Pocket Rough Guide AMSTERDAM written and researched by PHIL LEE 001-011_PRG_Amsterdam_4_Intro.indd 1 25/11/16 4:53 pm 001-011_PRG_Amsterdam_4_Intro.indd 2 25/11/16 4:53 pm Contents INTRODUCTION 4 Amsterdam at a glance ................7 Itineraries ..................................8 BEST OF AMSTERDAM 12 Big sights ................................14 Restaurants .............................22 Museums and galleries ............16 Bars ........................................24 Waterfront ..............................18 Nights out ...............................26 Coffeeshops ............................20 Shopping .................................28 PLACES 30 1 The Old Centre .....................32 6 The Museum Quarter and 2 The Grachtengordel ..............52 around ..............................100 3 The Jordaan and western 7 De Pijp, Nieuw Zuid and docklands ...........................72 Amsterdam Oost ................108 4 The Old Jewish Quarter and 8 Day-trips ...........................118 Plantage .............................80 5 The eastern docklands and Amsterdam Noord ................90 ACCOMMODATION 124 Hotels ....................................126 Hostels ..................................132 ESSENTIALS 134 Arrival ....................................136 Chronology .............................144 City transport .........................136 Dutch .....................................146 Directory A-Z ..........................139 Index ......................................148 Festivals and events ................142 << KEIZERSGRACHT < EYE FILM INSTITUTE 3 001-011_PRG_Amsterdam_4_Intro.indd 3 25/11/16 4:53 pm INTRODUCTION TO Amsterdam IN T R O D Amsterdam is simply unique. You could be sitting U C T nursing a drink outside one of its cafés, chugging IO N along its canals by boat, or riding its cheerful trams, T O A and you’ll know immediately that you couldn’t be M S anywhere else in the world. What is it that makes T ER the place so exceptional? Well, its watery cityscape D A means that much of the centre is off-limits to traffic; M its architecture is for the most part on a human rather than a grandiose scale; and its people are a welcoming bunch on the whole, proud of their city but not stuck in the past. Amsterdam is always changing but has an uncanny – and reassuring – ability to stay much the same as it has always been. FLOW ER M ARKET BY THE SINGEL CANAL 4 001-011_PRG_Amsterdam_4_Intro.indd 4 25/11/16 4:53 pm BROUW ERSGRACHT IN T R O D U C T IO N T O A M S T E R D A M In part it’s the liberal traditions reinvention of neighbourhoods of the city that have given like De Pijp and the ambitious Amsterdam its distinctive redevelopment of the old character, beginning with docklands bordering the River the obvious legalized IJ, featuring glittering new prostitution and dope-smoking public buildings such as the coffeeshops. More subtle EYE film institute (see p.96) qualities are encapsulated by and the library (see p.93). Amsterdammers themselves All that said, the Old Centre in the word gezellig, a very remains the commercial Dutch concept which roughly heart of the city. Spreading corresponds to “warmly south from Centraal Station, convivial” – something perhaps and including Amsterdam’s most manifest in the city’s notorious Red Light District, wonderfully diverse selection the district’s narrow canals are of bars and cafés. Amsterdam bordered by old merchants’ is also riding something of a houses and a jangle of newer resurgent wave, with dozens of buildings. Moving on, the great new restaurants, a vibrant layout of the rest of the city arts life and a club scene that centre is determined by a web has come of age. As if this of canals that loop right round wasn’t enough, there’s also the the centre as the so-called Best places for…a cold beer in summer It’s hard to imagine a more chilled-out place than Amsterdam in summer. Here are some of our favourite spots to kick back with an alfresco vaasje (glass of beer): > Het Papeneiland p.69 > Proust p.79 > De Sluyswacht p.89 > Gent aan de Schinkel p.107 > In de Wildeman p.51 5 001-011_PRG_Amsterdam_4_Intro.indd 5 25/11/16 5:19 pm AM STERDAM AT NIGHT IN T R O D U C T IO N T O A M S T E R D A M Grachtengordel, a planned, When to visit seventeenth-century extension Amsterdam has warm, mild to the medieval town, with its tall, elegant gabled houses summers and moderately cold reflected in olive-green waters. and wet winters. The climate There are plenty of first-rate is certainly not severe enough to attractions, most notably make much difference to the city’s the Anne Frank Huis, the routines, which makes Amsterdam Rijksmuseum, with its an ideal all-year destination. That wonderful collection of Dutch said, high summer – roughly late paintings, the peerless Van June to August – sees the city’s Gogh Museum and the newly renovated Stedelijk gallery parks packed to the gunnels of modern art. But it’s not all and parts of the centre