Amsterdam Directions

by Martin Dunford

  Hofje Van Brienen

  Prinsengracht 85–133. Daily 6am–6pm & Sat 6am–2pm. Free.

  This brown-brick courtyard, originally the site of a brewery, was built as an almshouse in 1804 to the order of Aernout van Brienen. A well-to-do merchant, Brienen had locked himself in his own strong room by accident and, in a panic, he vowed to build a hofje if he was rescued. The plaque inside the complex doesn’t, however, give much of the game away, inscribed demurely with "for the relief and shelter of those in need."

  Leliegracht

  Further down Prinsengracht, Leliegracht leads off to the left, one of the tiny radial canals that cut across the Grachtengordel. It holds one of the city’s finest Art Nouveau buildings, a tall and striking building at the Leliegracht-Keizersgracht junction designed by Gerrit van Arkel in 1905. Originally the headquarters of a life insurance company – hence the two mosaics with angels recommending policies to bemused earthlings – it’s now occupied by Greenpeace.

  De Dolphijn

  A little further on, over Herengracht on to the Singel, the red-brick and stone-trimmed house at nos 140–142 was once home to Captain Banningh Cocq, the principal soldier in Rembrandt’s Night Watch.

  The Anne Frankhuis

  Prinsengracht 263, www.annefrank.nl. Daily: April–Aug 9am–9pm; Sept–March 9am–7pm; closed Yom Kippur. €7.50, 10- to 17-year-olds €3.50, under-10s free.

  Easily the city’s most visited sight, the Anne Frankhuis is where the young diarist and her family hid from the Germans during World War II. Since the posthumous publication of her diaries, Anne Frank has become extraordinarily famous, in the first instance for recording the iniquities of the Holocaust, and latterly as a symbol of the fight against oppression and in particular racism. The family spent over two years in hiding here, but were eventually betrayed and dispatched to Westerbork – the transit camp in the north of the country where most Dutch Jews were processed before being moved to Belsen or Auschwitz. Of the eight from the annexe, only Otto Frank survived; Anne and her sister died of typhus within a short time of each other in Belsen, just one week before the German surrender.

  Anne Frank’s diary was among the few things left behind in the annexe. It was retrieved by one of the people who had helped the Franks and handed to Anne’s father on his return from Auschwitz; he later decided to publish it. Since its appearance in 1947, it has been constantly in print, translated into over sixty languages, and has sold millions of copies. Despite being so popular, the house has managed to preserve a sense of intimacy, a poignant witness to the personal nature of the Franks’ sufferings. The rooms the Franks occupied for two years have been left much the same as they were during the war – even down to the movie star pin-ups in Anne’s bedroom and the marks on the wall recording the children’s heights. Video clips on the family in particular and the Holocaust in general give the background. Anne Frank was one of about 100,000 Dutch Jews who died during World War II, but this, her final home, provides one of the most enduring testaments to its horrors.

  The Westerkerk

  April–Sept Mon–Fri 11am–3pm. Free.

  Trapped in her house, Anne Frank liked to listen to the bells of the Westerkerk, just along Prinsengracht, until they were taken away to be melted down for the German war effort. The church still dominates the district, its 85-metre tower (May–Sept Mon–Sat 10am–5pm; €3) – without question Amsterdam’s finest – soaring graciously above its surroundings. On its top perches the crown of Emperor Maximilian, a constantly recurring symbol of Amsterdam and the finishing touch to what was only the second city church to be built expressly for the Protestants. The church was designed by Hendrick de Keyser and completed in 1631 as part of the general enlargement of the city, but whereas the exterior is all studied elegance, the interior is bare and plain. The church is also the reputed resting place of Rembrandt, though the location of his pauper’s tomb is not known. Instead, a small memorial in the north aisle commemorates the artist, close to the spot where his son Titus was buried. Rembrandt adored his son – as evidenced by numerous portraits – and the boy’s death dealt a final crushing blow to the ageing and embittered artist, who died just over a year later.

