Three Days in,
Amsterdam.
Amsterdam, Netherlands
canals, museums, bikes, markets
Itinerary
3 chaptersRijksmuseum, van Gogh and a slow hour in Vondelpark
Museumplein, Amsterdam
Cloudy
The shape of the day
The Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum back to back would flatten anyone, so this day puts a proper lunch and a park between them. Breakfast happens over in De Pijp, then it is straight to the Rijksmuseum for opening, steak at Loetje once your legs have had enough, and van Gogh in the early afternoon. Vondelpark afterwards is the reset before dinner. Both museums face the same open green square, Museumplein, which they share with the Concertgebouw, so almost nothing today involves real distance.
Worth knowing before you set off
Book both museums online with timed entry. The Rijksmuseum opens at nine, and that first hour is the calmest the Gallery of Honour ever gets. The Van Gogh Museum sells out days ahead in August, so pin down an early-afternoon slot rather than hoping. If you are doing more than three museums across the trip, price up a Museumkaart before you buy singles. Take a light waterproof, since Amsterdam rain tends to be short and frequent rather than heavy, and wear shoes you would happily stand in for four hours. One local quirk worth knowing: plenty of Dutch cafes and shops take debit cards but not credit cards, so carry a card that works on a normal PIN terminal.
Getting between the stops
CT Coffee & Coconuts sits on the Ceintuurbaan in De Pijp, roughly 1.5 km from Museumplein, so allow twenty minutes on foot, five on a bike, or a short tram hop. After that the whole day is walkable. The Rijksmuseum to Café Loetje is under ten minutes through the streets behind the museum, Loetje to the Van Gogh Museum about the same, and the park entrance a couple of minutes past that. The Seafood Bar is on Van Baerlestraat, a block back from the square.
A little local context
A cycle path runs straight through the passage under the Rijksmuseum, and it is a working commuter route rather than a photo spot. The same rule holds everywhere here. The red tarmac belongs to bikes, and stepping into it without looking is the fastest way to annoy an Amsterdammer. Service is friendly but unhurried, and nobody will move you off a table. Tipping is not obligatory. Rounding up, or five per cent or so when the meal was good, is what locals actually do.
- 0108:30 · 60m
CT Coffee & Coconuts
Flat whites and coconut pancakes under the ceiling of an old cinema. Get there before nine or you will be waiting, especially at weekends. The upper levels are quieter than the ground floor and worth the climb. It sits in De Pijp rather than the museum quarter, so allow twenty minutes to walk across afterwards.About this place↗ Open in MapsA large all-day cafe on the Ceintuurbaan in De Pijp, built into a former cinema and known for coconut-heavy breakfasts and good coffee.
HistoryThe building went up in the 1920s as a neighbourhood picture house. After the cinema closed it passed through other uses before the cafe took it on, keeping the raked levels and the height of the old auditorium instead of flattening the space.Why it's famousIt became one of the places that defined brunch in De Pijp, as much for the room as for the food. The tiered seating and open central well look nothing like a normal cafe.Did you knowThe stepped floors you sit on follow the cinema's original rake, which is why the tables climb higher the further back you go. - 0209:45 · 150m
Rijksmuseum
Go straight upstairs to the Gallery of Honour at opening, before the coach groups reach the Night Watch. Two and a half hours is honest for the highlights. The library and the Asian pavilion are usually empty. Bags larger than a small rucksack go in the cloakroom, so travel light.About this place↗ Open in MapsThe national museum of the Netherlands, holding the country's great collection of Dutch art and history, with Rembrandt's Night Watch at the centre of it.
HistoryThe collection began in The Hague in 1800 and moved to Amsterdam a few years later. The building it occupies now, designed by Pierre Cuypers, opened in 1885. A renovation lasting roughly a decade closed most of the museum until it reopened in 2013.Why it's famousFor the Dutch Golden Age painters in one place: Rembrandt, Vermeer, Frans Hals and Jan Steen, with the Night Watch given a hall of its own at the end of the Gallery of Honour.Did you knowA public cycle path runs right through the passage under the museum. Plans to close it during the renovation met years of resistance from cyclists, and the route stayed open. - 0312:30 · 75m
Café Loetje
Order the house steak and say how you want it cooked, which is roughly the entire decision. It comes sitting in its own gravy, and the bread on the table is for mopping the plate. The terrace fills fast in good weather. No booking at some branches, so arrive just before half twelve.About this place↗ Open in MapsA neighbourhood cafe in Oud-Zuid, a short walk from Museumplein, built around one dish: beef served in a shallow pool of its own gravy.
