Top 5 highlights of Amsterdam
Amsterdam is a small city and eminently walkable, but if you only have a short time, take advantage of the tram system, which can transport you efficiently to all the most important attractions. Perhaps the most disconcerting thing for newcomers is how to find their way around. The centre of Amsterdam can seem at first like a maze of tiny streets and canals with no overall plan. But think of it as a large spider’s web, and once you understand the structure of the town, it is relatively easy to get around.
A spider's web of canals
The central core, around the square called the Dam, is horseshoe-shaped, and consists of a series of wide streets and narrow alleys. It also has some of the oldest waterways, once so important for the delivery of goods from around the Dutch trading world.This area is ringed by a girdle of canals (grachten), the major ones running outward in ever larger circles. Singel was once the outer barrier for medieval Amstelredamme, but as the city expanded, Herengracht (Gentlemen’s Canal), Keizersgracht (Emperor’s Canal) and Prinsengracht (Princes’ Canal) enlarged the web. If you ever feel confused when strolling around town, remember that these three canals spread outwards in alphabetical order: H, K and P.
Take a canal boat tour – one of the best ways to get an overview of historic Amsterdam and to admire the true beauty of the city.
Top places to visit in Amsterdam
The Rijksmuseum
The highlight of any art lover’s trip to Amsterdam is the Rijksmuseum (State Museum), which is home to arguably the greatest collection of Dutch art in the world. The Rijksmuseum is housed within a magnificent Victorian Gothic building, designed by P.J.H. Cuypers and opened in 1885. For the past 10 years, the museum has been undergoing a vast programme of renovations; it finally re-opened in April 2013. Only The Night Watch remains in its original location so if you are a repeat visitor, make sure to get a new floorplan of the museum as you get in.
The collection is varied, but most visitors come to see the works of the Dutch masters from the 15th to the 17th centuries. Among the collection are 20 works by Rembrandt, including The Night Watch, properly entitled The Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch. The work is remarkable for its lack of formality and very different from the accepted style of the day.
Johannes Vermeer is well represented, and his effective use of light can be seen in The Kitchen Maid, painted c.1658–60 and now one of the gallery’s best-loved pieces. There are paintings by Frans Hals, the founding artist of the Dutch School, along with a collection of Dutch artists who were influenced or schooled by the masters. Look out also for the painting by a lesser-known artist, Gerrit Adriaensz Berckheyde, of Herengracht in 1672 when its grand houses were being completed. The scene has no trees and shows the ‘Gentlemen’s Canal’ in pristine condition. Later works include a number by Dutch artists of the Hague School, which flourished in the late 1800s and whose best-known representative is Jan van Huysum.
The museum also has a collection of work by non-Dutch artists, including Rubens, Tintoretto and El Greco, along with porcelain, furniture, sculpture and decorative arts, and Asiatic art.
The Canals
Amsterdam is a city that it is easy to walk around, with most of the major attractions packed into the small city centre. It can be confusing, but provided you have a good map and a reasonable sense of direction you shouldn’t go far wrong. However, it is a city that’s famous for its canals and its bicycles, so taking a canal tour or a bicycle tour, or simply hiring a bike of your own, are other ideal ways of seeing the city. Meanwhile, joining an organised tour is a way of discovering lesser-known parts of this fascinating place.
Amsterdam is one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the world, and cycling is a great way to get around. You can hire bikes at MacBike, Stationsplein 5 at Centraal Station, Weteringschans 2 at Leidseplein and Nieuwe Uilenburgerstraat 116 near Waterlooplein; www.macbike.nl; and at Rent-a-Bike Damstraat: Dwarsstraat 20–2; www.bikes.nl. Rates begin at €10 a day. Yellow Bike runs tours around the city and into the countryside (Nieuwezijds Kolk 29; www.yellowbike.nl). Riding a bike in a busy city is potentially risky. Take extra care and watch out for other road users. It is advisable to wear a crash helmet, though most Amsterdammers don’t. Make sure you are fully insured.
