Sail on the Canals
Sure it’s touristy, but it’s also a pretty cool and comfortable way to form a general impression of the city. You should go on at least one trip on the canals.
The sightseeing boats leave regularly from the Central Station, Damrak and Rijksmuseum. The guided tours last about 45 minutes.
A great alternative is the canal bus with its 14 stops close to museums and shopping areas. To go on the bus you need to buy a hop-on-and-off ticket.
You can also try one of the museum boats that sail between the city’s museums. Buy a day pass, which also grants you a discount to a series of restaurants, shops, museums and other monuments.
The Bag Museum
Spend some of your time in Amsterdam visiting the handbag heaven!
You will get a different kind of museum experience if you pay a visit to the new and beautiful handbag museum in the middle of town. A museum that probably primarily appeals to women.
Are you crazy about bags? And do you have the energy to have a close look at 3.500 of them? Then the Tassenmuseum Hendrikje is an incredible place. A must-see for designers and all of us who are in love with that kind of stuff. Aside from bags, the museum also exhibits purses and suitcases from the Middle Ages and up until today. Needless to say, Gucci, Fendi and Chanel are firmly represented. The only big problem is that you can’t bring the bags home with you.
But in the museum’s shop you can buy bags made by young Dutch designers. The museum also has a good café with a wonderful blooming courtyard.
Tassenmuseum Hendrikje
Herengracht 573
www.tassenmuseum.nl
Van Gogh
The city’s great museums are located side by side on the Museumplein. Here you will find the Rijksmuseum, the Stedelijk Museum and the Van Gogh Museum among others.
The location itself is worth visiting. A huge green area with lots of benches, biking lanes and even a skating slope. On a sunny day the lawns get crowded.
If you are in Amsterdam, you must visit the Van Gogh Museum. The building is an experience in itself – particularly the huge gray metal addition from 1999, designed by the Japanese architect, Kisho Kurokawa.
The museum has changing exhibitions. Until the end of January 2008 there is a great exhibit focusing on the time Van Gogh spent in Barcelona. You have to see the permanent collection as well. It contains 200 paintings, 500 sketches and 700 letters by Van Gogh, as well as paintings by his post-impressionist French colleagues, like Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec and Monet.
The Van Gogh Museum has a great museum shop with a huge selection. Posters are wrapped carefully, so you can bring them back on you flight without worries.
Van Gogh Museum, Paulus Potterstraat 7-11
www.vangoghmuseum.nl
Albert Cuyp – Markt de Pijp
Amsterdam has lots of wonderful markets. If you only visit one of them, we recommend the popular Albert Cuyp Market.
It consists of one long street with stalls as far as you can see. You can find anything your heart desires of fresh provisions, spices, fruit, meat and fish that are delicately presented on dripping ice. You will also find stacks of socks, cheap make-up, bed linen, furniture, flowers, underwear, pets as well as one stall with more than a hundred different kinds of pickles!
The atmosphere is particularly great on Saturdays, but the Albert Cuyp Market is so crowded on that day of the week that you shouldn’t count on making a great vintage bargain.
The Alber Cuyp is located in the latin quarter ”De Pijp”, and is open from 9.30 am to 5 pm Monday through Saturday. Trams number 4, 16, 24 and 25 that leave from the Central Station stop there.
The Albert Cuyp Market is just one among several interesting markets in Amsterdam. (See ”Go Shop”)
Vondelpark
Vondelpark is Amsterdam’s equivalent to New York’s Central Park. It is lovely to stroll around the park on a sunny day and enjoy a drink in “Het Blauwe Theehuis”, which is situated in the middle of the park.
By Mette Lomholdt