HistoryLoetje started here as an ordinary local cafe rather than a restaurant. The steak took over as its reason to exist, and the name has since spread to branches across the Netherlands.Why it's famousThe biefstuk is a Dutch institution, and this is where it comes from. Locals still argue about which branch does it best, but the original gets the vote most often.Did you knowThe gravy is the point, not a sauce on the side. Ordering the beef well done is technically allowed and quietly considered a waste. - 0414:00 · 90m
Van Gogh Museum
Timed entry only, so book before you arrive. Start on the first floor and follow the paintings in order, from the dark Dutch years through Paris to Arles. Ninety minutes covers it comfortably. The letters between Vincent and Theo are the part most people rush past and shouldn't.About this place↗ Open in MapsA museum on Museumplein holding the largest collection of Vincent van Gogh's work anywhere, alongside paintings by artists he knew and admired.
HistoryThe paintings stayed in the family after Vincent's death in 1890, passing from his brother Theo to Theo's widow and then to their son. The Dutch state and the Van Gogh Foundation brought the collection into public hands, and the museum opened in 1973 in a building designed by Gerrit Rietveld.Why it's famousIt follows one artist across roughly a decade of work, so you can watch the palette shift from the brown of the Potato Eaters to the yellows of the Arles years in a single visit.Did you knowMuch of the reason anyone knows the name is Jo van Gogh-Bonger, Theo's widow, who spent decades placing the paintings in exhibitions and translating the letters into print. - 0515:45 · 60m
Vondelpark
An hour is enough for a loop through the middle without forcing it. Walk in from the Van Gogh end and follow the water south west. The Blauwe Theehuis is the round 1930s pavilion in the centre and does a decent beer outside. Keep out of the cycle lanes, they are fast.About this place↗ Open in MapsAmsterdam's best-known park, a long ribbon of lawns, ponds and paths running south west from the museum quarter, and the city's default place to lie down.
HistoryIt opened in 1865 as a riding and walking park, laid out by Jan David Zocher in the English landscape style. A group of Amsterdam residents funded and ran it privately for decades before it was handed over to the city in 1953.Why it's famousIt is where the city goes in summer: picnics, open-air theatre, runners and skaters, and cafes that stay busy from morning until late.Did you knowThe park was originally just called the Nieuwe Park. The name people use now came from the statue of the poet Joost van den Vondel put up inside it. - 0618:30 · 90m
The Seafood Bar
Pick from the ice counter at the front rather than agonising over the menu. The fruits de mer platter for two is the order if you are hungry, oysters and a glass of white if you are not. Tables turn quickly and it gets loud. Book, or eat early at the bar.About this place↗ Open in MapsA bright tiled fish restaurant a block from Museumplein, laid out like a fishmonger's shop with the day's catch on ice by the door.
HistoryThe first Seafood Bar opened on Van Baerlestraat and grew into a small group with branches elsewhere in Amsterdam. The format has stayed the same throughout: counter display at the front, short menu, quick service.Why it's famousIt solved a real gap in the city, good fresh shellfish without the ceremony or the prices of a formal fish restaurant.Did you knowThe oysters usually come from Zeeland in the south west of the Netherlands, where they are grown in the tidal water of the Oosterschelde.
The Jordaan, Anne Frank House and an hour on the water
Jordaan, Amsterdam
What today looks like
An early slice of appeltaart on the Noordermarkt, then the Anne Frank House at nine while the Prinsengracht is still quiet. The rest of the morning is unstructured on purpose, just the Nine Streets and the canals either side of the Westerkerk, before pancakes and an hour on a boat. Dinner is Dutch home cooking at Moeders, the kind of place where the evening stretches without anyone deciding it should.
Before you head out
Anne Frank House tickets are sold online only, timed to the quarter hour, and released weeks in advance. There is no ticket desk to chance your luck at, so if you have not booked, today does not work. Large bags are not allowed inside, and the stairs up to the Secret Annex are steep and narrow. Book Moeders too, because it is genuinely small. For the cruise, pick one of the smaller open boats over the big glass-roofed ones if you can, and take a jumper even in August, since it is noticeably colder out on the water. Today is a Monday, so the Noordermarkt has its Monday morning flea market rather than the Saturday organic farmers' market you may have read about.
