Nuru massage Plantage, in warehouse lofts and villa floors behind the zoo

In the seventeenth century this corner east of the old town was set aside for gardens and places of leisure, and in the nineteenth it filled with wide avenues and substantial houses for families who wanted air and space without leaving the city. Much of that survives. The Plantage Middenlaan runs past the zoo and the old botanical garden, the side streets hold stately homes now divided into large apartments, and small green squares such as the Wertheimpark give the neighbourhood a calm the canal ring rarely has at night. Along the Entrepotdok, a long row of former bonded warehouses faces the water, converted decades ago into apartments with heavy beams, thick walls and deep window openings. The university buildings on the Roeterseiland add student rooms and a few modern blocks, and a handful of small hotels occupy villas and converted buildings. What most of these homes share is space: tall ceilings, broad bedrooms and, in the renovated apartments, bathrooms that give the gel everything it could ask for.

Getting in, and getting the room right

Arriving in the Plantage is straightforward. Many apartment houses along the avenues have a grand shared hallway and a wide staircase, some fitted with a small lift, while the Entrepotdok warehouses are entered from the quay through doors that each serve several floors, so send the number exactly as it appears beside the door. The neighbourhood is quiet after dark, which is much of its appeal, and a therapist walking along the avenue at midnight draws no more notice than a resident coming home. The practical challenge here is volume. Ceilings of three metres or more hold warmth up near the plaster rather than down over the bed, and old warehouse windows can be draughty in winter. Switch the heating on well before she arrives, close any shutters or heavy curtains, and keep the bedroom door shut so the heat stays in one room. The session itself happens at mattress height, which is exactly where a cool floor makes itself felt first.

Nuru massage in Plantage, technique by technique

Nuru massage is very much at home in the Plantage. The bedrooms are usually big enough for the therapist to work from both sides of the bed, the renovated bathrooms often include a walk-in shower, and the thick walls of the older buildings keep the rest of the house undisturbed. The larger apartments here suit four hands better than almost anywhere so near the centre, since two therapists need a bed standing clear of the wall and room to set down two bags. Soapy massage depends on the bathroom rather than the building; plenty of villa apartments have a freestanding bath, while some warehouse conversions kept a compact shower room, and a photograph settles the question quickly. For a small student room or a studio on the Roeterseiland, a single therapist with the gel, or body to body in warm oil when the shower is shared, is the realistic choice. Sensual massage needs nothing more than the room already provides. In a villa apartment with a separate dressing room, she can prepare the gel there while you shower, which keeps the bedroom calm and uncluttered.

Reply, crossing and settling up

Your message comes back with a therapist’s name and an arrival time in about ten minutes, whatever the hour. The Plantage lies just east of the old centre, so she usually reaches your door twenty to thirty minutes after you confirm. An hour costs €180, two therapists together cost €360 an hour, and a night of eight hours runs to €1,250, the same for a villa apartment as for a studio. Payment is settled at the door the moment she is in, with notes in any major currency, a card or crypto, and the latter two are worth a mention in the first message. We visit hotels, apartments and homes, never the other way round, and we see guests of twenty-one and over only. Guests staying near the zoo sometimes ask for an afternoon session after a walk through the gardens, and by daylight the rate and the arrival window are exactly the same.