Save my china!
It is a glorious summer's day when police boats come tearing down the Amstel to haul a drowning man on board. And then, the moment he is safely aboard, he jumps straight back into the water. Yes indeed, it is not a real accident but a stuntman appearing in a scene for the new Bond. Then a bang rings out across the water, not unusual for an action film, but this sound is not in the script. It turns out to be a houseboat resident whose home and hearth had been given a thorough shaking by the ferocity of the action on the water. With an alarm pistol he tried to alert the crew to the waves and so save his precious porcelain beer mugs from destruction.
The only Bond in Amsterdam
Whether it was down to the gun-toting houseboat resident has never been proven, but Bond certainly never returned to Amsterdam after 1971. Still, a few years ago it was a close call: James Bond, now in the shape of Daniel Craig, very nearly came back to our city. There had even been talks about the possibility of filming in the capital with the then mayor Eberhard van der Laan, who was prepared to close off parts of the city centre for it. Sadly, commitments made with Craig turned out to stand in the way of new shooting in the city.