Getting from one stop to the next
Everything today is on foot and none of it is far. Winkel 43 to the Anne Frank House is about 600 m straight down the Prinsengracht, seven or eight minutes. The Pancake Bakery sits on the same canal a short walk further along, so the loop through the Nine Streets in between is as long or short as you want to make it. Most cruise departures leave from jetties near the Westermarkt, and Moeders is ten minutes west along the Rozengracht. Bikes are lovely here in theory, but the Jordaan's bridges, cobbles and parked scooters make walking the easier choice.
Local notes
The Jordaan went up in the seventeenth century as housing for workers and immigrants, and it is still residential, so voices carry over the water at night more than you would think. The tower with the crown on top is the Westertoren, and its carillon rings out across the whole neighbourhood. Rembrandt is buried somewhere inside the Westerkerk in an unmarked grave. The line outside the Anne Frank House is people waiting for their slot, not a backdrop, and the museum asks for quiet inside for good reason.
- 0108:15 · 45m
Winkel 43
Order the appeltaart with cream. It arrives tall and it is not a light start to the day. Sit outside on the Noordermarkt if the weather allows. Today is a Monday, so the flea market is setting up around you rather than the Saturday organic farmers' market.About this place↗ Open in MapsA corner cafe on the Noordermarkt in the Jordaan, known across Amsterdam for one thing: a very tall slice of Dutch apple pie.
HistoryThe cafe has traded on this corner for decades, growing up alongside the markets that have used the square since the seventeenth century. The pie recipe has stayed put while the neighbourhood around it changed completely.Why it's famousAsk an Amsterdammer where to eat appeltaart and this is the answer you get most often, usually with the caveat that you should share one slice between two.Did you knowThe church beside it, the Noorderkerk, was built in the 1620s on a Greek cross plan so that the whole Protestant congregation could see and hear the pulpit. - 0209:00 · 90m
Anne Frank House
Book online weeks ahead, tickets are timed and there is no door queue to join. Allow ninety minutes and expect steep, narrow stairs. Leave big bags at the hotel. Go early if you can, the annexe rooms are small and the experience is very different with six people in them than sixteen.About this place↗ Open in MapsThe canal house on the Prinsengracht where Anne Frank, her family and four others hid from July 1942 until their arrest in August 1944, now a museum.
HistoryOtto Frank ran his business from the front of the building and the group lived hidden in the annexe behind it. Anne wrote her diary there. Otto was the only one of the eight to survive the camps, and he published the diary in 1947. Plans to demolish the house were fought off and the museum opened in 1960.Why it's famousThe diary is one of the most widely read books written about the Holocaust, and this is the building it describes, down to the bookcase that hid the door.Did you knowOtto Frank insisted the annexe rooms stay empty of furniture, as the Nazis left them after the raid. The bare floors are a deliberate decision, not neglect. - 0310:45 · 90m
Jordaan canals
No route needed. Head south from the Anne Frank House, cross into the Nine Streets for the shops, then work back up the Bloemgracht and Egelantiersgracht for the quieter water. Look for the hofjes, small almshouse courtyards behind plain doors, several of which you can step into if you keep the noise down.About this place↗ Open in MapsThe web of narrow canals and gabled houses west of the main canal ring, built as the Jordaan and now one of the most sought-after parts of the city.
HistoryThe district was laid out in the early seventeenth century for workers, craftspeople and immigrants, at the same time as the grander canal belt beside it. It stayed poor and crowded well into the twentieth century before being redeveloped and gentrified.Why it's famousFor the look of it, mostly: low seventeenth-century houses, hoisting beams, bridges every hundred metres, and the Westerkerk tower rising over the roofline.Did you knowRembrandt was buried in the Westerkerk in 1669 as a poor man. The exact spot inside the church was never recorded and is still unknown. - 0412:30 · 75m
The Pancake Bakery
One pancake per person is plenty, they are the size of a dinner plate. The savoury ones with bacon and apple are the classic combination worth ordering. Skip the syrup jug on the table until you have tasted it. Busy from noon, so go slightly before or slightly after.About this place↗ Open in MapsA long-running pancake restaurant in a canal-side building on the Prinsengracht, a short walk from the Anne Frank House.
HistoryIt occupies a seventeenth-century warehouse of the kind that once stored goods along this stretch of canal, with the low beams and brick still in place. The restaurant has been serving pannenkoeken here since the 1970s.Why it's famousIt is the pancake address people name in this part of town, and the menu runs to dozens of versions, sweet and savoury.Did you knowDutch pancakes are a proper meal rather than a breakfast. A savoury one with bacon and cheese is a normal dinner here, and children eat poffertjes, the small puffy version, as a treat. - 0514:00 · 75m
Canal cruise
Choose a small open boat over the big glass-roofed ones if you can, the difference in experience is large. Sit towards the back for a clear view of the gables. Seventy five minutes covers the main ring and a stretch of the Amstel. Take a jumper, it is colder on the water than on the street.About this place↗ Open in MapsAn hour or so on the canals, threading the seventeenth-century ring of waterways that circles the old city and out onto the wider Amstel.
