The pre-war areas aren't too bad - I wish I could afford to live in one of the elegant 1930's houses around the Keizer Karelweg - but I won't pester you with a diatribe about the incoherent planning that has taken place since. Let's just say that there are fantastic examples of all the classic planning mistakes of the 1960's, 70's, 80's and 90's.
Remnants of the original village survive, but you're unlikely to stumble across them, unless you take the museum tram, which has a stop there. (It's a shame that the tram only runs on Sundays as it's easily the most convenient form of transport for the majority of the pubs.)
It's remarkably difficult to access Amstelveen by public transport. Apart from the corridor served by the sneltram, most areas are serviced by buses. Whoever determined the routes must be very proud of Amstelveen, because they've guaranteed you'll see every street in the town, no matter what your destination.
But the fun doesn't end there - Amstelveen is also pratically totally devoid of pubs. I would struggle to name more than a dozen and - having commuted through it by bus for years - there's no corner of the town I haven't penetrated (see the paragraph above on public transport).
Back
in the 1980's, when I first became acquainted with Amstelveen, a thing called Plein
1960 (1960 Square in English) was the heart of the new town (and its bus routes).
The name - bland, uninspired - fitted the square very well. But Amstelveen has an
ambitious, thrusting, dynamic council and after 30 years a boring old 1960's design
was no longer good enough. The bit that was left over after a bus station, car park,
theatre and a few more shops had been built they named Stadsplein (Town Square). It's
difficult to believe, but they managed to think up an even blander name.
The
downside to all the pubs being on the north of the square is that this is
the side with half-decent architecture. Sat in (or outside) Du Monde, your
view is the crappy theater/ music school complex opposite. Let's see if
you can guess which materials have been used in the facade: g.... and s....
How mould-breaking.
The
pub itself has a single, trinagular room in an art-deco-ey sort of style.
Outside it's an attractive 1930's building. To the left you can admire the
standout decorative feature: a superb leaded window depicting a barrel and
foaming glasses of beer. Very appropriate.