Related Amsterdam Favorites Tips

Favorite thing: I love this card and buy a new one every year
( It doesnot include public tranport so you need to buy that yourself or walk bike .....)
go to www.museumkaart.nl
click on ZOEK (search)
type in IN DE BUURT VAN (in the area of Amsterdam or another city you like to visite
click TOON RESULTATEN (results)
and you see all museums you can visite in for example Amsterdam.
Sometimes you need to pay for an exhibition like the new church is for free but when there is an exhibition you need to pay for that.

in Amsterdam for free with Museumkaart
x Allard Pierson Museum
x Amsterdam Museum
x Anne Frank House
x Bijbels Museum - Bible Museum
x De Nieuwe Kerk - New Church
x Diamond Museum Amsterdam
x Film Museum - EYE Film Instituut Nederland
x FOAM Photography Amsterdam
x Hermitage Amsterdam
x Huis Marseille, Stichting voor Fotografie
x Joods Historisch Museum - Jewish Historical Museum
x Max Euwe Centrum - Chess Museum
x Museum Amstelkring - Our Lord in the Attic - ons lieve heer op solder
x Museum Geelvinck Hinlopen Huis
x Museum Het Schip/Amsterdam School of Architecture
x Museum Van Loon
x Museum Willet-Holthuysen
x Nederlands Instituut voor Mediakunst Montevideo/Time Based Arts
x NEMO Science center
x Oude Kerk - The Old Church
x Olympic Experience
x Koninklijk Paleis AmsterdamRoyal Palace Amsterdam
x Press Museum
x Rijksmuseum
x Scheepvaartmuseum - Maritime Museum
x Stedelijk Museum
x Tropenmuseum - Tropical Museum
? Van Gogh Museum ( cant see for sure as it is in the Hermitage now till april 25th)
x Verzetsmuseum - Resistance Museum
x Rembrandt's House
x Bijzondere collecties
x Theater Instituut Nederland
x Theo Thijssen Museum
x De Appel
x Multatuli Museum
x Portugese Synagoge
x Hollandsche Schouwburg
x Hortus Botanicus
and ofcourse more to see outside Amsterdam with this card

4 more images

Favorite thing: As early as 1975, the tortuous corridor between the Prinsengracht and Keizersgracht buildings became an art gallery, now with four exhibitions a year. The hotel estimates that over 300+ guests and visitors pass through per day, bisecting the garden, and checking out the offerings. On this visit, whimsy ( images 1-3) was the flavor of the calendar quarter, but over the years both Dutch and international painters have exhibited here.

The largest fixed work of art hangs in the Keizersgracht 238 restaurant, measing at least 20 feet long and six feet high. It was commissioned during a late 20th C renovation and created by the French artist Thierry de Cronieres. The title is "Hals' Brunch: Mirror of a rich past, but ready for the future " and offers a 20th C take on Franz Hals classic " The Last Supper ". Every passing reveals a new modern element appropriate to the 20th C - beer cans and soda bottles, cell phones, Marlboros, spray painted graffiti, video games on laptops, and even a Burger King Whopper. Many of the faces seem vaguely familiar as well - is Jesus really Tom Selleck? Is that Perrier, are those skateboards? Picture is worth the price of a meal ( images 4,5 ).

4 more images

Favorite thing: Just below roof level, most of the canal circle townhouses have an external hoist used in centuries past to bring heavy items to upper floors, as seen throughout Europe. Elsewhere on the facade there are often pictures related to the occupant's business or personal symbol. Also worth looking for when walking through the city, and particularly on the canals.

4 more images

Favorite thing: Amsterdam is a city of canals - waterways are said to occupy 25% of the surface of the city. Beautiful and scenic at every turn, they are one of the great joys of visiting. Canals did not appear at random but are the result of conscious city planning. Early on, the city was surrounded by the broad Singel canal, used for managing water flow and as a defensive moat. In the Golden Age of the 1600's with over 400 ships arriving and leaving per annum, the city size grew beyond the existing canal system. City managers developed a plan for three additional concentric canals predominantly for residences surrounded by an outside canal for defense, the Singelgracht, with construction spanning 50 years (1613-56). In addition, parallel canals were planned for what today is the Jordaan district, some of the most beautiful in the city. In 2101 these canals were granted UNESCO World Heritage status. Every bend in the Herengracht (Patrician's Canal), Keizersgracht (Emperor's Canal), and Prinsengracht (Prince's Canal ) and particularly the Jordaan canals brings a new vista. Planning is not necessary to see lots of canal vistas - just walking through the city will more than suffice.

