Category Archives: Amsterdam Architecture

Hip Guide to Amsterdam

Randy Roy’s Red Light Walking Tour Amsterdam

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This tour was highly recommended in BOOM magazine. Randy is a pretty cool guy! This tour focused on the humorous and contemporary stories of the red light district. He kept us entertained by showing us where Quentin Tarantino wrote Pulp Fiction. Eminem and Mike Tyson’s favorite coffeshop. We even saw the club with the darkroom floor that Jean Paul Gaultier passed out on (and woke up stuck to)!
We saw a lot of window prostitutes and learned about X-rated bookshops, live sex shows, magic mushrooms and smart shops. Warning: there was also some Amsterdam history on the tour.We had a lot of laughs and came away with a better understanding of not only the red light district but also the Dutch culture. Highly recommended!

Info:
The meeting point is in front of the Victoria Hotel across from Central Station at 8pm, and 10pm on Fridays & Saturdays.(Damrak and Prins Hendrik-kade). It lasts 90 minutes.

Resevations are recommended!

Jewish Historical Museum

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The Jewish Historical Museum was established 70 years ago, and from 1932 till 1987 it was housed in the medieval Weigh House, in the Nieuwmarkt. In 1987, the museum moved to the restored complex of synagogues at Jonas Daniël Meijerplein, just off the Waterlooplein.

Originally opemed as a single room, part of the Amsterdam Historical Museum, it has grown over the years despite the efforts of the Nazis.

When Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940, the Jewish Historical Museum closed its doors and tried to save the collection. Objects on loan were returned to their owners and the museum collection was transferred to the Stedelijk Museum. In 1943 the Germans claimed the museum’s objects as Jewish property, and was taken by the Nazis to Germany, and most was lost or destroyed.
 
Reopened in 1955, only a fifth of the original collection remained. New objects were added from public and private collections.
 
The museum hosts art displays and other cultural events geared towards Amsterdam’s Jewish population and visitors.

Amsterdam Historical Museum

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A visit to Amsterdam should include a visit to this unique museum located near the Dam Square. How can you possibly understand Amsterdam as it is now without a look at it’s fascinating history?

The Amsterdam Historical Museum moved into this building in 1975. It was formerly the municipal orphanage (founded in 1520), and a brief history of the building’s previous existence is told in and around the governors room. An interactive program about the orphanage also contains several old photos.

Exhibits of special Amsterdam historical significance are displayed here at the museum.

Info:
Open daily.

The two museum entrances can be accessed from Kalverstraat 92, Sint Luciënsteeg 27 and Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 357. The museum is a twelve-minute walk from Amsterdam’s Central Station, via Damrak, Dam Square and Kalverstraat. Trams 4, 5, 9, 11, 14, 16, 24 and 25 also go to the museum, stopping at Spui.

Koninklijk Paleis

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Open daily during the summer for tourists, the Royal Palace is not the home of any royalty, it’s a museum and venue for important state events held by the Dutch royals. Recently renovated and spruced up for the wedding of Willem-Alexander and Maxima this place is worth a visit if you haven’t been inside before.

Of note are rooms replete with their period furnishings, carvings, bas-reliefs of bizarre historical notes and artworks left behind when the royals abandoned the place.

Hortus Botanicus

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The Hortus Botanicus is a great place to chill and wander, marvel at the gardens and enjoy life.

The Hortus Botanicus Amsterdam is perhaps one of the oldest botanical gardens in the world. This garden was established in 1638 as a “Hortus Medicus”, an herb garden for the physicians and pharmacists of Amsterdam.

The Hortus interacts with the community in a special way, offering guided tours, the services of a “plant doctor” who will diagnose your plant’s problem or identify it for you.

The showcase is the special Three Climates Greenhouse, built in 1993 and has tropical, sub-tropical and desert sections within.

The Palm Greenhouse was constructed in 1912, and houses some really unusual palm trees in high Victorian style.

Info:
Open Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Saturday, Sunday and public holidays from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m.

From 1st November until 1st April the garden closes at 4 p.m. The Hortus is closed on 1st January and 25th December (Christmas Day).

Adult admission is 9.50 euros, but seasonal discounts apply, and reductions for children and seniors.

EYE Filmmuseum

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Four theaters, a lounge and restaurant with other meeting spaces make up the wonderful all-new Film Museum of the Netherlands. Formerly in the Vondel Park, this stunning modern architectural marvel is now across the Ij from the Central Station in Amsterdam.

The EYE collection dates back to 1946, when the first predecessor of EYE was founded: the Nederlands Historisch Filmarchief. In 1952, this became the Dutch Filmmuseum; since 2010 we are EYE.

However, EYE does not exclusively acquire and preserve films, but a range of different materials – from movie posters to projection equipment. The focus is on films and objects that say something about Dutch film culture; a copy of virtually all Dutch films that come out each year is included in the collection.

Use the map below to find your way to the new building.

Anne Frank House

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The actual hiding place where Anne Frank and her family hid from the Nazis during World War II.

Eerie and ghostly, with lots of lessons for everyone about hatred and war. This should be visited by all who come to Amsterdam so that you understand the things that have happened here in the past, and why Amsterdam is what it is today.

Info:
Open daily from 9 am to 7 pm. Admission is € 6,50 for adults. Children less.

You can walk to the Anne Frank House from Centraal Station, Amsterdam’s main train station, in 20 minutes. You can also board tram (streetcar) number 13, 17, or 20 as well as buses number 21, 170, 171, or 172 which all go to the tram/bus stop called Westermarkt, located about a block (300 feet) from the museum’s entrance.

Visit the website: Anne Frank House

Stadsschouwburg

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Theater Hall, Cafe, Internet Cafe, meeting place extraordinaire! Right on the Leidseplein – where it’s happening at night in Amsterdam with a hundred restaurants, nightclubs, bars and coffeeshops within a block or two – and of course the Melkweg and Paradiso are right nearby as well.

Phone: 020-624-2311

Amstelkring

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Quaint old Dutch home on the side of a canal in the heart of the Red Light district which features a “hidden” church in the attic.

Originally built in 1629, the church was added in 1661 – 1663 during which time it was illegal to be a Catholic in Holland, hence the hidden churches you will find here and there – usually in some wealthy patrons home.

Now open to the public, the house is just as fascinating as the church.

Info:
Admission: MJK holders free, Adults &

Address:
#40 Oudezijdes Voorburgwal
Amsterdam 1012 GE

Phone: (0)20 624 66 04

Museum Het Rembrandthuis

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The facade of the Rembrandt House and Museum

The Rembrandthuis Museum is where the famous painter established his own studios here in Amsterdam, and lived with his family from 1639 to 1658.

He eventually left after declaring bankruptcy, and the home has been restored with approximations of it’s original furnishings based on an inventory of his possessions from that time.

Most of the building is devoted to his daily life from the time, and is of course, filled with paintings and art.

Part two of the museum is the new museum wing, where you will find exhibition rooms. The museum shop, the entrance to the museum café, the auditorium and the Rembrandt Information Centre are also located in the new wing.

On the fifth floor is the Rembrandt Information Center, where you can research on DC-rom, in books and other publications. By appointment only.