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Amsterdam’s greatest, grandest, and most classical museum, with a huge collection of Dutch art dating back to the Golden Age. There’s not much difference between most operators, but it’s worth going on a longer tour that also heads out onto the IJ (the best ones are around 75 minutes). There are many tour operators with boats, most of which depart from around Centraal. Don’t miss the Rijksmuseum, truly one of the world’s great art institutions. But no visit should be without a canal cruise – it’s the best way to see the city and provides a unique perspective of the UNESCO World Heritage canal ring. You could stay here a week and not have time to see all the main attractions.
If that’s what you’re after, you’re better off going along during the day. If you’re here just to ogle outside windows with crowds of drunk tourists, we wouldn’t recommend it. It’s also party central for stag and hen-dos, and things get rowdy and continue until the small hours. Highlights this year include Skepta, Confidence Man, and DJ sets from legends like Sasha and Paul van Dyk, alongside panel talks on AI and the pressure facing nightlife. If you’re based in Oost, this giant park is the place to head for a relaxing walk, cycle or just some fresh air. Formerly the HQ of Shell, it’s now home to an array of young music, advertising and events companies, plus a handful of bars and restaurants (and even a hotel). Refurbished as part of a drive to regenerate Noord, this 22-storey tower looms over the waterfront across the River IJ from Centraal.
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International
He remained there until the end of the 1982–83 season, when he retired from football at the age of 37. He returned one last time to Easter Road in 1984, for Jackie McNamara's testimonial match against Newcastle United. In August 1982, he played 20 minutes for Scone Thistle against Scone Amateurs; the appearance fee he received helped to pay off an income tax bill. One infamous incident saw Best initially sacked by Hibs after he went on a massive drinking session with the French rugby team, who were in Edinburgh to play Scotland. Best caused a stir when he returned to the UK to play for the Scottish club Hibernian. Best was a success on the field, scoring 15 goals in 24 games in his first season with the Aztecs and named tesco online slots as the NASL's best midfielder in his second.
Early Years And Family
Plus, if you fancy some throwback fun, there’s the vibrant ‘Arcade Paradise’ where you play on an array of euphonious games machines. Alongside that, the venue’s bar and restaurant – named Strangelove – is a chic place to chat about the picture you’ve just seen. Gorgeously designed (it’s situated in an old laboratory) and with four screens, LAB111 is an ideal place to unwind and catch a classic movie. The church has been beautifully preserved and offers brilliant insight into 17th-century life and religious persecution through the ages. A veritable fun palace that’s a riot of colour and sounds, it’s billed as a place to ‘let your inner child run free’ and take a break from the adult world. Click ‘read more’ for our top recommendations.
Career Statistics
Tributes were paid to Best from around the world, including from arguably three of the greatest football players ever, Pelé, Diego Maradona and Johan Cruyff. Contrary to popular belief and urban legend, he never played football for the prison team. In a 2015 interview, José Mourinho, then manager of Chelsea, named Best as the player from any era he would most like to sign, describing him as "amazing" and "30 years ahead of his time". He is regarded as one of the greatest players never to have played at a World Cup, being "hamstrung in World Cup terms by hailing from a global minnow". On 29 October 1984, Best played as a special guest for Reading against the New Zealand national team in a friendly game, alongside 1966 World Cup winner Martin Peters. His time with the "Cottagers" is particularly remembered for a match against Hereford United on 25 September 1976 in which he jokingly tackled his own teammate and drinking mate, Rodney Marsh.
He then dropped back into the reserves, before scoring his first goal for the first team in his second appearance in a 5–1 win over Burnley on 28 December. He was given a job as an errand boy on the Manchester Ship Canal, allowing him to train with the club twice a week. Best then moved to Lisnasharragh Secondary School, reuniting him with friends from primary school and allowing him to focus on football. In his autobiography, Best mentioned how important the Order was to his family. However, his extravagant lifestyle led to various personal problems, most notably alcoholism, from which he suffered for the rest of his life. He won two League titles, two Charity Shields and the European Cup with the club. He was named European Footballer of the Year in 1968 and came fifth in the FIFA Player of the Century vote.
Get Stuck Into Historic Dutch Art At Rijksmuseum
During this, fans in every seat held aloft pictures of Best, which were given out before the match. British prime minister Tony Blair described him as "probably the most naturally gifted footballer of his generation, one of the greatest footballers the UK has ever produced". Best continued to drink and was sometimes seen at his local pub in Surbiton, London. At the end of July and start of August 2002, he had a successful liver transplant at the private Cromwell Hospital in London. In September 1990, Best appeared on the primetime BBC1 chat show Wogan in which he was heavily drunk and swore, at one point saying to the host, "Terry, I like screwing".
He played only three league games, the others against Bohemians and Shelbourne, but despite attracting big crowds he failed to score or impress. During his short time there, he was the main draw attracting thousands of spectators to the matches. Frustrated with the club's decline, Best went missing in December to party at the London nightclubs. With 27 goals in 54 appearances, Best finished as the club's top-scorer for the sixth – and final – consecutive season. In the quarter-finals, United advanced past Polish club Górnik Zabrze 2–1 on aggregate, having held on to their aggregate lead in freezing temperatures in front of 105,000 at Silesian Stadium. Best assisted John Aston for the first and scored the second himself and was described by Geoffrey Green of The Times as "the centrepiece of the chessboard … a player full of fantasy; a player who lent magic to what might have been whimsy". Best stated that "if the championship was decided on home games we would win it every season. This time our away games made the difference. We got into the right frame of mind." An ever-present all season long, he scored 10 goals in 45 games.
Dedicated to the works of Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries, the Van Gogh Museum houses the largest collection of the artist’s work anywhere in the world. The exhibition is open all year round and guests can visit the ‘secret annexe’ the family stayed in. This 17th-Century canal house, where Anne Frank, her family and four others hid from the Nazis for two years, is now a museum and educational centre. Don’t miss the beautiful rose garden or the famous open-air theatre where, if you’re lucky, you might catch an impromptu show. Locals come here to run, cycle, play sports or chill, and there are plenty of activities for those looking to make a day of it.
International Career
Manager Matt Busby then kept Best in the team; by the end of the 1963–64 season, he had made 26 appearances, scoring six goals. His first time moving to the club, Best quickly became homesick and stayed for only two days before going back home to Northern Ireland. In 1957, the academically gifted Best passed the 11-plus and went to Grosvenor High School, but he soon played truant as the school specialised in rugby union. After football, he spent some time as a football analyst, but his financial and health problems continued into his retirement. The Irish Football Association described him as the "greatest player to ever pull on the green shirt of Northern Ireland". He considered his international career as being "recreational football", with the expectations placed on a smaller nation in Northern Ireland being much less than with his club.
Long before Beckham, he was Britain's first footballer as popular icon. Although the football pitch was his arena, Best was essentially a pop star—young, stylish, strikingly beautiful, possessed of a creative confidence that bordered on arrogance, and worshipped by young men and women alike. He was successfully defended when the case reached court in January 1973 by barrister George Carman QC, a close drinking companion of Best, as acknowledged in his book, Scoring at Half Time. In 2004, she alleged that Best was violent towards her at times during their marriage, an issue that was covered in Best's authorised 1998 biography Bestie in which Alex claimed that Best punched her in the face on more than one occasion. "In 1969 I gave up women and alcohol—it was the worst 20 minutes of my life." He opened a nightclub called Slack Alice on Bootle Street in Manchester in 1973 and owned restaurants in the city including Oscars, on the site of the old Waldorf Hotel.