As the stag parties flood in, the Dutch flood out. Tourism’s changed not just the way we feel about our cities, but Europe The word on everyone’s lips is “Venice”. It starts as a whisper, some time in early spring, when the lines in front of the Rijksmuseum (https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/apr/05/rijksmuseum-reopens-long-refurbishment-rethink) get a little longer, and the weekend shopping crowds in the Negen Straatjes (https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2018/feb/20/ansterdam-locals-guide-city-break-new-direct-eurostar-service) begin to test your bike-navigation skills. By the time it’s July those streets are flooded. You don’t even try steering through the crowds. You’d be like Moses, except that God is not on your side, the Red Sea will not part in your favour, and the crowds will wash you away: the middle-aged couples from the US and Germany, here for the museums; and the stag parties from Spain, Italy and the UK, here in their epic attempt to drink all the beer and smoke all the pot. So you learn to take the long way round to your destination and skip entire areas of Amsterdam – which nevertheless means that, perhaps once every summer, you’ll be down on the pavement after crashing into a distracted tourist who walked in front of your bike, and the whisper … Meer lezen over Joost de Vries – My Amsterdam is being un-created by mass tourism