Nuru massage Amsterdam-Noord, across the IJ where rooms come with space to spare

For a long time Amsterdam-Noord was the part of the city visitors never saw, a place of shipyards, factories and workers’ housing on the far bank of the IJ. It is still quieter than the centre, but the old industrial waterfront has filled with apartment blocks, converted halls and a handful of hotels whose windows look straight back across the water at the station. For nuru that mix is unusually good news. New-build flats around Overhoeks and Buiksloterham tend to have underfloor heating, walk-in showers laid level with the floor and bedrooms big enough to walk around both sides of the bed. The converted spaces out at the NDSM wharf are generous as well, though their high ceilings take longer to heat. Further inland, the garden villages of Tuindorp Oostzaan and the Van der Pekbuurt were built about a century ago as model housing for dock and factory workers, with low brick terraces, modest bedrooms and compact bathrooms tucked beneath the stairs, charming homes that work perfectly well once you know what to expect from them.

Getting in, and getting the room right

Getting in is seldom complicated north of the water. Most apartment buildings here have a lift and an entry panel, so send the building name or the number on the door along with the street, and be ready to buzz her up. Terraced houses in the older neighbourhoods open straight onto the pavement, and a light left on in the hall saves her squinting at house numbers in the dark. Heating is where Noord catches people out. The underfloor systems in the new blocks are comfortable but slow to respond, so turn the thermostat up the moment you book rather than when she messages from the street, and expect the bathroom to be the last room to warm. In the converted lofts the difficulty is sheer volume, and a big room with tall windows needs its curtains drawn and every radiator turned on. Wind off the IJ can be sharp at night, and a flat on the waterfront loses heat faster than one sheltered behind other buildings.

Nuru massage in Amsterdam-Noord, technique by technique

The modern bathrooms of Noord make it one of the better parts of the city for soapy massage, which needs a walk-in shower wide enough for two people or a proper bathtub, plus plenty of hot water, and many flats here offer both. Nuru massage works in almost any home in the district, and the larger bedrooms of the new-build blocks leave room for a four-hand session, since two therapists must reach the bed from both sides and need a clear strip of floor to kneel on. In the small terraced houses of the garden villages, the bedroom rather than the bathroom is usually the tight spot, and a single therapist working the gel from one side and the foot of the bed is the wiser plan there. Body to body in warm oil suits a guest whose shower is shared or temperamental, because it closes with a towel rather than a rinse. Sensual massage fits anywhere at all. A houseboat moored along the northern banks can host nuru too, provided the cabin is heated well beforehand and the boiler has been tested, and a short description of the boat helps us plan.

Reply, crossing and settling up

Your WhatsApp message returns with a therapist’s name and an arrival time in about ten minutes, by day or by night. The journey to Noord runs by road through the tunnels beneath the IJ, and the reply states the time honestly, which across the water can be a little longer than the twenty to thirty minutes that holds in the centre; addresses close to the ferry landings opposite the station are usually the quickest to reach. An hour is €180, two therapists together are €360 an hour, and eight hours overnight come to €1,250, and the reply sets out the whole arrangement before she leaves. She is paid as she walks in: banknotes of whichever major currency suits you, a card, or crypto. Every visit is outcall, and every guest must be twenty-one or older.