Amsterdam Historic Walking Tour

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Amsterdam Centraal Station is your gateway to the city, as well as the rest of Europe. Not only is it positioned in the city center, but the station also serves as a transportation hub. Both tourists and locals travel through the station daily, whether visiting the city for holiday, traveling abroad or going to work. At CS, you can access the bus, tram, metro, ferry, taxi and train, easily connecting you to your destination. Snap a couple of photos of the station, too – the facade is beautiful.

Our Local Expert Says:

You may notice that not all the windows are red. The blue windows on Barndesteeg are windows for women who are women only from the waist up.

Description:

Quite possibly Amsterdam's most defining feature, the Red Light District is the place to see some truly unique things. If prostitutes in windows aren't enough, you can also find an Erotic Museum, which takes you through the history of prostitution, the Hash Marijuana and Hemp Museum, which tells you all you need to know about weed, and the Banana Bar, a bar where waitresses are highly skilled in the various ways of eating a banana. If you want to learn more about prostitution in the Netherlands, visit the Prostitute Information Centre, located next to the Oude Kerk. If this doesn't excite you, the Warmoestraat, which runs along the Red Light District, is full of coffeeshops, bars, hostels and gay S&M clubs. Walking through the Red Light District today you may notice that some windows contain out of place fashion exhibitions. This is a result of the city's efforts to "clean up" the streets.

Our Local Expert Says:

Best Quick Eats

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Developed within the past 20 years, this area is now the center of Amsterdam's large Asian community. Here you will find a variety of affordable restaurants, the largest Buddhist temple in Europe, and a spectacular Chinese New Year celebration.

Our Local Expert Says:

Most Picturesque Square

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Nieuwmarkt is a square that borders on many of Amsterdam's famous attractions, including the Red Light District and the Zeedijk (Amsterdam's Chinatown). The square is lined with café's, coffeeshops and bars and is a great place to grab a drink in the evening or a bite during the day. Many of the buildings around the square have interesting histories; the small café' "De Fontayn" on the Eastern side of the square was the city's most luxurious brothel in the 1800s.

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Although currently a restaurant, this monumental building has served many purposes throughout its life. It started its life as a gate into the Medival city. Its best-known role is as a former weighing house ("Waag" means scale), the taxing point for those wishing to trade goods in the city. Among other roles, it has also played host to the city's many professional guilds, including the doctor's guild.  As a result, Rembrandt's famous painting, the Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp, was painted here.

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Experience the life of world-renowned artist Rembrandt van Rijn by visiting his home and studio. See where he lived, gathered inspiration, produced his work and taught pupils. From paintings and drawings to etchings and copper plates, the museum owns almost all of his work and rotates the displays. Demonstrations of paint preparation and etchings, as well as children's activities, are offered daily. The museum is open from 10:00 to 17:00, charging €10 for adults and €3 for children ages 6 to 17. Tours are available upon request.

-Jessica E. Lipowski, Amsterdam Local Expert

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In the 1200s the Amstel River flowed through the swampy lands, but was dammed at present day Dam Square and a city was born!  Amstel-dam became Amsterdam and the city flourished on the taxes it collected at the Dam.  It still flows through the heart of the city.  From the south the river runs past city hall, Waterlooplein and Muntplein, and the city's main canals branch off from the Amstel.  In the north it meets with the Ij River.

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The western corner tower of the former Regulier's Gate was built around 1490. Regulier's Gate was part of the old town rampart. It became obsolete when the city expanded its borders southwards at the end of the sixteenth century. After the great fire of 1618, the lower part was left intact. The city allowed architect Hendrick de Keyser to reconstruct the wooden upper part. The brothers Hemony, famous for their bell-foundry, were commissioned to make the carillon.

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Dam Square is home to prominent historical landmarks, such as the Royal Palace, the National Monument, which honors World War II victims, and Nieuwe Kerk, the "New Church." The square is always lively, often filled with tourists, street performers, demonstrations, carnivals or other events. From the Dam, you can also hire a horse-drawn carriage to tour the city or pop by Madame Tussauds wax museum. Something is always going on.

