Souvenir Shops, Amsterdam

If you want some, you won’t have to look far – this colourful display was found suspended from the ceiling in a shop right on Dam Square, but they seemed to be in all Amsterdam souvenir shops.

Painted wooden ones, plain ready to paint wodden ones, and even soft furry ones - I presume to use as slippers!!

Personally, I can’t imagine walking far in the wooden ones in comfort – maybe I should have bought some and tried!

I collect certain odd things, one of them is Ganeshas ... I was led into this shop by it's logo, yup a Ganesha.

In addition to Hindu inspired nic-nacs, interesting souvenier T-shirts, ashtrays, etc ... they also had nice incense and burners, as well as the requisite items you'd find in a head shop.

What to buy: I bought a fun baseball cap w/ their logo (that I wear almost everyday), T shirts, ashtrays ... all sorts of little things for myself, as well as for others.

What to pay: I felt the items were better than those across from Damrak canal in the tourist trap strip of shops ... I paid about 5E for my cap, and I honestly can't remember about the other prices, but they were good in my opinion :)

Souvenir Shops

What to buy: Kewl Dutch Clogs.... Windmills... Postcards, Magnets... Dutch Costumes (Dress)... Dolls dressed in Dutch Costumes.... Dutch Miniature Houses (my latest passion)... Buy them all! ;-)

What to pay: It's cheaper to buy them outside of Amsterdam - in the villages. Expect to pay more if you were to buy them in the city center.

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I will classify this under antiques / souvenirs as there was no category listed as "world treasures."

Bead Art on Reestraat has beautiful treasures and gifts from around the world, especially Asia and Far East/Orient.

This is not junk or tourist "gifts," these are truly class treasures hand picked by the owner in the countries she visits.

Most of all, the most enchanting Mevrouw Ellie Sayid is not only kind, warm, welcoming and helpful, but also one of the more knowledgeable and interesting people I have ever had the pleasure to meet and speak with.

If you shop seriously here and manage to make her acquaintance, if she has time, ask her to show you the painting and photograph of herself taken dressed as (my impression) a glamorous, early film star (e.g. Theda Bara).
She was so lovely in the picture, and she is still so attractive and charming today.

My thanks and sincere respect to her husband who had the class not to thrash me for muttering and stammering as I drooled over his lovely wife: asking question after stupid question just to remain as long as possible in her presence:
Dank u well Meneer.



Just for fun, hear is a Theda Bara quote:

""the reason good women like me
and flock to my pictures
is that there is a little bit of vampire instinct in every woman "

What to buy: What your heart desires, what catches your eye, and of course, what suits your budget.

Again, this is not cheap junk. You get what you pay for.

Truly beautiful pieces of art, sculpture, glass, antiques, of legitimate wares from Asia, the Orient, and ???

There is something here for everyone.

The link below is a picture of the shop and some of the objects in the window from my "Reestraat Stroll" Travelogue. Scroll down to the picture that says "Reestraat 12 shop"
Bead Art Front Window

What to pay: What the market will bear. Ms. Saiyd will negotiate a fair price if you are not rude or pushy.

Around Dam Square there are countless souvenir shops all with the same prices (3 magnets 5euro, 1 tshirt 14euro, cups and other touristic stuff made in china). But come on, why to buy something so typical that is the same everywhere in the world??

In case you want something better buy some great local cheese (yes, you can have it out of the bridge for some days if you don't open it and anyway do it one day before you leave).
In Jordaan area there are some tiny stores with strange things.
At Singel canal there is a flower market where u can buy seeds (bring toulips to ur garden!).
There are many flee markets, the most famous is Waterlooplein with second hand stuff, tshirts etc
I found some great music boxes in the museum of Musical Instuments at Utrecht (30' by train from A'dam)

We didn't do a whole lot of shopping but couldn't resist stopping when we saw some goofy hats for my niece and nephew, David is modeling the lovely hat with the orange braids, my nephew got one with a giant beer mug on top, 3.95E each at Helemaal van Haren, Nieuwendijk 213-215.

We also couldn't resist picking up some cookies for the plane ride home at Hema, Nieuwendijk 174-176. The Roomboter stroopwafels looked light and airy but when we picked them up they weighed a ton thanks to the sugary, caramel middle. Those cookies were awesome as were the koggetjes, a thin buttery sugary cookie. I was too busy eating them to take a picture but if you find yourself in Amsterdam and have a sweet tooth, I'd highly recommend trying both of these!

In Amsterdam there is a souvenir shop called 'Bazar' on Damrak 24 & 60 and on Nieuwendijk 128 (and 'Bon Dia' as well on Kalverstraat). They have Holland t-shirts & sweaters (with all kinds of sayings on them), hats, caps, bracelets, underwear made out of candy, sex things, jewelry, bongs, weed lollipops, really cool lighters, ashtrays and so on.
A really cool store that u should check out!

What to pay: It depends, but not expensive

During my short stay at Amsterdam, found out that some of the shops near the flower market are cheaper than the souvenir shops at Damrak & Dam Square, since these are the most frequently visited by the tourist. May be you check first & compare and then buy.

What to buy: Souvnier things!!!

Well, this tip is specific to all the souvenir shops in the Dam Square area and leading along to the red light district... there are dozens of them, all with kinda the same offering, at about the same prices... its still fun to wander along the street, cause you never know what you might find!

What to buy: Some of the shops have a nice selection of T-Shirts, and most of them sell the standard tourist souvenir - Ashtrays (with Marijuana stamps - bought one of them for my future mother and father in law :-p), mugs, lighters, postcards, etc... the smaller ones have a nice selection of pipes too.

What to pay: Anything from 1 euro to 25 euros

Souvenirs are always very overpriced in my experience. I need them often as gifts when I go abroad. So instead of going to the souvenir shops or Tourist Information, I prefer to go to the Bloemenmarkt (daily flowermarket between Koningsplein and Muntplein) and buy little Delft Blue articles there.
I also saw good bargains on Waterlooplein.