Hajenius and other Amsterdam, Netherlands Off The Beaten Path Tips

Hajenius, the oldest cigar shop in the world. Hajenius has a 175 year tradition of selling cigars. The interior of the the shop is great and they have a museum inside for 0 €uro it is well worth a visit.

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Website: http://www.hajenius.com

These twin houses are located along the herengracht and are seen in the picture from the canalboat.
We are trying to find out at which numbers but as we didn`t take a notebook it can be difficult to trace....

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As the water in Amsterdam used to be in connection with the sea you will find some locks throughout the city.

Most of them are used to clean the waters in Amsterdam at night. Between 22.00 and 05.00 14 locks are closed. At the east side of the city near the Amsterdam Rijnkanaal a pump is switched on. 600.000 cubic meter water from the IJsselmeer is pumped into the Amsterdam canals. At the westside two locks remain open and the water leaves through them into the IJ and passes through the Noordzeekanaal to the Northsea. This process is done 2 to 4 times a week, except when it is freezing. Just to get some ice on the canals for skating the work is stopped for a few days untill the ice is thick enough.

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On our way to the redlight district we pass the old taxcollectors office, a beautifull building, it is built in 1638 by Jacobus van Campen. The merchants who docked their boats here had to pay taxes on beer, tabacco, wine and grain.
On the facade we see two shields. The left one is historical not correct it is a koggeship with a french flags in front. The right shield has the flag with the three crosses of Amsterdam and is topped with an emperorscrown. A city flag may never have an emperorscrown in the heraldry.
But it is nice to look at....

Address: Oude brugsteeg

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Walk through the Jordaan, a typical Amsterdam quarter.

The houses here were small and cheap, for workers. Artists also lived here because of the cheap houses. Rembrandt had his atelier at the Bloemengracht and lived at the Rozengracht.

It is not clear where the name Jordaan comes from. It could be a form of the french Jardin (garden), because in the time of the french occupation it was the area with the parks / gardens.
But is also said there was a house on the Lindengracht with the name De Jordaan.
Maybe it comes from the river Jordan in the middleeast, as the area is across the water from the centre of Amsterdam.
Nobody knows.

The area is now mostly renovated and the small cheap houses are mostly gone. The simple people still live here. You can see it in the typical lace curtains and the flowerpots.

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This is one of the eldest houses in the Jordaan. Not renovated yet, and looking like the entire neighbourhood did look like a few decades ago.
The houses is squated, because there is a shortage of houses in Amsterdam.

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Walking through the Jordaan with a local guide we suddenly entered what seemed to be a front door in the Egelantierstraat nr 50. But it was really a gate to a court of almshouses.
Inside it was a labyrint of small alleys.

It was built in 1626 by Claes Claesz. Anslo, a cloth salesmen who lived in the Nieuwendijk and had some land here. He built three houses for the poor and elderly. It was not only charity, but in that people thought they could buy a place in heaven this way. The Norwegian (by birth) salesman ordered this charity to continue after his death. In 1880 the area had in total 27 apartments.

Be quiet when you visit, real people live here. And how would you like it to have hundreds of screaming tourist in front of your window.....

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On the 7th of may 1945, 2 days after the war ended, german soldiers opened fire from the Grote Club at De Dam in the celebrating mass of people at the Dam square. 20 civilians were killed and 119 wounded.

Original footage of that day can be seen here, a website of the Amsterdam archief.

A stone in the building at the right side of the beginning of the Kalverstraat remembers the victims.

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