Canal tours and other Amsterdam, Netherlands Things to Do Tips

With a short time in the city, it was recommended that we take one of the 1 hour canal cruises that leave from near the Centraal station, walk outside the station and you will see multiple companies vying for your business, the price was 11-12E. We went with Rederji Lovers which had several ticket booths along the canals, I suspect that the 1 hour cruises all go along the same route.

The boats can be fully covered or uncovered depending on the weather, it was misting for our cruise so the top was on and everyone crowded onto the same open air section at the back when something cool to photograph came along.

It was a nice way to see the central area even if the weather wasn't quite as cooperative as I would have liked.

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Phone: 31 (0)20-530 10 90
Website: www.lovers.nl

One of the interesting buildings we passed on the Canal Trip was the NEMO Science Center. While their website says it looks like a "large green ship moored on top of a busy car tunnel", I thought it looked like a whale breeching the water.

The ship next to the Nemo building is a replica of the "Amsterdam" which is temporarily moored there until the renovation of the Maritime Museum is complete.

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Phone: 0900-9191100
Address: Oosterdok 2
Website: http://www.e-NEMO.nl

Traveling via the canals or on foot in Amsterdam, you'll see lots and lots of bridges. My favorite was the Blauwbrug (blue bridge), the name coming from the 16th century wooden bridge that is no longer there, painted blue after the 1578 Protestant takeover. The current stone bridge from 1884 is modeled after the Pont Alexandre III bridge in Paris and features ships, ornate lanterns and the imperial crown of Maximilian of Austria.

I'm not sure if we saw the Magere Brug, the famous skinny drawbridge across the river Amstel named after the Mager sisters who lived on opposite sides of the river, but we did see one of the other drawbridges on the canal trip.

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