Amsterdam: Bartolotti House
Ring the bell at No 172 during the day and at No 170 at night, Willem van den Heuvel told his family, friends and business associates.
Willem van den Heuvel’s house, known as Bartolotti huis stands on Herengracht, a canal where wealthy Amsterdammers lived in opulent mansions. Van den Heuvel earned his money from beer brewing. This was a lucrative business because the canals that used to supply drinking water were filthy. In the seventeenth century breweries sprang up along the canals. Beer was...
June 21st, 2010 | Marianne Crone | Read More | Comments: 0Filed under: things to see in Amsterdam
How to Find Your Way Along Amsterdam’s Canals
Amsterdam’s canals are like large spider’s webs. You get easily caught. Arm youself with a map and remember that three canal rings fan out from Centraal Station in alphabetical order: Herengracht, Keizersgracht and Prinsengracht.
These three canals make up Amsterdam’s grachtengordel or canal belt. Prinsengracht is furthest away from the city centre and the houses along this canal are less opulent and lavish than those closer to the centre.
Prinsengracht pulls more visitors than...
June 15th, 2010 | Marianne Crone | Read More | Comments: 1Filed under: amsterdam shopping, featuredarticle, things to see in Amsterdam
Amsterdam: Open Garden Days
Canal houses face the street and have no front garden. But did you know that secluded gardens lie hidden behind these house?
These are surprisingly large. They were mainly decorative gardens and meant to be looked at not to sit in or to work in. Gardeners kept them in shape. The flowers, plants and trees had to look their best in the winter months because this was the time of year that the owners lived in their town houses. The rest of the year they enjoyed life in their countryside manor. Today...
June 13th, 2010 | Marianne Crone | Read More | Comments: 0Filed under: museums, things to see in Amsterdam
Amsterdam: Houses Wide and Narrow
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When the Trip brothers moved into their newly-built mansion, their coachman grumbled that he would be happy with a house the size of their front door. He got what he wanted.
The coachman’s house, capped with two stone carved sphinxes was only 2.5 m (8.2 ft) wide. Reportedly, it was built with stones left over...
June 11th, 2010 | Marianne Crone | Read More | Comments: 0Filed under: featuredarticle1, things to see in Amsterdam
Amsterdam’s Chinatown
Fietsen worden verwijderd means bicycles will be removed. The sign is outside the Chinese Temple on Zeedijk. It is not allowed to lean bicycles against the temple wall.
Zeedijk is the main hub of Amsterdam’s small China Town. It is sprinkled with Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese food treats. Zeedijk meaning sea bank or sea wall may seem a strange name because there is no sea in the vicinity. But this was different in medieval days when the Zuyderzee bordered Zeedijk.
Zeedijk was part of a system...
May 28th, 2010 | Marianne Crone | Read More | Comments: 0Filed under: Amsterdam photo, featuredarticle, things to see in Amsterdam
The Tree That Saw Everything
Have you seen enough leafy canals, humpback bridges and ornate canal houses? A visit to Amsterdam south-east will show you a different Amsterdam. This part of Amsterdam is also referred to as Amsterdam-Bijlmer. It stretches from spectacular architecture at ArenA via green residential areas to the original high-rise housing estates built in the 1970s.
True to say, there is not a lot to see. If you want to indulge in Surinam roti, Antilean cactus soup or Turkish kebab, take the metro to Bijlmer station.(map)...
May 22nd, 2010 | Marianne Crone | Read More | Comments: 0Filed under: things to see in Amsterdam
Stroll Through Amsterdam’s Historic Centre
Oudezijds Achterburgwal spills over with cafés, coffeeshops, stylish gables and facades and tourists. This is exactly what you would expect to see in Amsterdam’s historic centre. But you will also find humpback bridges spanning the leafy canal lined with a hotchpotch of buildings. Sex shops and porn theatres rub shoulder with museums and fashion boutiques. Be sure to come early evening. As the sun sets, strings with thousands of twinkling lights transform the canals and bridges into an enchanting...
May 20th, 2010 | Marianne Crone | Read More | Comments: 0Filed under: amsterdam museum, city walk amsterdam, featuredarticle, museums, things to see in Amsterdam
Brewers Canal: Neat Gables and Handsome Warehouses
The rows of red shuttered windows along Brouwersgracht look like multi-occupancy cuckoo clocks. No wonder that Brouwersgracht, Brewers’ Canal, features in almost every Amsterdam brochure or guidebook.
