La La Lies.

These festivals have been going on since 2005, with Little Red Riding Hood as the design theme. This is the first time the event is being held in Utrecht. It takes place from 19:00 to 23:45 at Moira, located appropriately at Wolvenstraat 10. Tickets are €10 and can be purchased in advance at Plato (Voorstraat 35) or Boudisque (Vredenburg 31).

No, it's not the US version of Flag Day - it's Dutch! Called Vlaggetjesdag and held on 12 June, this holiday celebrates fish rather than flags.

What kind of fish? Herring, of course. And raw, with plenty of chopped onions. This day is dedicated to celebrating the first catches of the year. A crowd gathers to try out the herring on the coast and at the Scheveningen harbor. Fisherman also get the opportunity to show off their talents, with herring ships racing back to port in an effort to win a cash prize.

If you plan to wait in line for the first herring catch, keep in mind that Queen Beatrix is given the first barrel. To learn more visit www.vlaggetjesdag.com, and head to Scheveningen Beach, in The Hague on 12 June.

Windmill Windup, Europe's largest outdoor grass ultimate frisbee tournament takes place right here in Amsterdam and it begins this Thursday evening. 78 teams from all over the world will gather in the West of Amsterdam for 4 days of frisbee, occasional relaxation, and socializing. And while playing the tournament is for the true blue frisbee types, watching such a massive tournament is something that anyone can and should enjoy. You're unlikely to see anything like it anywhere else.

Directions to the fields and full schedule are available here. Its easily reachable by bike or public transport. Food and other amenities will be plentiful.

Here's a video preview of this year's tournament.

Windmill Windup 2010 - Bring It On! from Job on Vimeo.