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Hash Pride Hash in Amsterdam

Hash Pride Hash in Amsterdam

Published on 1 August 2026

No, not that kind of hash—although I’ve been offered to buy some in Amsterdam many times—but as usual for me, it was time for another beery run! For the third time in a row (after 2025 and 2024), I joined the Amsterdam H3 to run, drink, and watch the Pride Amsterdam Canal Parade.

This time I didn’t take a Eurostar, nor a ‘normal’ train to Amsterdam, but for the very first time, I took the EuroCity Direct. Annoyingly, this train doesn’t stop in Brussels Central station, but like most international high speed trains, it departed from Brussels Midi. The train wasn’t too crowded though—at least until Rotterdam—and I was happy to discover there were power sockets and USB A ports at every pair of seats! 

After arrival in Amsterdam Zuid train station, my first order of business was to get to the general area of the parade and hash, and get some coffee in me. My pick of the day was photo gallery and coffee shop LYUBLU on the Waterlooplein, serving coffee by local roastery Stean’s Beans.

Then it was time to find the hashers in the Wertheimpark. Usually they’re quite easy to spot, with their flashy clothes, but on a Pride day, they didn’t quite stand out that much! We didn’t wait very long before starting the run, because the aim was to be back before the start of the parade. So the run was short—just a little over 5 km—and sweet, with some nice views on the floats and spectators getting ready. After the run we convened back in the park for lunch, and to watch the parade.

Apparently it was WorldPride, so a bit of a special edition of the Pride Amsterdam Canal Parade, drawing even more visitors than usual to Amsterdam, and to our little corner of the park in particular. This made it a bit harder to get a good view—or photos—of the floats, but luckily I could see a bit more from the nearby bridge.

After a nice afternoon with hash friends, barbecuing, and beer, I slowly made my way back to Amsterdam Zuid train station, but not after a stop at Gollem. So, there are actually several Gollem beer bars in Amsterdam, and by foolishly just following directions of a map app, I ended up at Gollem aan het Water, not the Gollem I actually intended to go… The beer offer was a bit smaller—especially on draught—but I didn’t have time to try that many anyway. They did have a Flammkuchen though, which I needed and enjoyed.

I made it to the station just in time, so two hours later, I was back in Brussels again.

In my Pride Kilt in Amsterdam…
“Gay for a Day” in Amsterdam

“Gay for a Day” in Amsterdam

Published on 3 August 2024

The Amsterdam Hash House Harriers—with whom I ran only a couple of weeks ago—have a tradition of organising a run on the day of the Pride Amsterdam Canal Parade. So when they announced this run a couple of months ago, I asked for the day off, booked some Eurostar tickets, and ordered a theme appropriate kilt and T-shirt…

The red Eurostar—still carrying the Thalys branding here and there—was bang on time, which left us with just enough time for a coffee at Black Gold, a coffee shop slash record store for the proper vinyl kind, the other ‘black gold’… Lovely coffee, and great music as well!

At eleven it was time to gather in the Wertheimpark for the run. We weren’t the only visitors who had come over for the occasion, so it was a nice mix of very colourful hashers. AH3 had a logo designed for the run, to be printed on your own T-shirts, but I was one of the few to have actually done this. My kilt for the day was in the Pride of LGBT tartan!
The run was rather short and sweet, allowing us to be back in the park in time to still see the first boats float by.

After the run, circle, and barbecue, there was still some time to kill in Amsterdam. Obviously there would be beer involved, so we headed to the American beer bar Beer Temple, the way more Dutch Proeflokaal Arendsnest, and the logical last stop, BrewDog Amsterdam Centraal. Then is was just a few paces to the platform, where surprisingly a gold and blue Eurostar arrived to take us home.

Van Moll & Mokum

Van Moll & Mokum

Published on 7 July 2024

Another weekend well spent with beer and running! This time the beer festival was Van Moll Fest in Eindhoven, and the run was in Amsterdam, where I joined the Amsterdam Hash House Harriers!

