I amsterdam - Best Pink Presents

Originally ran from an old ice-cream cart temporarily set up for the Amsterdam Gay Games in 1998, Pink Point – perched next to the world famous Homomonument – has now become the world’s only 7-day-a-week gay & lesbian information kiosk.

Delft Pink
If you’re after the perfect present for friends back home, what’s more delightfully Dutch than Delft Blue figurines with a cute, queer twist? The kissing couples on sale at Pink Point are strictly same-sex oriented. In addition to the plethora of queer-themed and rainbow-coloured gifts, the gay & lesbian volunteers at Pink Point offer wayward tourists (of any bent!) a friendly face, free advice and healthy amounts of good humour. Need to know the hottest club, best place for shopping or the cruisiest sauna? Then this cute kiosk should be any queer traveler’s first point of reference.

Bent Guide
The second thing any queer tourist should do is buy a copy of the Bent Guide, Pink Point’s low-down on nearly 300 gay & lesbian venues and organisations around Amsterdam (and brilliantly written by yours truly!). Chock full of the essentials, the ‘Bent Guide’ tells you where to go, what to do and generally details everything that’s not straight about Amsterdam - with humour, and just a bit of bitchiness.

Homomonument
Lastly, no visit to Pink Point should go without some quiet contemplation on the steps of Karin Daan’s subtly beautiful Homomonument – the world’s first commemoration to the persecution of homosexuals. In World War II gay men were forced to wear pink triangles by the Nazis. By embedding three monumental pink granite triangles into the Amsterdam streetscape Daan’s elegant design creates a powerful metaphor. The main focal point is the stepped triangle leading down into the Keizersgracht canal. Here visitors reflect on our community’s loss and are asked to remain eternally vigilant lest the waters of intolerance ever rise again. The other two triangles are less prominent and visitors often walk past oblivious to the inscription: 'For friendship, such an eternal longing'. However, this too is the artists’s intent as the monument represents our very presence as homosexuals: while sometimes obvious, most often we simply blend into our surroundings.

Address: Pink Point, Westermarkt (corner of Raadhuisstraat & Keizersgracht)
Tel: +31 (0)20 428 1070
Website: www.pinkpoint.org
e-mail: info@pinkpoint.org
Transport: Trams 13,14,17, stop: Westermarkt
Hours: 7 Days a week, 11 am – 6 pm
(limited opening hours in winter)
Payment Options: Cash, pin or credit card (Visa, Mastercard)

Extras: Holland’s widest range of queer-themed souvenirs, T-shirts, pins, postcards, umbrellas – even boxed fragments of pink granite salvaged from the Homomonument’s renovation!

Accessibility: Not advisable for wheelchairs. Narrow entrance, one step.