visit the tourist office at the airport FIRST!! and other Amsterdam, Netherlands Things to Do Tips

For tickets for the sights or passes you might need check out the tourist office at the airport first. Saves so much time and hassle trying to find the place when you get into Amsterdam but also you can pick up some good tips before you plunge into your touristy trips out of the place.
I well recommend what i did, buy tickets such as for Anne Franks House Museum from the airport so you dont have to join any queues at the venue - my first few visits to Amsterdam i never got into see it as there was always long queues! this time i bought an evening ticket - the place is open in the summer until 10pm at night!! and a prebought ticket allows you to enter via a separate entrance away from the queues.
Also i checked out bus routes and connections for trips from the tourist office at the airport so i could see just what i could fit in of the things i wanted to see in the time i had. She was able to put together times and bus numbers and trains so i could for example fit in both a bus out to Aalsmeer for the early morning flower auctions and also the cheese market - both on only that Friday.
So save joining all the queues for info in town at the train station etc and get maps etc from there and then free up the time you have if its like me limited.

Leave a Comment

Address: Amsterdom Schipol Airport

during the summer most of the attractions are open until late - got to the heinekken museum at 6pm and still lots of time to take my time through the place, tho other things to see also on my itinerary - but for 10 euro the ticket shows itself itself to be pretty good value!
3 tokens are given so that at various points through the self-tour you get to trial Heinekkens beer - not that they need our opinions, they have done hugely successfully since its origins - but its an interesting tour and i did enjoy my beer!
the first beer stop you get to use on of your tokens for a pint. the bar at the end of the self tour you get to use your last two tokens for any two drinks - i was hoping for a shandy!! but no true lemonade but a lemon flavoured fanta type drink was also recommended by the bar tender as a good potential addition to dilute my beer (too many more museums and walking to fit in to have to swagger!!) , so any non alcoholic is allowed for your tokens.
then a free gift is also included - so for the budget conscious heres your chance for a free and rather handy souvenir - a Heinekken bottle opener inside a bottle- to add to your tulip and cheese souvenirs!?

Leave a Comment

Phone: +31-20-5239666
Address: Stadhouderskade 78
Directions: follow your map of what trams go past, i caught tram number 6 from the centraal station which stops right outside the brewery.
Website: http://www.heinekencorp.com

Every friday in summer there is the cheese auction at Almaar, from ?10 am until 1pm or just a little after.
Still in traditional costumes it makes an interesting spectacle whether for the tourist that come in droves - and also support the stalls and markets (cheese, clogs, dutch crepes and raw anchovies if you wish!) that set up around the auction site.
Rather pretty area with river and canals and interesting town hall and surrounding old buildings. Canal tours are available and advertised right there at the site for only 4.75 and 5 euro for one and a half hours.
There are half to 45 minutely trains from centraal station that take 45 minutes to Almaar for 11 euro day return ticket. then its a 10 minute walk to the cheese auctions. When i got off at the train station at alkmaar there was a woman with a temporary info stand with maps of the alkmaar centre - handy but didnt show the location of the cheese auction - take the main street into the centre, aim for the town hall or main canal right down the end of the main street and then turn left and you will, as i did, hopefully find it!

Leave a Comment

Directions: as above, 10 mins walk from the station into the centre of almaar. aim for the town hall

get a map and just walk from sight to sight and look at everything along the way!! look at the excellent architecture, and the variety of it. look at the hundreds of canals and bridges over them! and even the parked bicycles can be photogenic! did you know that only 2 million of the population of the netherlands dont have a bicycle!! (statistically).
and do one for the night view too , and another for the Queens Day visit!! well worth that wander!

Leave a Comment

Address: Amsterdam
Directions: from your starting point and go all over and around!

When arriving at Amsterdam's main train station eg from the airport then talk a brief walk in the direction of the harbour (ie out the railway station's back door) instead of straight into Amsterdam central, and look out into the harbour, watch the variety of boat traffic travelling past.
Id missed this harbour view not even aware it was just there the previous two visits to Amsterdam.

Particularly nice on a sunny warm day or when you are in need of a cool breeze.

Leave a Comment

Take a tour of the Heineken museum, takes you through its origins and gradual progression to become a major international leader in the beer market.
For only 10 euro you get a self guided tour, a free gift! (which was a rather handy heineken bottle opener inside a heineken beer shaped can) plus 3 drinks - a heineken beer of course in the Heineken bar and then near the end two drinks of your choice.

Plus Theres a Heineken souvenir shop so you can spend a bit more for all those momentos you want to take home and display around the house or give as gifts in remembrance of your tour. cheaper items such as the Heineken beer counter towel makes a handy souvenir hand towel i thought.

Leave a Comment

Each time Ive visited Amsterdam Ive enjoyed the sights as Ive walked about to get where Ive been wanting to go - theres always so much to look at along the way, any way..... the canals and the interesting or stunning architecture along them, the boats and houseboats, the bridges and interesting cast iron decorations, the bicycles.... even the fellow pedestrians are great for people watching!

The canal system in Amsterdam goes for miles - amazing - and its much too enjoyable to miss by heading for the public transport to take you around Amsterdam!

Leave a Comment

A friend of mine just recently was asking for help to go visit the sights of Amsterdam - had been living in London for a number of years and not been to Amsterdam and mentioned that she wanted to walk around and see the canals - and in the end she didnt! She said her family had said they were too tired to walk!

and what a shame to miss how beautiful the sights are - at various times of the day and night!
Ive been up early to head to the Aalsmeer flower auctions and thats a beautiful time to see the canals before the glare of the sun - when i walked from where i stayed in a hostel in the Red light district and walked up to catch a bus from Leidesplein, but it is beautiful at any time of the day - even if its raining!

So heres some pics for encouragement?!

Leave a Comment

Named after the Dutch city of Delft where delftware was manufactured, origins can be traced to Mallorca in the 15th century where a porous type of pottery was glazed with bright metallic oxides. During the Renaissance these techniques were exported to Italy from where they spread north to Antwerp and then to the Netherlands, at the time called the United Provinces.

Initially delft pottery designs featured landscapes, portraits and bible stories, the top end of the market was dominated by more ornate porcelain imported from China. When a prolonged civil war broke the supply line Delfts factories took over the luxury side of the market by copying Chinese designs. By the 1670's, blue and white tiles, plates, panels, jars and vases were being produced by the thousands and even exported to China where they undercut the Chinese producers.

Unfortunately the Delft factories were themselves undercut from the 1760's by the British and the Germans until eventually production was shut down.

Here in the Rijksmuseum in Room 5 is a large assortment of Delftware from plates and tiles, through to vases and flower holders dating from the late sixteenth century.

Leave a Comment

One of Amsterdam's two leading museums, the Rijksmuseum was built in an inventive historic style by Petrus Cuypers(1827-1921) who was also the creator of Centraal Station, in the early 1880's.

Cuypers was the leading architect of the day but specialized in building neo-Gothic churches, but requiring something more ambitious the result was neo-Renaissance style then popular in the Netherlands, with towers and turrets, galleries, dormer windows and medallions.

The museum has an extravagant collection of paintings from every pre twentieth century period of Dutch art (including the superb sample from the so-called Golden Age of the seventeenth century) together with a vast hoard of applied art and sculpture.

Leave a Comment

Phone: +31-20-6747047
Address: Stadhouderskade 42
Website: http://www.rijksmuseum.nl