DGTL ADE,
chauffeured.
The shipyard programme on the north bank of the IJ. DGTL takes over the old shipbuilding hall on the NDSM shipyard, one of the few rooms in Amsterdam where the building is as much of the draw as the programme. Steel, concrete, water on three sides and a sound system built for the volume of the hall.
Thursday 22 October, at the NDSM Loods.
The night the week finds its level. Long sets, the first of the big warehouse programmes, and a schedule that starts to run past the last metro.
DGTL takes over the old shipbuilding hall on the NDSM shipyard, one of the few rooms in Amsterdam where the building is as much of the draw as the programme. Steel, concrete, water on three sides and a sound system built for the volume of the hall.
It is also across the IJ, which visitors consistently underestimate. The ferry is charming and free, runs to a timetable, takes no cars, and is a genuinely cold ten minutes in October with the wind coming off the water.
By road it is the Coentunnel or the IJtunnel and then the Klaprozenweg: ten to fifteen minutes from the centre, and a straight run from Schiphol by the A10-West. The car comes onto the werf, so the walk from the door of the car to the door of the hall is measured in metres.
At closing the werf is open, exposed and a long way from a night bus. Your chauffeur waits on the quay near the hall — you step out of one warm space and into another, instead of standing on the water’s edge refreshing an app.
NDSM-werf, Amsterdam-Noord.
The NDSM shipyard is across the IJ in Noord. By car it is the Coentunnel or the IJtunnel and then the Klaprozenweg — ten to fifteen minutes from the centre at night. The ferry that everyone talks about runs to a timetable and does not take cars.
The car comes onto the werf itself and stops on the quay near the hall. It is open ground and it is cold by the water in October; the walk is short but there is no shelter on it.
The NDSM shipyard is across the IJ in Noord. By car it is the Coentunnel or the IJtunnel and then the Klaprozenweg — ten to fifteen minutes from the centre at night. The ferry that everyone talks about runs to a timetable and does not take cars. Your chauffeur checks the roads before setting off rather than when he arrives, and the price is fixed when you book, whatever the traffic does.
The car comes onto the werf itself and stops on the quay near the hall. It is open ground and it is cold by the water in October; the walk is short but there is no shelter on it.
Yes, and on this night it is the sensible way to do it. At closing the werf is open, exposed and a long way from a night bus. Your chauffeur waits on the quay near the hall — you step out of one warm space and into another, instead of standing on the water’s edge refreshing an app. Book the return at the same time as the outward ride, or keep one car and chauffeur for the whole night by the hour, from €65 an hour in Business Class with a two-hour minimum.
Schiphol to any address in Amsterdam is a fixed €90 in Business Class, €125 in the seven-seat Van Class and €140 in First Class — taxes included, per car, with the flight tracked and a chauffeur waiting inside the arrivals hall. Going back to Schiphol the fixed prices are €80, €85 and €90.
The Van Class takes up to seven passengers and seven bags in one car, with captain chairs and walk-in headroom. For a larger party dispatch stages several cars to arrive together at NDSM Loods, with one contact for the whole group rather than a separate booking per car.
Message dispatch on WhatsApp and the pickup time moves. It is one number, answered around the clock in English, and once a chauffeur is assigned you have his line too. There is no surge pricing at four in the morning — the fare was agreed when you booked.