HistoryThe main canals, the Herengracht, Keizersgracht and Prinsengracht, were dug from 1613 onwards as a single planned expansion of the city, one of the largest urban schemes of its time in Europe.Why it's famousThe canal ring was made a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2010. From the water you see the city the way it was designed to be seen, since the canals were the working streets.Did you knowThe beams and hooks sticking out under the gables are hoisting beams, still used to lift furniture in through the windows because the staircases are far too narrow to carry anything up. - 0619:00 · 120m
Moeders
Reserve, it has very few tables. The stamppot and the hutspot are the reason to come, and the sharing plate for two is a good way in if you cannot choose. Bring a photo of your own mother and they will add it to the wall. Two hours here is the right pace.About this place↗ Open in MapsA small restaurant on the Rozengracht in the Jordaan serving traditional Dutch home cooking, with every wall covered in photographs of customers' mothers.
HistoryIt opened in 1990 with almost nothing in the way of furnishings. Guests were asked to bring a photo of their mother and a plate to eat from, and both requests stuck.Why it's famousIt is the easiest place in the city to eat proper stamppot, hutspot and slow-cooked Dutch dishes that most restaurants no longer bother with.Did you knowThe crockery still does not match, because the opening-night guests each brought their own plate and cutlery from home.
Begijnhof quiet, then the length of the Albert Cuyp
De Pijp, Amsterdam
How the day runs
Quiet first, noise later. Brunch down a narrow lane off the Kalverstraat, then the Begijnhof, a courtyard of almshouses most people walk past without noticing the door. The Bloemenmarkt on the Singel comes next, and after that the day changes character completely: De Pijp, the Albert Cuyp market at full volume, the old Heineken brewery, and a long dinner at Bazar on the same street.
Practical bits
Today is a Tuesday, which is good news, because the Albert Cuyp runs Monday to Saturday and shuts on Sundays. Most stalls take cards now, but a few of the food ones still prefer cash, so carry twenty euros or so. The Begijnhof is free and open through the day, closes around dusk, and asks visitors not to arrive in groups or make noise. Book the Heineken Experience online, which is both cheaper and quicker to get into, and leave some room for the tastings at the end. If you are tempted by tulip bulbs, check what you are allowed to bring home first. Since Brexit, taking plants and bulbs from the EU into Great Britain is restricted.
Moving between the stops
The old centre stretch is all short walks. Gartine to the Begijnhof entrance on the Spui takes about five minutes, and the Bloemenmarkt is another six from there along the Singel. The jump south to De Pijp is the only real distance, roughly 1.8 km. Walk it in twenty minutes down the Vijzelstraat, or take metro line 52 from Rokin one stop to De Pijp, which puts you at the market end of things. After that, the Heineken Experience is five minutes from the market on the Stadhouderskade, and Bazar is back on the Albert Cuypstraat itself.
Local customs and context
De Pijp went up in the late nineteenth century as cheap housing for workers, and its streets are named after Dutch painters, Albert Cuyp included. On the herring, order it with onion and pickle. In Amsterdam it usually arrives cut into pieces with a cocktail stick rather than dangled whole by the tail, which is more of a Rotterdam habit. Dutch dinner also starts early by British standards. Seven is normal, and plenty of kitchens stop taking orders by half nine, so a seven o'clock booking at Bazar is not as early as it sounds.
- 0108:45 · 60m
Gartine
Tiny, tucked down an alley off the Kalverstraat, and easy to walk straight past. The eggs and the homemade jams are the draw, and the high tea is a longer commitment than an hour. It seats very few people, so check it is open and take a fallback in mind before you cross town.About this place↗ Open in MapsA very small breakfast and lunch room down a narrow lane in the old centre, serving simple food built around produce the owners grow themselves.
HistoryIt was set up by a couple who kept a garden and greenhouse outside the city and cooked what came from it, which is unusual for a place this size in central Amsterdam.Why it's famousFor the contrast, mainly. It sits a few metres off the Kalverstraat, the busiest shopping street in the country, and almost nobody walking past knows the lane is there.Did you knowMuch of what lands on the plate, including the fruit in the jams, was grown by the people who run the place rather than bought in. - 0210:00 · 45m
Begijnhof
The entrance is an unmarked door off the Spui, easy to miss. Free to enter, and forty five minutes is plenty. Look for number 34, the wooden house, and the two churches facing each other across the grass. People live here, so keep your voice down and do not photograph windows.About this place↗ Open in MapsA walled courtyard of houses in the middle of the old city, built for the Beguines, and still lived in today.
