Central Station (Centraal Station) and other Amsterdam, Netherlands Off The Beaten Path Tips

This neorenaissance building opened its doors in 1889. It is designed by P.J.H. Cuypers (architect of Rijksmuseum) and A.L. van Gendt (concertgebouw). The place where Central Station is build was the only connection to the open water, therefore they have to built 3 artificial islands and used almost 9.000 wooden piles.
The façade is showing allegories of the navigation.
The station and the square in front of the station is the main public transport point of the city (besides the trains there are also busses and trams).

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Passenger Terminal Amsterdam (PTA) lies at the edge of the city centre, at the Southern bank of the river IJ. The largest cruise ships in the world can moor at Passenger Terminal Amsterdam.
There is a quay for cruise ships, a car park for abt. 400 cars, taxi and bus ranks.
In the terminal are also conference and exhibition facilities, shops and catering facilities.

PTA is in the immediate distance of Central Station (abt. a 15-minute walk), the Nemo science centre and the Maritime Museum.

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Phone: + 31 20 509 10 00
Website: http://www.ptamsterdam.com/homepage/e_index.html
Other Contact: address: Piet Heinkade 27

This ferryboat connects northern part of Amsterdam with the rest of the city. As it is prohibited for bikes and pedestrians to use the two tunnels (IJ-tunnel and the Coen-tunnel) and the ring road and if you don’t like to take a bus, you can use this ferry service (free of charge). Every few minutes there goes a ferryboat. When you are on the north side of the city there is a nice view over the River IJ.

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If you have enough of the town you can go to the sea. You can take a train or you can use a boat. With the Fast Flying Ferries you can go to IJmuiden and walk on the shore (it takes abt. 25 min with the boat and than you have to take a bus).
There goes a boat every 30 minutes (on Saturday and Sunday every hour).

Pick-up point: behind the Central Station – Steiger 7.

Address:
Rederij Naco
De Ruyterkade Steiger 7
Amsterdam

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Phone: +31 (0)20 626 24 66

Koninklijke/Shell-Laboratorium, Amsterdam (Shell Research and Technology Centre, Amsterdam (SRTCA)) is a research and technology centre. It operates for the Royal Dutch/Shell Group and also for third parties. It is one of the largest research centres and was set up in 1914.
SRTCA lies in the northern part of Amsterdam by the River IJ.

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On this spot was in the past a city entrance – a city gate. The gates functioned as guarded entrances to the city and as exits out of town. This gate led to Haarlem.
This neo-classic gate, which was restored in 1840, was in fact a triumphal arch for King Willem II. Cornelis Alewijn designed it and in the 19th century it was a custom office and a police station. It is now inhabited by private persons since 1986.

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Other Contact: address: Haarlemmerplein 50

It is built in 1894 in neo-renaissance style designed by Jan Springer and A.L. van Gendt. In fact it is the third municipal theatre – the two previous theatres, 1638-1772 and 1774-1890, were destroyed by fire.

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Phone: +31 20 523 77 00
Website: http://www.stadsschouwburgamsterdam.nl
Other Contact: address: Leidseplein 26

This canal owns it name because of the many breweries which were situated here in the 17th and 18th century. The old warehouses where coffee, sugar and spices were stored in the same period, are now (most of them) very expensive apartments with picturesque view on houseboats and bridges.

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Other Contact: Jordan district

The House with the Effigies-Het Huis met de Hoofden
This in 1622 built house was in that time one of the biggest double houses and is built for Nicolaas Sohier. The facade of the house is, it is said, built by Hendrick de Keyser, but is most probably done by his son Pieter de Keyser, as his father died in 1621. It is richly decorated with lion gargoyles, pillars etc.
There are six effigies on the facade and is therefore named after these.
According to a legend these effigies are heads of burglars, which were caught by a servant-girl and later beheaded. In fact these are effigies of Apollo, Ceres, Mars, Minerva, Bacchus and Diana (last one not seen on the picture).
When in1656 Comenius (Jan Amos Komensky) came to Amsterdam he lived here for a short while.
Today this building houses the Department of the Environment Historic Buildings Bureau.

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Other Contact: address: Keizersgracht 123

In 1787 opened this neo-classical building its doors (by Jacob Otten Husly designed), which was especially built for the Felix Meritis Society. It was a society of the citizens of Amsterdam for the advancement of arts and sciences and was founded in 1777.
In the past Mozart, Edvard Grieg and J. Brahms gave here concerts.
After abt. two decades to have housed here Dutch Communist Party (since 1946) it got back its cultural function and today houses here A European Centre for Arts and Sciences.

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Website: http://www.felix.meritis.nl/english/index.html
Other Contact: address: Keizersgracht 324