Herengracht, named after the city administrators, is home to some of the most expensive townhouses, doublewides in the U portion of the canal, often block through to the Keizersgracht with inside gardens.
Keizersgracht is named after Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I and is the widest canal.
Prinsengracht is the longest canal, named after the Prince of Orange.

Very few waterways have been filled in over the years. The Amstel of course has become the Damrak. The Spui was formerly a waterway, and several smaller canals were closed to accomodate vehicular traffic in the 20th C. The only king to close a canal was also the only king to actually live in Amsterdam. Louis I, brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, closed a canal behind the Palace because the stench was so offensive his sensitive wife could not sleep.

4 more images

Favorite thing: Amsterdam is famous for its canal houses, whose history date back to as far as the 17th century, when Amsterdam was a prospering trade city. Canal houses served both as homes as well as work places or storage buildings.

They are often specified by their gabels, which come in several forms like bottle, step, spout and many more. Also the facade is usually topped by a hoist with a hook to lift up bulky goods to the upper levels of the building.

Amsterdam's canal district with its canal houses was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2010.

Directions:
Most of Amsterdam's canal houses can be found in the so called canal district (Grachtengordel) which is the area around the following canals Singel, Herengracht, Keizersgracht and Prinsensgracht.

4 more images

Favorite thing: I was more than surprised to see so many buildings of modern and contemporary architecture in Amsterdam. They are an interesting contrast to the 17th and 18th century canal houses of the old town.

Among the buildings which I found well worth seeing is the so called Silodam, which was completed in 2002 after designs of the Dutch architects MVRDV. It is a resturcturing project at the end of a pier of former warehouses . The Silodam consists of 157 building units in a 10 storey high rectangular housing silo. The pier with the Silodam is situated in the Oude Houthaven at the lake IJ.

At the Westerdokseiland, which was Amsterdam's former train depot, several modern residential buildings were finished in the last ten years. Many of them have cantilevered balconies with panoramic views of the surrounding area.

Also on the Oosterdok and the Ooserdokseiland large construction sites for ultra modern buildings can be found. The area is located just east of the Central Railway Station.

1 more image

Favorite thing: At the Voetboogstraat 29 (side street of the Heiligenweg to the Spui) there is a memorial for Joes Kloppenburg who was killed by pointless violence.

The memorial reads:
17 augustus 1996
Vier opgefokte dronken jongens komen hier in de Voetboogstraat ruzie zoeken.
Ze slaan acht mensen in elkaar: cafégangers die patat zitten te eten, een zwerver, omstanders die het geweld proberen te stoppen.
Joes Kloppenburg roept "kappen nou!"
Hij wordt doodgeslagen.
Hij is 26.
Het is vrijdagnacht, halfvijf.

Translation:
August 17, 1996.
Four drunken ***ed up guys come here in the Voetboogstraat looking for a fight.
They beat up eight people: bar visitors eating fries, a homeless man, bystanders who try to end the violence.
Jos Kloppenburg shouts "Cut it out!"
He is beaten to the death.
He is 26.
It's Friday night, 4.30AM.

Above the spot is a display with the word HELP.

Favorite thing: 1. The name of the city comes from the combination of the river Amstel and the Dam that was built on it?

2. If global warming causes the sea levels to rise even a little Amsterdam will be one of the first cities to get flooded, because it’s actually well below sea level? Most of the country has been reclaimed from the sea so it is almost entirely flat and is 6.7 meters below sea level at its lowest point.

3. The number of bikes in Amsterdam is twice the number of cars people own?

4. 75% of the entire worlds flower bulb production comes from Netherland?

5. Amsterdam is built entirely on piles, huge stakes driven into the ground? Central Station is built on 6000 of them.