The Foc'sle Deck

Some other bars visited Oct 2012

Wijnand  Fockink  Proeverij

Cafe Hegeraad

De Havens Van Texel

De Bekeerde Suster

One of the New pubs in Amsterdam - It no longer brews on the premises but has its beers brewed under licence
Can be very busy at night as it operates as a restaraunt until late but good for a quick libation early afternoon
Still very traditional in nature, wooden floorboards and wood and brass bar

De Pilsener Club

A small bar up the back alley leading to the English Church - The Amsterdamers colloquilly call the bar "up the English arse"
High celinged but still dark and dingy, the usual wooden floorboards, but interestingly spinkeld with sand. The usual beer memorabilia everywhere - The Dutch definitely do not like bare walls.
It does not have a bar, per se, just a small alcove at the back from which everything is seved

T'Smalle

Small single roomed pub on one of the outer canals.
Again a lot of wood, tiled floor for a change, and chendeliers.
Note the photo of the ceiling - This was once white and epitomises the nickname 'Brown cafes'

Het Ij Proeflokaal

The wonderfully simple brewery tap of the Ij  brewery, in a picturesque windmill on a canalside, is most definitely  worth the trip out of the city centre. 
The slightly inconvenient location helps prevent it being  overrun with tourists and, no doubt, keep the prices down.
It's very  basic inside,(Spartan is more accurate) with an incredible collection of beer bottles plus a couple of old  signs from the buildings previous life (as a public baths) forming about the  only decoration. The walls still have the original tiles so it really is like sitting in a swimmimg pool
Don't ask me why they've chosen an ostrich as their logo - not a clue but note all the lampshades are ostrich shells !

Papeneiland

Small corner pub on the crossrads of 2 canals. Very cramped, high ceilinged, with the bar built under an upstairs room.
Lovely old cast iron stove, blue and white tiles and numerous paintings and old photographs of the pub decorate the walls. As a pub, one of Amsterdam's finest
Natural light floods in to create a scene from Vermeer. If you only know Holland from Golden Age paintings, you have to  come here. See it as a living extension of the Rijksmuseum.
Almost as bitterly fought as the smallest pub contest, is the competition for Amsterdam's oldest pub, this one states its been a pub since 1641

T'Doktertje

Has to be one of the smallest pubs in Amsterdam, by small I mean bloody miniscule. A bar, one table sits 4, 2 tables sit 2 each, 4 stools at the bar. If you sit at the small tables by the bar the arse of the guy sitting on a stool is right in your face. No room to swing a rat never mind a cat !
Decorated with doctors parephenalia which is hard to decipher as the place has not been cleaned since the early middle ages at a guess - cobwebs festoon everything but admittedly the bar itself was spotlessly clean.
On a scale of brown this is positively charcoal black - absolutely amazing