  Westermarkt

  Westermarkt, an open square in the shadow of the Westerkerk, possesses two evocative statues. At the back of the church, beside Keizersgracht, are the three pink granite triangles (one each for the past, present and future) of the Homo-Monument. The world’s first memorial to persecuted gays and lesbians, commemorating all those who died at the hands of the Nazis, it was designed by Karin Daan and recalls the pink triangles the Germans made homosexuals sew onto their clothes during World War II. Nearby, on the south side of the church by Prinsengracht, is a small but beautifully crafted statue of Anne Frank by the modern Dutch sculptor Mari Andriessen – also the creator of the dockworker statue outside Amsterdam’s Portuguese Synagogue.

  The Theatermuseum

  Herengracht 168. Tues–Fri 11am–5pm, Sat & Sun 1–5pm. €4.50.

  A few metres from the Westermarkt, the Theatermuseum holds a moderately enjoyable collection of theatrical bygones, from props through to stage sets, with a particularly good selection of costumes and posters. The museum, which spreads over into the adjoining buildings, also offers a lively programme of temporary exhibitions, but it’s the house itself which is of most interest. Dating from 1638, Herengracht 168 has a fetching sandstone facade to a design by Philip Vingboons, arguably the most talented architect involved in the creation of the Grachtengordel. The house was built for Michael de Pauw, a leading light in the East India Company, and the interior sports an extravagant painted ceiling of the Four Seasons by Jacob de Wit plus a splendid spiral staircase.

  Huis Bartolotti

  Herengracht 170–172. No public access.

  Next door to the Theatermuseum, the Huis Bartolotti is a tad earlier and a good deal flashier, its pirouetting facade of red-brick and stone dotted with urns and columns, faces and shells. The house is an excellent illustration of the Dutch Renaissance style, and as such is much more ornate than the typical Amsterdam canal house. The architect was Hendrick de Keyser and a director of the West India Company, Willem van den Heuvel, footed the bill. Heuvel inherited a fortune from his Italian uncle and changed his name in his honour to Bartolotti – hence the name of the house.

  The Jordaan

  According to dyed-in-the-wool locals, the true Jordaaner is born within earshot of the Westerkerk bells, which means that there are endless arguments as to quite where the district’s southern boundary lies, though at least the other borders are clear – Prinsengracht, Brouwersgracht and Lijnbaannsgracht. There is also no arguing that the Rozengracht is at the centre of today’s Jordaan, though this wide street lost most of its character when its canal was filled in and is now a busy main road of no particular distinction. It was here, at no. 184, that Rembrandt spent the last ten years of his life in diminished circumstances – a scrolled plaque distinguishes his old home.

  Rozengracht to Westerstraat

  The streets and canals extending north from Rozengracht to Westerstraat form the heart of the Jordaan and hold the district’s prettiest sights. Beyond Rozengracht, the first canal is the Bloemgracht (Flower Canal), a leafy waterway dotted with houseboats and arched by dinky little bridges, its network of cross-streets sprinkled with cafés, bars and idiosyncratic shops. A narrow cross-street – 2e Egelantiersdwarsstraat and its continuation 2e Tuindwarsstraat and 2e Anjeliersdwarsstraat – runs north from Bloemgracht flanked by many of the Jordaan’s more fashionable stores and clothing shops as well as some of its liveliest bars and cafés. At the end is workaday Westerstraat, a busy modern thoroughfare dotted with more mainstream shops.

  Pianola Museum

  Westerstraat 106. Sun 11.30am–5.30pm. €4.

  The small but fascinating Pianola Museum has a collection of pianolas and automatic music-machines that dates from the beginning of the twentieth century. Fifteen have been restored to working order. The
se machines, which work on rolls of perforated paper, were the jukeboxes of their day, and the museum has a vast collection of 14,000 rolls of music, some of which were "recorded" by famous pianists and composers – Gershwin, Debussy, Scott Joplin, Art Tatum and others. The museum runs a regular programme of pianola music concerts, where the rolls are played back on the restored machines.

  The Noorderkerk

  Noordekerkstraat. March–Nov Mon–Sat 10am–4pm. Free.

  Noorderkerk is Hendrik de Keyser’s last creation and probably his least successful, finished two years after his death in 1623. A bulky, overbearing brick building, it represented a radical departure from the conventional church designs of the time, having a symmetrical Greek-cross floor plan, with four equally proportioned arms radiating out from a steepled centre. Uncompromisingly dour, it proclaimed the serious intent of the Calvinists who worshipped here in so far as the pulpit was at the centre and not at the front of the church, a symbolic break with the Catholic past.

