Anne Frank House Undoubtedly Amsterdam’s most significant attraction, the Anne Frank House is where the teenage diarist hid with her family from the occupying Nazis during the Second World War. The secret annexe has been preserved as it was when the family was betrayed and captured and the warehouse below has been turned into an excellent exhibition on Anne Frank’s life and the Holocaust. Whatever time of year you visit Amsterdam, it’s wise to arrive early at the Anne Frank House as there are always queues to get in.
Old Town: Dam Square and around Dam is the city’s main central square and it’s lined with some impressive buildings, notably the Koninklijk Paleis (Royal Palace), which can be viewed by guided tour, and the Nieuwe Kerk (New Church), which, despite its name, is one of the city’s oldest surviving churches. Originally built in the Gothic style of the late 1400s, it has been rebuilt and renovated several times over the centuries.
Also on the Dam Square is Madame Tussauds, home to waxwork likenesses of popular figures as diverse as the Dutch Royal Family, Ronaldinho, George Clooney and Kylie Minogue.
A must-see for retail addicts is the enormous De Bijenkorf (‘the Beehive’) department store on the eastern edge of Dam, which has been a key feature of the city’s shopping district since it opened in the late 19th century. An upmarket store in the same class as Harrod’s of London, De Bijenkorf has a wonderful range of luxurious goods.
Old Town: De Walletjes (Red Light District) Named after the city’s former fortifications, the area of Amsterdam now famous for its abundance of sex shops, peep shows and brothels stretches between the Oudezijds Voorburgwal and the Oudeszijds Achterburgwal. It has become a tourist attraction in itself and its narrow streets are always crowded with visitors who flock to see the open-fronted brothels where girls flaunt themselves in the windows day and night.
Paying tribute to Amsterdam’s liberal counterculture are two interesting and unconventional museums – the Hash Museum and the Sex Museum Venustempel. On the southern edge of the area is The Hash Museum, of dubious legality, which has collections of pipes and instruments for consuming dope, displays on the use of hemp for textiles and fabrics, information on cannabis as a medicinal drug and even a nursery where visitors can see the plant being grown. Meanwhile, the Sex Museum on the Damrak to the north of the Red Light District is a tacky but amusing collection of old pornographic pictures and movies and weird and wonderful sex toys.
On a somewhat more conservative note, the two main architectural sights in the Red Light District are the Oude Kerk, another Gothic late medieval church and the Amstelkring, a former catholic church now open as a museum. Built as a clandestine place of worship for Catholics after the Reformation, it’s situated in the loft of a townhouse. There were once several across the city but this small and inconspicuous chapel is the only one to have survived.
Museumplein In the south of the city centre just beyond the Singelgracht canal and near the large open space of the Vondelpark is a cluster of excellent world-class museums centred around the Museumplein – the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum and the Stedelijk Museum.
The most popular and most famous, the Rijksmuseum, deserves a whole day’s visit. It’s a vast museum full of some of the country’s most valuable treasures such as the Night Watch and other masterpieces by Rembrandt, as well as excellent collections of medieval and Renaissance works of art and a well-conceived section on Dutch history. It’s currently undergoing refurbishment with frequent closures, so it’s worth checking out what’s currently open before you go.
Also under renovation is the adjacent Stedelijk Museum, a magnificent modern art gallery with works by Picasso, Kandinsky, Chagall, Cézanne and Rothko. Again, access to the collections varies frequently so check in advance.
Art lovers will also enjoy the Vincent Van Gogh Museum, home to a marvellous collection of his works spanning from his early period in the Netherlands to his later career in Paris and the south of France. It’s one of the city’s most popular attractions so it’s wise to arrive early to avoid the queues.
While you’re in the area, why not pop into the Heineken Experience for some light refreshment! It’s an interactive exhibition and tour of the brewery of this popular Dutch beer, which includes a couple of glasses of beer along the way.
Old Jewish Quarter (Jodenhoek) and around Lying to the east of the city centre, the Old Jewish Quarter has a handful of interesting sights, the most interesting of which is the Joods Historisch Museum (Jewish Historical Museum), a fascinating account of Jewish life, culture and history.
Also worth a visit is the Verzetsmuseum (Dutch Resistance Museum). This excellent exhibition traces the development of the Dutch Resistance movement during the period of Nazi occupation with a range of artefacts, photographs and documents and information panels in both Dutch and English.
Het Rembrandthuis (Rembrandt House) on Jodenbreestraat is where Holland’s most famous artist lived for twenty years. It houses a range of his paintings as well as an exhibition on his life and times.
Bloemenmarkt Another of Amsterdam’s most iconic sights is its brightly coloured flower market, where stalls displaying marvellous collections of cut flowers and plants line the streets alongside the Singel canal in the south of the city centre.
