The annual Culinary Festival in Leiden has come around again. This Sunday (tomorrow) get ready to try out the best Leiden's restaurants have to offer (there are 11 participating restaurants). The festival has been running since Thursday, but Sunday offers a great opportunity to visit this annual event. Opening times are 1pm-9pm.

Visitors to the Culinary Festival also have the chance to win one of three paintings. Tickets for the drawing are EUR 5, and the drawing takes place on Sunday, July 4th at 7pm.

Even if you can't attend the festival's website offers an overview of participating restaurants. This is handy if you're looking for a new place to try in the city.

It's here again! Just like last year, Leiden will be hosting its annual Museum Night tomorrow (Friday, July 2nd). Head to Naturalis, Hortus botanicus Leiden, Museum Boerhaave, National Museum of Antiquities, Museum Volkenkunde, SieboldHouse, and Museum Lakenhal - they'll all be opening their doors for an evening of cultural entertainment.

The opening will be held from 7-8pm at Museum Boerhavae with the band Out of Control. Then, head out to the museums of your choice. Most will close at 1am, but after parties will continue at the LVC and at A.L.S.V. Quintus.

Presale tickets are still available here for EUR 10. Tickets are also available at the participating museums or in the Visitor Centre Leiden.

Temperatures keep going up over here in the Netherlands, set to hit 30C (86F), which for this part of the world is quite dramatic. Naturally with all this hot weather, people are flocking to the beaches. With so many people heading to the coastline, you're unlikely to find a beach that isn't packed. Still there are ways to find something off the beaten path, and here is one of my favorites:

From Amsterdam Central Station take the train to Alkmaar, if memory serves it is around a 40 minute ride. In Alkmaar find the bus outside the station that will take you to a town called Bergen. In Bergen what I like to do is rent a bike for the day (about 8€) and ride through the dunes. The dunes are awesome and there are a few choice spots to stop and have a drink.

Once you're through the dunes you arrive at the beach, Bergen aan Zee. A nice beach that is by no means private, but potentially with a bit more space for you and your towel. Plus this fine beach has plenty of activities and places for you to grab food and drink. All the ingredients for a great beach day on hot Holland days.

This Thursday, July 1st, marks the beginning of another edition of the Over Het Ij Festival in Amsterdam north. A fantastic theater festival that lasts for 10 days, what I love most is that most of the performances traditionally take place in converted shipping containers. Often times the containers aren't really converted, the audience simple fits into one side while the performance takes place on the other.

Besides all manner of theater performances, there is also food, live music, and all kinds of side show fun taking places throughout the festival terrain. The main action takes places at NDSM - Amsterdam North, easily accessible via Ferry from Central Station. This year there will also be some performances in other parts of Amsterdam north, check the website for full details.

The Amsterdam local transport company (GVB) has found its funny bone and is using this video to promote their unlimited travel cards:

The video was created with Amsterdam's comedy institution, Boom Chicago, which also produced five unique podcasts for five popular journeys in the city.

The John Adams Institute is well known for its amazing selection of literary speakers. But now they're raising the bar and offering a literature course this fall.

In this six-week course Dan Hassler-Forest of the University of Amsterdam will explore the way writers today are mixing art forms (think how television shows have taken the place of serial fiction). Lectures and corresponding discussions will focus on authors and filmmakers like Bret Easton Ellis, Charlie Kaufman, Jane Campion, David Benioff, and David Cronenberg. Some of the authors will also be featured at fall events put on by the John Adams Institute. The best part? Course students will have free entrance to these events!

The course will be held on Thursdays: 9, 16, 23, 30 September 2010 and 7 and 14 October 2010, between 7.30pm - 9.00pm. The location is at De Rode Hoed located at Keizersgracht 102, The cost is €200 per person. If you're interested, please register before 1 September 2010 at info@john-adams.nl.

For more information or questions please contact Maarten van Essen at essen@john-adams.nl or at 020-6247280.

Schiphol airport is full of fun treats - museums, a casino, lots of shops and plenty of food and drink. But they're now offering a new, more educational option: the world's first airport library! From Expatica:

The project is being set-up by the ProBiblio Dutch public library organisation with money from the ministry of education, culture and science. According to project leader Dick van Tol, the collection will be very diverse. "It will be a multimedia venture and will include different aspects of Dutch culture. There won't just be books, but also films and music."

To appeal to a more global audience, most materials will be in English. And although travelers can't take away library materials (that would be tricky!) there are some digital materials available for download.

Look for the airport library to open at the beginning of July.

This fall will present an interesting opportunity for any rare book lovers or authors out there. The American Book Center has purchased an Espresso Book Machine (EBM), capable of rapidly printing any text in just a matter of minutes! From the blog:

We hope to have it installed and ready to print obscure in and out of print titles within minutes by late September. This machine is also a godsend for authors, students, anyone who wants to quickly turn a document into an actual book with full color cover. Plans for incorporating this ingenious device into our stores are now being made. Even more so than ever before, ABC is the first place to check for wild and wonderful titles.

Check out a demonstration video on the ABC Blog. Sounds like a great idea for anyone writing a thesis that wants a nice finished final version, too. Stay tuned.

Are you a fan of culinary delights? Don't miss this year's Taste of Amsterdam! There's no better opportunity to get a comprehensive idea of what Amsterdam has to offer in terms of food. From the website:

Welcome to Taste of Amsterdam, a celebration of the finest cuisine the capital has to offer. Mingle with top chefs as you sample signature dishes from 17 prestigious restaurants. Improve your culinary skills and discover a stunning selection of fine wines and specialty food and drink, all in the beautiful surroundings of the Amstelpark.

Taste of Amsterdam is being held 24-27 June in the Amstelpark. There are between 1- 2 sessions daily and tickets can be purchased for either the afternoon lunch or the evening diner session. See this link for detailed information about the schedule. Admission is € 15 (presale) and tickets are € 17.50 at the entrance. Eet smakelijk!

Going on now until August 13th at the Rijksmuseum, an exhibition of work by Johan Miró and Jan Steen. It was in 1928 that Miró came to Amsterdam and was influenced by Steen's work showing at the Rijksmuseum. The exhibit will be the first time ever that Miró's work is on display alongside the 17th century pieces that inspired him.