  Noordermarkt

  The Noordermarkt, the somewhat inconclusive square outside the church, holds a statue of three figures bound to each other, a powerful tribute to the bloody Jordaanoproer riot of 1934, part of a successful campaign to stop the government cutting unemployment benefit during the Depression. The square also hosts some of Amsterdam’s best markets – an antiques and general household goods market on Monday mornings (9am–1pm) and the popular farmers’ market, the Boerenmarkt, on Saturdays (9am–3pm). Saturday also sees a bird market (8am–1pm), but caged birds are not everyone’s cup of tea.

  Lindengracht

  The Lindengracht ("Canal of Limes") lost its waterway decades ago, but has had a prominent role in local folklore since the day in 1886 when a policeman made an ill-advised attempt to stop an eel-pulling contest. Horrible as it sounds, eel-pulling was a popular pastime hereabouts with tug-o’-war teams holding tight to either end of the poor creature, which was smeared with soap to make the entertainment last a little longer. The crowd unceremoniously bundled the policeman away, but when reinforcements arrived, the whole thing got out of hand and there was a full-scale riot – the "Paling-Oproer" – which lasted for three days and cost 26 lives.

  The Scheepvaartsbuurt and the Westerdok

  Brouwersgracht marks both the northern edge of the Jordaan and the southern boundary of the Scheepvaartsbuurt – the Shipping Quarter – an unassuming neighbourhood which focuses on Haarlemmerstraat and Haarlemmerdijk, a long, rather ordinary thoroughfare lined with bars, cafés and food shops. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, this district boomed from its location between the Brouwersgracht and the Westerdok, a narrow parcel of land dredged out of the River IJ immediately to the north and equipped with docks, warehouses and shipyards. The construction of these artificial islands took the pressure off Amsterdam’s congested maritime facilities and was necessary to sustain the city’s economic success. The Westerdok hung on to some of the marine trade until the 1960s, but today – bar the odd small boatyard – industry has to all intents and purposes disappeared and the area is busy reinventing itself. There is still an air of faded grittiness here, but the old forgotten warehouses – within walking distance of the centre – are rapidly being turned into bijou studios and dozens of plant-filled houseboats are moored along the Westerdok itself and the adjoining Realengracht. Nearby, the Westerpark provides a touch of green, beyond which Het Schip Museum, in the seminal Amsterdam School housing estate of the same name, explores the history of the architectural movement.

  Shops

  Donald E. Jongejans

  Noorderkestraat 18; tel 020/624 6888.

  Antique spec store that supplied the frames for Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor.

  Kitsch Kitchen

  Bloemdwarsstraat 21; tel 020/622 8261.

  Crammed full of bowls, spoons and kitsch stuff in day-glo colours.

  Levelt

  Prinsengracht 180; tel 020/624 0823.

  A specialist tea and coffee company has occupied this shop for over 150 years, and much of the original decor remains, although there are now branches in almost every other part of the city too.

  The English Bookshop

  Lauriergracht 71; tel 020/626 4230.

  A well-chosen collection of titles, many of which you won’t find elsewhere.

  1001 Kralen

  Rozengracht 54; tel 020/624 3681.

  "Kralen" means beads, and 1001 would seem a conservative estimate in this place, which sells nothing but.

  Coffeeshops

  Barney’s Breakfast Bar

  Haarlemmerstraat 102.

  Something of an Amsterdam institution, this extremely popular café-cum-coffeeshop is simply the most civilized place in town to enjoy a big joint with a fine breakfast at any time of the day.

  Kadinsky

  Rosmarijnsteeg 9.

  Great deals weighed out to a jazz backdrop; great cookies too.

  Paradox

  1e Bloemdwarsstraat 2. Closes 8pm.

  If you’re fed up with the usual coffeeshop food offerings of burgers, Paradox satisfies the munchies with outstanding natural food, including spectacular fresh fruit concoctions.

  Siberië

  Brouwersgracht 11.

  Very relaxed, very friendly, and worth a visit whether you want to smoke or not.