almost about the sights: Amsterdam is overwhelmed by tourists. Spring a great city just to be in, with and autumn are not too crowded no attractions so important and can be especially beautiful, that they have to interrupt lazy with mist hanging over the canals days of wandering the canals and low sunlight beaming through and taking in the city at your the cloud cover. Even in January own pace. Finally, don’t forget and February, when the light can that the Netherlands is a small country and there are plenty be at its gloomiest, there are of compelling attractions close compensations – wet cobbles by, not least the small town of glistening under the street lights Haarlem, with the great Frans and the canals rippled by falling Hals Museum, the Zuider Zee raindrops. In the summer, from villages to the north, and the around June to August, mosquitoes stunning Keukenhof Gardens can be bothersome. – all very easy to reach by public transport. 6 001-011_PRG_Amsterdam_4_Intro.indd 6 25/11/16 4:53 pm AMSTERDAM AT A GLANCE >> EATING >> SHOPPING IN The food in the average Dutch The Nieuwendijk/Kalverstraat T restaurant has improved strip in the Old Centre is home R O hugely in recent years, to high-street fashion and D and there are many places mainstream department stores, U C serving inventive takes on while nearby Koningsplein T homegrown cuisine. The city and Leidsestraat offer designer IO N also has a good assortment of clothes and shoe stores. You’ll T ethnic restaurants, especially find more offbeat clothes O Indonesian, Chinese and shops in the Jordaan and in A M Thai. There are lots of bars the small radial streets that S – known as eetcafés – that connect the main canals of T E serve adventurous food for a the Grachtengordel – an area R D decent price in a relaxed and known as the Nine Streets. A unpretentious setting. Note The cream of Amsterdam’s M that the Dutch eat out relatively antique trade is in the early, with most restaurants Spiegelkwartier, centred on opening at 5.30pm or 6pm and Nieuwe Spiegelstraat. As closing around 10pm. regards opening hours, many shops take Monday morning >> COFFEESHOPS off; Thursday is late-opening Although the city plans to night, with most places staying close down a number of open until 9pm. places over the next few years, >> DRINKING & NIGHTLIFE Amsterdam continues to be known for its coffeeshops, Amsterdam’s selection of bars which are permitted to sell range from traditional brown small quantities of cannabis cafés – cosy places so called and ready-made joints. The because of the dingy colour majority of coffeeshops are of their walls, stained by years found in the Old Centre of tobacco smoke – to slick and generally look like designer bars. Most places stay regular cafés. Prevented from open until around midnight advertising (you need to look or 1am during the week, and at a menu to see what’s on until 2am at weekends. Look offer) they usually sell a wide out for the few tasting houses range of Dutch weed, grown or proeflokalen that are left, under artificial lights, as well originally the sampling rooms of as compressed resin such as small private distillers, now tiny, Pollem. Most of it is extremely stand-up places specializing in potent and to be handled with jenever (gin); they tend to close care – ask before you buy to around 8pm. The clubbing avoid any unpleasant surprises. scene is first-rate, and there are Coffeeshops usually open lots of bars with DJs, as well as at 10am or 11am and close an array of live music options, around midnight. particularly for jazz. OUR RECOMMENDATIONS FOR WHERE TO EAT, DRINK AND SHOP ARE LISTED AT THE END OF EACH PLACES CHAPTER. 7 001-011_PRG_Amsterdam_4_Intro.indd 7 25/11/16 4:53 pm Day One in Amsterdam 1 The Dam > p.36. The heart of the IT city, and what better place to start? INE 2 Koninklijk Paleis > p.37. The R confidence and pride of the Golden A R Age – in a building. IE S 3 Nieuwe Kerk > p.38. No longer used as a church, but still one of the city’s most impressive Gothic buildings. 4 Nine Streets > p.58. These streets connecting the main canals are the epitome of what makes Amsterdam special – full of intriguing one-off shops and cafés. • Lunch at Greenwoods > p.66. Stop off for a club sandwich by the canal at this pocket-sized delight. 5 The Grachtengordel > pp.52–71. After shopping, just get lost in the web of stately seventeenth-century canals that make Amsterdam so unique. 6 Westerkerk > p.57. Rembrandt’s burial place, and the city’s grandest Reformation-era landmark. 7 Anne Frank Huis > p.57. The city’s most renowned – and moving – sight, bar none. 8 The Jordaan > p.72. One of Amsterdam’s most wanderable and picturesque districts, full of independent stores, bars and restaurants. • Dinner at Moeders > p.77. There’s no better place to wind up of an evening than at this big, lively and very authentic Dutch restaurant on the edge of the Jordaan. 8 001-011_PRG_Amsterdam_4_Intro.indd 8 25/11/16 4:53 pm