HistoryIt dates to the fourteenth century, founded for Beguines, Catholic women who lived a religious life in community without taking full monastic vows. When Protestant rule banned Catholic worship in the city, the community kept a chapel hidden in plain sight behind an ordinary facade.Why it's famousIt is the quietest place in central Amsterdam, a few steps from one of the loudest, and the only surviving courtyard of its kind at this scale in the city.Did you knowNumber 34, Het Houten Huys, dates from around 1528 and is one of only two wooden houses left standing in central Amsterdam. The last Beguine died in 1971. - 0311:00 · 45m
Bloemenmarkt
Half an hour is honest. A lot of the stock is souvenirs and packaged bulbs rather than cut flowers, so treat it as a stroll along the Singel rather than a shopping trip. If you want bulbs, buy the ones with an export certificate and check your own country's import rules first.About this place↗ Open in MapsA row of flower stalls built out over the Singel canal between Muntplein and Koningsplein, trading since the nineteenth century.
HistoryGrowers used to sail their stock into the city and sell it straight from the boats moored along this stretch of water. The market took root here in 1862, and the stalls that replaced the boats still sit on floating platforms over the canal.Why it's famousIt is the only flower market in the world set on the water, and it is the shorthand image of Dutch bulbs for most visitors.Did you knowThe stalls really are floating, though they no longer go anywhere. What was once a working wholesale market for growers now sells mostly to people passing through. - 0412:15 · 90m
Albert Cuyp Market
Eat as you walk rather than sitting down. Herring with onion and pickle, a stroopwafel pressed while you wait, and a Surinamese broodje further along. Start at the Ferdinand Bolstraat end and work east. Carry twenty euros in cash for the stalls that still prefer it.About this place↗ Open in MapsThe largest daily street market in the Netherlands, running the length of the Albert Cuypstraat in De Pijp, Monday to Saturday.
HistoryStreet trading in De Pijp was formalised into a proper market here in 1905, serving a densely built working-class neighbourhood. It has run six days a week since, through the district's shift from poor housing to one of the busiest parts of the city.Why it's famousFood, mostly. Fresh herring, stroopwafels pressed to order, Surinamese and Turkish snacks, and cheese, alongside several hundred stalls of everything else.Did you knowThe market and street are named after Aelbert Cuyp, a seventeenth-century painter from Dordrecht with no connection to Amsterdam. Every street around here is named after a Dutch painter. - 0515:00 · 90m
Heineken Experience
Book online for a cheaper, timed slot. It is self-guided and takes about ninety minutes at a normal pace, less if you skip the interactive rooms. Two beers are included at the end, so do not arrive on an empty stomach. Fine in the rain, and a hard sell if you dislike theme-park pacing.About this place↗ Open in MapsThe original Heineken brewery on the Stadhouderskade, now a self-guided visit through the old brewhouse, copper kettles and all.
HistoryGerard Adriaan Heineken bought an Amsterdam brewery in 1864 and built this one on the Stadhouderskade a few years later, in 1867. It brewed here until 1988, when production moved to larger sites and the building was turned over to visitors.Why it's famousIt is where the world's most widely exported Dutch beer started, and the copper kettles and stables of the original brewery are still in place.Did you knowThe tilted 'e's in the logo were Alfred Heineken's idea, meant to make the name look like it is smiling. - 0619:00 · 120m
Bazar Amsterdam
Order a spread of mezze for the table rather than a main each, and add the grilled lamb. Portions are generous and prices are low for what arrives. It is a big, loud room, so it works better for a group than a quiet dinner. Book at weekends, walk in on a weeknight.About this place↗ Open in MapsA Middle Eastern and North African restaurant on the Albert Cuypstraat, set inside a converted nineteenth-century church.
HistoryThe church lost its congregation and was taken over as a restaurant in the 1990s. The conversion kept the shell intact, so you eat under the original windows and gallery rather than in a stripped-out box.Why it's famousFor the room as much as the food. It has been a De Pijp fixture for decades, feeding market traders, students and half the neighbourhood at long shared tables.Did you knowThe upper gallery where the congregation once sat is still used for seating, which is the best place to eat if you want to see the whole room.
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