  Cafés and tearooms

  Arnold Cornelis

  Elandsgracht 78. Closed Sun.

  Confectioner with a snug tearoom.

  J.G. Beune

  Haarlemmerdijk 156; tel 020/624 8356.

  Handmade cakes and chocolates in an old-style interior. Tearoom attached.

  Greenwood’s

  Singel 103.

  Small, English-style teashop in the basement of a canal house. Pies and sandwiches, pots of tea – and a decent breakfast.

  Lunchcafé Winkel

  Noordermarkt 43.

  Well-weathered neighbourhood café on the corner with Westerstraat that is a popular rendezvous on Saturday and Monday mornings, when the market’s in full flow.

  Restaurants

  Albatros

  Westerstraat 264; tel 020/627 9932. Closed Tues & Wed.

  Family-run restaurant serving some mouth-wateringly imaginative fish dishes. A place to splash out and linger over a meal. Expensive.

  Amigo

  Rozengracht 5; tel 020/623 1140. Daily except Wed 2–10pm.

  Basic but good-value Surinamese restaurant close to the Westerkerk.

  Bolhoed

  Prinsengracht 60; tel 020/626 1803. Daily noon–10pm.

  Something of an Amsterdam institution. Familiar vegan and vegetarian options from the daily changing menu, with organic beer to wash it down. More expensive than you might imagine.

  Bordewijk

  Noordermarkt 7; tel 020/624 3899.

  A chic, expensive restaurant serving stylish French cuisine – a favourite of local food writer Johannes van Dam.

  Burger’s Patio

  2e Tuindwarsstraat 12; tel 020/623 6854.

  Despite the name (the site used to be occupied by a butcher’s), there isn’t a burger in sight in this convivial and inexpensive Italian restaurant where you compose your own main course from several given options.

  Capri

  Lindengracht 61; tel 020/624 4940.

  Good café-restaurant with much of the joyful atmosphere of the neighbouring market on Saturday. Inexpensive.

  Chez Georges

  Herenstraat 3; tel 020/626 3332. Closed Wed & Sun.

  A highly rated, upmarket Belgian eatery, where the emphasis is on meat; main courses €20 and up.

  La Vita

  Lindengracht 31; tel 020/624 8987. Kitchen closes at 11pm.

  Authentic Italian-style pizzeria serving ridiculously cheap meals. Soups and salads start from €2.75, pizzas and pasta from €3.75.

  Christophe

  Leliegracht 46; tel 020/625 0807. Closed Sun.

  Classic Michelin-starred restaurant on a quiet and beautiful canal, drawing inspi
ration from the olive-oil-and-basil flavours of southern France and the chef’s early years in North Africa. His aubergine terrine with cumin has been dubbed the best vegetarian dish in the world. Advance reservations essential.

  Claes Claesz

  Egelantiersstraat 24; tel 020/625 5306. Closed Mon.

  Exceptionally friendly and moderate Jordaan restaurant that attracts a mixed crowd and serves excellent Dutch food. Live music from Thursday to Saturday, and Sunday’s "theatre-dinner" sees various Dutch theatrical/musical acts between the courses.

  De Eettuin

  2e Tuindwarsstraat 10; tel 020/623 7706.

  Hefty and imminently affordable portions of Dutch food, with salad from a serve-yourself bar. Non-meat eaters can content themselves with the large, if dull, vegetarian plate, or the delicious fish casserole.

  De Gouden Reael

  Zandhoek 14; tel 020/623 3883. Mon–Sat from 6pm.

  Fine French food (€20 per main course and up) in a unique setting up in the Westerdok. The bar, as described in the novel of the same name by Jan Mens, has a long association with the dockworkers.

  Jur

  Egelantiersgracht 72; tel 020/423 4287.

  Friendly French-Belgian restaurant serving steaks and grilled fare to a wide-ranging clientele. Also has a bar with five draught beers on tap.

  Koevoet

  Lindenstraat 17; tel 020/624 0846. Closed Sun & Mon.

  The "Cow’s-Foot" – or, alternatively, the "Crowbar" – is a traditional Jordaan eetcafé serving creative dishes soused with some excellent sauces.

  The Pancake Bakery

  Prinsengracht 191; tel 020/625 1333. Daily noon–9.30pm.