A number of companies offer boat tours along the canals and these are probably the most popular activities in the city. Multilingual commentary keeps you informed about the attractions as you float along past them. Contact Rederij Lovers (www.lovers.nl) or simply head to Damrak and Stationsplein and other docks from where the boats depart.Yellow Bike offers accompanied bike tours of the city with English-speaking guides.
Anne Frank House
Prinsengracht 263
Just an ordinary canal house-cum-office but made famous worldwide by events here in World War II. This is the Anne Frank Huis, where during the Nazi occupation this young girl, her family and a small group of others hid for two years in an attempt to avoid deportation.
Anne wrote a diary that paints a clear and terrifying picture of the life the family lived. It comes to an eerie stop only a few days before the family was betrayed and sent to concentration camps. Of the eight people in hiding, only Anne’s father survived – Anne died of typhus only weeks before the war ended – and after the war, in 1947, he published the diary, which became a symbol for the oppression of humankind.
The house, built in 1635, has been left much as it was at the time Anne hid here. It opened as a museum in 1960. The secret rooms upstairs, where the family spent the daylight hours, are stark and bleak. A couple of magazine pin-ups still adorn one wall. The wooden bookcase, which hid the doorway to their refuge, is still in situ, propped open for visitors to climb the few stairs.
Downstairs were the offices and warehouses of Mr Frank’s business, which were recreated in a multimillion-dollar development opened in 1999. Two adjacent buildings have been acquired and refurbished, adding exhibition and audiovisual space, without compromising No. 263 itself.
You can see videos of Anne’s story and of Amsterdam under occupation, along with photos and artefacts. The Anne Frankhuis also acts as an education centre and resource for political and philosophical groups fighting oppression in the present day.
The museum is always busy in the afternoon: try to visit in the morning if possible (or in late evening during the extended opening hours in summer).
Van Gogh Museum
Visible just behind the Rijksmuseum are the modern lines of the Van Gogh Museum, devoted to the work of the Dutch master. The main building, by Gerrit Rietveld, opened in 1973; a separate circular wing, by Kisho Kurokawa, hosts temporary exhibitions. The museum reopened in 2013, its gallery walls newly painted in stormy greys, blues and yellows, reflecting the canvasses they display. It houses more than 200 paintings and 500 drawings by the painter, covering all periods of his troubled career. The bulk of the collection was collated by Vincent’s brother Theo van Gogh, who also kept more than 800 letters written by his brother.
Vincent’s working life was short but frenetic, interspersed with periods of manic depression, and his paintings reflect his moods. His 1885 work The Potato Eaters shows the hard lives endured by the rural poor among whom he lived at this time. Contrast this with the superb vibrant colours of The Bedroom in Arles and Vase with Sunflowers, both painted after Vincent moved to Provence in 1888.
Begijnhof
Off the north side of Spui square a narrow alleyway, Gedempte Begijnensloot, leads to the entrance of the Begijnhof, a haven of tranquillity in the centre of the city. The cluster of buildings around a garden was set aside in 1346 for the benefit of the Beguines, members of a lay Catholic sisterhood. They lived simple lives and in return for their lodgings undertook to care for the sick and educate the poor.
Although nothing remains of the 14th-century houses, No. 34 is Het Houten Huys, Amsterdam’s oldest house, dating from around 1425. The Catholic chapel dates from 1671 when it was built in a style designed to disguise its purpose. The spectacular stained-glass windows depict the Miracle of Amsterdam. In the centre of the courtyard is the English Reformed Church, where the Pilgrim Fathers worshipped before setting off to the New World (they came here from England before leaving for America).
The last Beguine died in 1971 and today, although the houses are still offered only to single women of the Christian faith, the women are not expected to undertake lay work.
There's also an attractive Begijnhof in Bruges...
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