The December Travel Book
Rough Guide Directions - Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the perfect city for a short visit or a weekend break. It's easy on the eye, with plenty (but not too much) to see; it's compact enough to explore mainly on foot; just about everyone speaks good-to-fluent English, and more often than not more than a smattering of French and German as well; and, last but not least, it's a city that likes to party.
But there's much more to Amsterdam than that. It's a thoughtful city, with a long-standing liberal tradition that has given it a distinctive character, beginning with the obvious – the legalized prostitution and dope-smoking coffee shops – through to the more subtle, encapsulated by Amsterdammers themselves in the Dutch word gezellig, which roughly corresponds to a combination of “cosy”, “lived-in” and “warmly convivial”. Nowhere is this more applicable than in the city's unparalleled selection of gezellig drinking establishments, whether you choose a traditional brown café or one of the newer designer places.
The city is also riding something of a resurgent wave, with dozens of great new restaurants, a vibrant arts scene, including the brand-new Muziekgebouw, and a club scene that has come of age recently.
The layout of the city is determined by a web of canals radiating out from an historical core to loop right round the centre in a “Girdle of Canals”, the Grachtengordel. This planned, seventeenth-century extension to the medieval town makes for a uniquely elegant urban environment, with tall gabled houses reflected in black-green waters, a world away from the traffic and noise of many another European city centres. These charms are supplemented by a string of first-rate attractions, most notably the Anne Frank Huis, the Rijksmuseum, with its wonderful collection of Dutch paintings, including several of Rembrandt's finest works, and the peerless Van Gogh Museum, with the world's largest collection of the artist's work.
Amsterdam At A Glance
The Old Centre
Amsterdam's old centre is the city's busiest quarter, with the notorious Red Light District at its heart. It has to be seen, but it's worth bearing in mind that this is a business – rather than a tourist – district, with a solid bedrock of sleaze beneath the fun veneer.
Grachtengordel
The ultimate in thoughtful city planning, the Grachtengordel – basically the ring of canals that was dug around the medieval centre in the seventeenth century – tripled the city in size, and made Amsterdam what it is today. When anyone thinks of the city, it is these elegant waterways, criss-crossed by bridges, and flanked by tall quirkily gabled houses, that they have in mind.
The Jordaan and Western Docklands
In many ways this is the city centre's most appealing and restful area, with some of the most graceful stretches of the main canals together with the more ramshackle small waterways of the Jordaan, and the tall warehouses of the former harbour area. All without trams and traffic.
Old Jewish Quarter and Eastern Docklands
Amsterdam's Jewish Quarter is not what it was – most of its inhabitants were deported during the Nazi occupation, and it's been unsympathetically redeveloped since then. But it holds a few fascinating corners of Jewish and wartime history as well as some key one-off attractions like the Rembrandthuis and the city's zoo.
Museum Quarter
Unsurprisingly, this area, just south of the city centre proper, is home to the cream of Amsterdam's museums. It is also one of the city's plusher neighbourhoods, with leafy streets and apartment blocks and upscale shops and restaurants – and some of the best of the city's moderately priced hotels.
The Outer Districts
There's not a lot to take you into Amsterdam's outer districts, except perhaps for the increasingly gentrified De Pijp neighbourhood – worth visiting for its vibrant daily market and growing number of cool bars and restaurants.
Outside Amsterdam
Don't forget that Holland is a small country and that there are plenty of compelling attractions very close at hand – not least the small town of Haarlem, with the great Frans Hals Museum, and the stunning Keukenhof Gardens, among others.
Rough Guide Directions Amsterdam is published by Rough Guides (paperback: £6.99). It is also available through roughguides.com and all good booksellers.
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