-Jessica E. Lipowski, Amsterdam Local Expert

Description:

One of the Dam's heavier features is the solid, neoclassical facade of the Royal Palace (1648-55), also known as the Paleis op de Dam (Palace on the Dam). Jacob van Campen -- the Thomas Jefferson of the Dutch Republic -- designed it as a stadhuis (town hall) to replace the decayed old Gothic one that in 1652 did everyone a favor by burning down. Van Campen intended to showcase the city's burgeoning prosperity; so its interior is replete with white Italian marble, sculptures, and painted ceilings. Poet Constantijn Huygens called it the eighth world wonder, and indeed it was among Europe's largest secular buildings at the time. It was built on a precisely tabulated foundation of 13,659 timber pilings -- a figure taught to all Dutch schoolchildren.

Not until 1808, when Napoleon Bonaparte's younger brother Louis reigned as king of the Netherlands, did it become a palace, filled with imperial furniture courtesy of the French ruler. Since the Dutch House of Orange's return to the throne in 1813, this has been the official palace of the reigning king or queen of the Netherlands. Few of them, however, have used it for more than their pied-à-terre in the capital or an occasional state celebration, such as Queen Beatrix's inauguration reception -- she prefers living at Huis ten Bosch in The Hague, but can on occasion be seen waving from the balcony here to crowds of onlookers below on the Dam.

In the Vierschaar (Court of Justice), until the 18th century, magistrates pronounced death sentences under images of Justice, Wisdom, and Mercy. Atlas holds up the globe in the high-ceilinged Burgerzaal (Citizens Chamber) and maps inlaid on the marble floor show Amsterdam as the center of the world. Ferdinand Bol's painting Moses the Lawgiver hangs in the Schepenzaal (Council Chamber), where aldermen met. On the pediment overlooking the Dam, Flemish sculptor Artus Quellin carved a stone tribute to Amsterdam's maritime preeminence; it depicts the Maid of Amsterdam and figures symbolizing the oceans paying the city homage. The weathervane on the cupola is shaped like a Dutch sailing ship. Every now and then, the 17th-century Hemony carillon tinkles out a melody.

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Magna Plaza isn't actually a department store, but a mall, located amid the extravagant neo-Gothic architecture of the former central Post Office, which dates from 1908. The Plaza's four elegant, column-lined floors are decked with around 50 specialist stores of all kinds. Yet it's small enough to function almost like a department store does.

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In summer, you may have to wait an hour or more to get in, but you shouldn't miss seeing and experiencing this house. It's a typical Amsterdam canal house, with very steep interior stairs where eight people from three separate families lived together in silence for more than 2 years during World War II. The hiding place Otto Frank found for his family, the van Pels family, and Fritz Pfeffer kept them safe until, tragically, close to the end of the war, when it was raided by Nazi forces and its occupants were deported to concentration camps. It was in this house that Anne, whose ambition was to be a writer, kept her famous diary as a way to deal with both the boredom and her youthful array of thoughts, which had as much to do with personal relationships as with the war and the Nazi terror raging outside. Visiting the rooms in which she hid is a moving and eerily real experience.

During the war, the building was an office and warehouse, and its rooms are still as bare as they were when Anne's father returned, the only survivor of the eight onderduikers (divers, or hiders). Nothing has been changed, except that protective Plexiglas panels now protect the wall on which Anne pinned up photos of her favorite actress, Deanna Durbin, and of the little English princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. As you tour the small building, it's easy to imagine Anne's experience growing up in this place, awakening as a young woman, and writing down her secret thoughts.

To avoid lines, get there as early as possible -- and while this advice isn't as useful as it used to be, because everybody is giving and heeding it, it should still save you some waiting time. A better, strategy if you're in town from mid-March to mid-September, when the museum is open until 9pm, is to go in the evening; it's usually quiet then. Next door, at no. 265-267, is a modern wing for temporary exhibits. A bronze sculpture of Anne stands on nearby Westermarkt.