Amazing bookstore, filled with ancient treasures on the Oude Hoogstraat in Amsterdam. Here you will find books and prints dealing with almost every subject relevant to Amsterdam and it’s history.
Info:
Located between the Kloveniersburgwal and the Oudezijdes Achterburgwal on the Oude Hoogstraat. The Damstraat begins at the Dam, opposite the Royal Palace and continues through some of Amsterdam’s most colorful neighborhood to the east.
The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, is home to a large collection of art and history of the Netherlands. The museum has an famed collection of paintings from the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic, the Golden Age, works by Rembrandt, Vermeer and other paintings such as Frans Hals and Jan Steen. At the very heart of the museum is Rembrandt’s “Night Watch”.
The Rijksmuseum houses more than just paintings: there are collections of silver, delftware, doll’s houses, prints, drawings, Asiatic art and Dutch history. Art on paper, prints and drawings, and the photographic collection, are shown four times a year in different exhibitions.
The Rijksmuseum is at one end of the Museumplein which is also bordered by the Van Gogh museum, the Stedlijk museum and the Concertgebouw. The Museumplein is a good place to take a break on a nice day. It’s especially refreshing if you’re attempting to do more than one museum in a day.
Info:
Open daily from 10 am to 5 pm. Closed on January 1.
Admission is 8.50 euros for adults.
Address:
Stadhouderskade 42
Amsterdam 1071 ZD
Phone: 020-674-7047
Amsterdam’s Chinatown is growing daily, with new shops opening along the edge of the district, servicing the booming restaurant trade and immigrant population as well as the growing interest in Asian food among Europeans.
Toko Dun Yong, a multilevel department store, has been selling a wide variety of products made in China since 1957. This is the class market in Amsterdam’s Chinatown, with far more items than the other, smaller markets carry.
Their excellent selection of food, kitchenware, ceramics, furniture, books, music, restaurant equipment and decorations are without peer in Amsterdam. Whether you’re looking for just the right size wok, or that special kind of tea you’ll find it here or nowhere.
If you can make it past the first floor’s enormous selection of edibles, venture downstairs to the basement’s treasure horde of kitchen and restaurant items. You’ll be sorely tempted to buy that long desired kitchen implement. I was amazed to see such a range of items, including things I didn’t expect to find in a Chinese store, like Paella pans (in 2 sizes!).
With all the other Chinese specialty stores around, the prices might not be the best on certain items, but it’s hardly worth the time to shop all over to save a few cents, when this place has it all.
Info:
Open: 9am – 6pm daily, Sunday Noon-6pm.
Metro: Nieuwmarkt
Address:
Stormsteeg 9
Amsterdam 1012 BD
Phone: +31-(0)20-622-1763
The Oosterpark is located on the east side of Amsterdam, in a culturally diverse section of town. Thus it’s a popular venue for cultural activities involving various groups including Surinamese, Indonesians, Indians, Muslims and others.
But anyone can enjoy this beautiful park. I found the design intriguing as the paths lead to sudden viewpoints offering different perspectives on each section of the park.
Another interesting feature of the park are numerous metal sculptures like the one above. One statue honors a sheepdog named Albert, who helped track down 200 fugitives for the Amsterdam Police department. A new monument will be unveiled July 1st, 2002 to commemorate the Slave History of Holland, which brought the ancestors of those who live around the park to the Netherlands.
You can view a variety of birdlife in the ponds at the Oosterpark.
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.
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.
In the Nieuwe Markt area is an ancient apothecary and drugstore named Jacob Hooy at Kloveniersburgwal #10. Operating on this spot since 1743, the shop offers medicinal herbs and various natural remedies. The staff is on hand to help you with explanations of the herbs and their uses, and will help you find what you need.
Check out the barrels and drawers all labeled in Latin with their contents. Now imagine the wonderful aroma of all those dried herbs and flowers – you can sneeze, wheeze or shout with glee – but you will definitely notice it. In fact the interior of this shop is nothing but wall-to-wall drawers, barrels, and jars of herbs, salves, and other personal care items.
Jacob Hooy is also noted for their licorice, in all sorts of shapes and sizes. They say the selection of the sweet sticky black stuff here is Amsterdam’s best, except maybe for the sticky black stuff in the coffeeshops, but that’s another kind of “candy.”
Jacob Hooy offered all sorts of items in the past that we don’t consider medicine today – note the jars with names like OPIUM and TABAK.
This area of Amsterdam was always a market, especially for herbs and spices relating to medicine. Across the courtyard in the fanciful castle named the Waag, Dutch physicians operated a theater for the public dissection of human corpses. This rather grim practice no longer takes place over there, it’s now an internet café and restaurant! Before that the area was known as St. Anthony’s Gate, until the 1600’s when the city tore down it’s perimeter walls.
The John Adams Institute provides an independent podium for American culture in the Netherlands. For three decades now, we have brought the best and the brightest of American thinking from the fields of literature, politics, history, technology and the arts. Love it or hate it, the United States plays an important role in the world: what happens in the US is of continuing relevance for the rest of the world, and we provide a window onto that.
The John Adams Institute was founded in 1987 by the cooperation of the West India Foundation of Holland and New York’s Dutch American West India Company Foundation to promote lively debates and lectures in historic venues within old Amsterdam.
This non-profit organization is dedicated to preserving the historic links between Amsterdam and New York City in particular, and the U.S. as a whole.
Located in the West India Huis, which was once the headquarters of the Dutch West India Company, the John Adams Institute holds a series of approximately eleven lectures or talks every year. These lectures have proven to be popular, and have sold out in advance many times. The speakers tend to be world-famous guests such as writers, artists and scientists with profound viewpoints.
The institute was named for John Adams, former president of the United States, who is also a former resident of Amsterdam. Adams was the first ambassador to the Dutch Republic from the U.S., and enjoyed a life of culture here in Old Amsterdam collecting and reading books, hobnobbing with European royalty and furthering U.S. interests here in the Netherlands.
Info:
Located in the West-Indisch Huis at Herenmarkt #97.
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.
Comfy, cozy and on the Leidseplein. In the American Hotel. Hiply extravagant, but worth it. Music, drinks, food.