The weekend didn’t start that well: only on Saturday morning I found out I had to take a rail replacement bus service, from Tilburg to Eindhoven! Kudos to the NS though, it was all well announced and indicated at the station.

This year’s Van Moll Fest was definitely muddier than the previous editions I had been to, but luckily no more rain fell after the gates opened. On the other hand, it did feel like it was quite a bit more expensive than previously, with many beers costing two or even three tokens for a 20 cl serve, and that at € 3 per token! There were however plenty of new breweries to discover, so it was still worth it for me.

Since Eindhoven is a bit of a pain to get back home from after drinking quite a few beers—I’ve had a bad and very expensive experience with that—I spent the night in a nice ‘auberge‘ this time… After some bacon & banana pancakes for breakfast at The Happiness Café, it was time to move on to Amsterdam. The journey started with a rail replacement bus service again, until Boxtel this time…

Upon arrival in Amsterdam—also known as Mokum—I first went for a proper coffee at Sango, just in time to shelter for the rain! I then still had some time to kill, and since I had to take the tram at the central station anyway, a couple of beers at BrewDog Centraal Station was the obvious choice!

The reason for coming to Amsterdam, however, was to run with the Amsterdam Hash House Harriers! They run at exactly the same time as BMPH3—Sundays at three o’clock—but since it was actually quicker to get to Amsterdam on a Sunday morning, I decided to run with AH3 instead this time. Even though it was my first time running with them, there were quite a few people I already knew from other hashing events.

I just can’t go to the Netherlands without having something with peanut sauce! I asked my fellow hashers about recommendations for nearby Surinamese or Indonesian restaurants, and thus I ended up at Café Kadijk. Some Javanese meatballs and satay ayam later, both well doused in peanut sauce, I was on my way to the train station again, for a final beer at BrewDog Centraal Station, and my train home…

Back to the ‘Dams

Back to the ‘Dams

Published on 20 October 2023

My little autumn break wasn’t quite over yet, after my Warszawa-Berlin trip, so on Friday I went to both Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

For the long stretch Brussels-Amsterdam, I used up all my Thalys points—mostly earned by filling out questionnaires—for the high speed option. Although officially the company is Eurostar now, my train was still adorned with the Thalys branding.

After my morning commitments—my trip wasn’t all leisure—I stopped at Quartier Putain for a coffee and a piece of apple pie. I’m not sure if that name would go down well in cities where they actually speak French!

By then it was time to discover the newest addition to BrewDog‘s portfolio of bars: BrewDog Amsterdam Centraal! It opened just a week before, when I was about a 1000 km east from here, so I missed the EFP opening, unfortunately… The shipload of EFPs—literally, since they had organised a communal ferry crossing for the opening—didn’t drink the bar dry though, and they even had one beer on draught I hadn’t had yet!

It was only around lunch time, but the bar was packed, the staff seemed to be well-trained, and handled the crowd well. Apart from a couple of beers, I had the Cluck & Satay Skewer. It’s always nice to have something ‘local’ on the food menu of a BrewDog bar!

Just before leaving, I also had a nice chat with franchisee Peter, who seemed to be confident he had found a great location for the bar. I can’t disagree with him: located right within Amsterdam Central Station, it will definitely one I’ll be visiting more often!

From the bar to the train platform was only a couple of minutes’ walk, and soon I was off to my next destination: Rotterdam!

The BrewDog Outpost Rotterdam was the only BrewDog bar in the Benelux participating in this year’s edition of Collabfest, so if I wanted to taste any of the beers, I had to make a stop there. Not every bar get’s all beers, but the selection in Rotterdam was great. As it turns out, it even included the highest rated beer, which was Rotterdam’s own collaboration with the Moersleutel: the K9 Chocolate Stout – Brewdog Rotterdam Outpost Collab!

After trying almost all the Collabfest beers, and a few others, it was time to go back to the gorgeous Rotterdam Central train station, and catch the train home again…