Nuru massage Rivierenbuurt, in Amsterdam School flats along the river streets

The Rivierenbuurt grew out of Hendrik Petrus Berlage’s plan for the southern extension of the city, drawn up in the years around the First World War and realised, block by block, between the two world wars. The result is among the most coherent neighbourhoods in Amsterdam: broad avenues and quieter side streets, closed blocks of dark brick with rounded corners and green courtyards behind them, and Amsterdam School details on doorways, balconies and stairwell windows. Along the Amstel and the Amstelkanaal the avenues open onto the water, and on the Victorieplein the blocks rise into one of the country’s first residential towers, twelve storeys built in the early 1930s. On the southern edge, the convention centre and the business hotels around it bring a steady stream of visitors for trade fairs and congresses. Most homes here are apartments of three or four rooms, with a living room facing the street, bedrooms at the back and bathrooms that were modest when built and have been renovated with very uneven ambition ever since.

Getting in, and getting the room right

The typical entrance is a portiek, a shared doorway with a staircase serving two flats on each landing, and the stairs are steep, straight and usually dark until somebody presses the switch. Send the house number with the floor, since the bells in these doorways list numbers rather than names. Sound insulation between flats is decent in the thicker-walled blocks, but the stairwells echo, so she comes up quietly and knocks rather than calling through the door. Heating in these apartments is mostly by radiator, warm enough once it gets going, but the bedrooms at the back face the courtyards and stay cooler than the front rooms, so close the bedroom door and turn its radiator to high as soon as you book. Many of these flats have a small balcony off the back bedroom, and its door is the draughtiest spot in the room, so keep it shut with the curtain drawn across. In the hotels near the convention centre things are simpler, with key-card lifts, climate control and reliable hot water, plus the usual message from the lobby if the lift will not carry her up without you.

Nuru massage in Rivierenbuurt, technique by technique

Nuru massage suits the Rivierenbuurt flats well, provided the bed in the back bedroom has one long side free and the shower delivers ten minutes of hot water at the end. Renovated apartments with a walk-in shower or a proper bath can host soapy massage too, though the narrow original bathrooms, often a shower squeezed beside a washing machine, cannot, and they are more common than rental listings suggest. Four hands asks for a bed away from the wall with floor on both sides, easier in a hotel room near the convention centre or a larger corner flat than in a standard three-room apartment. For a guest in town for a trade fair, an hour of nuru at the hotel after a long day on the stands is the booking we see most often in this part of the city. Body to body in warm oil is the quick alternative where the bathroom is shared or unreliable, and sensual massage adapts to any room at all. Visitors in town for a fair often stay several nights, and a regular evening slot can be agreed in the thread from the very first message.

Reply, crossing and settling up

A confirmation naming your therapist and her arrival time comes back about ten minutes after you write. The Rivierenbuurt lies just beyond De Pijp, and addresses on its northern streets are usually reached within the central twenty to thirty minutes, with the reply stating plainly if the southern edge will take a little longer. One therapist is €180 an hour, a pair is €360 an hour, and an eight-hour overnight comes to €1,250. Settle up as she comes through the door, paying with banknotes of any major currency, a card or crypto. Every booking is outcall to a hotel room, apartment or home, and guests must be twenty-one or older.