In the 16th century, Brouwersgracht seethed with traders and reeked of fish and beer. It lay on the edge of Amsterdam’s harbour and was the major artery to link the city with the open sea. Ships returning from the Dutch East Indies unloaded their cargoes of spices, sugar, coffee and tea which were...
May 18th, 2010 | Marianne Crone | Read More | Comments: 1Filed under: featuredarticle, things to see in Amsterdam
Look Sky High When In Amsterdam
When in Amsterdam, look sky high. Marvel at architectural glories and ornamented gables. Amsterdam is like an open-air museum. Just a word of warning: Trying to see all gables, may lead to a stiff neck.
TILTING FACADES
Have you noticed the leaning façades of the canal houses? Don’t worry. The houses are not tumbling down. The tilt is deliberate and restricted to a ratio of 1:25, dictated by a 16th century law. The top floor protrudes and protects the ground floor from getting soaked. Look up...
May 8th, 2010 | Marianne Crone | Read More | Comments: 2Filed under: things to see in Amsterdam
Amsterdam: The Chimes of Westerkerk
The chimes of Westerkerk reverberate across Prinsengracht canal, then the sound ebbs away. This musical intermezzo makes me think of what Anne Frank wrote in her diary on 11th June 1942, when she and her family had been in hiding for only three days. Het Achterhuis or the Annex where the family spent almost two years was right behind Westerkerk.
Father and mother can’t get used to the chiming of Westertoren clock, which tells us the time every quarter of an hour. Not me, I liked it from the start....
April 28th, 2010 | Marianne Crone | Read More | Comments: 2Filed under: things to see in Amsterdam, top-feature
Remembrance Day
Jonas Daniel Meijerplein (map) is a small gravelled triangle. Next to the Portuguese Synagogue on the square stands a bronze statue representing a docker. Jonas Daniel Meijerplein is the square where in 1941 in reprisal for killing a Dutch collaborator, 400 Jewish men were rounded up and put on transport to Mauthausen concentration camp.
This deportation sparked off the februaristaking, February Strike, a protest against Nazi treatment of the Jews. The outlawed Dutch Communist Party together with...
April 26th, 2010 | Marianne Crone | Read More | Comments: 0Filed under: featuredarticle, things to see in Amsterdam
Amsterdam’s Floating Flower Market
Buckets of fiery red tulips, mauve hyacinths and golden daffodils cluster the stalls. Sweet scents mingle and fill the passage. You will see tourists clutching maps and asking each other “is this it?” The answer is yes. They have found the floating flower market but were expecting something larger and grander.
After reading recommendations in tourist brochures and guidebooks, the floating flower market can be a bit of a disappointment. To begin with, the market is only 300 metres long and you...
April 22nd, 2010 | Marianne Crone | Read More | Comments: 1Filed under: amsterdam market, Shopping, things to see in Amsterdam, tulips
Leidseplein: Popular Square Where Tourists Meet Locals
Leidseplein buzzes with activity day and night. Sip chardonnay and savour bitterballen, bite-size deep-fried ragout filled balls. On chilly spring and autumn days wrap a fleece shawl around your shoulders and only the tip of your nose will get cold. In winter the square is almost abandoned. All activity shifted inside bars and cafes.
Hop on tram 1, 2, 7, or 10 and get off at Leidseplein. Enjoy at least one lunch, dinner, cappuccino or Heineken in one of the restaurants, cafes or bars.
Hundreds of...
March 10th, 2010 | Marianne Crone | Read More | Comments: 0Filed under: best of week, nightlife, Restaurants & Bars, Shopping, things to see in Amsterdam, top-feature
Amsterdam Photo: What Tourists Do in Amsterdam
Whenever I spot the IAMSTERDAM logo, I cannot ignore it. I always take photos of this Amsterdam icon. I am not the only one. Passing tourists nudge each other and clamber up, on and around the giant red and white letters.
IAMSTERDAM is a two-metre tall (6.5 ft) and twenty-four-metre(26 yards)long wall of letters. Its permanent location is at Museumplein (map), opposite the Rijksmuseum. A second set pops up in unexpected places. Yesterday I stumbled upon IAMSTERDAM at Nieuwmarkt. (map)
photo credits:...
March 8th, 2010 | Marianne Crone | Read More | Comments: 1Filed under: Amsterdam photo, Just a Bit Weird - Fun & Quirky Places, Photos, things to see in Amsterdam
Medieval Amsterdam
Amsterdam was founded in 1306, or to be more precise that is the year city rights were granted. Few buildings from this period remain because in 1421 fire destroyed two-thirds of the city. When in 1452 another blaze swept through the city, legislation was passed banning the use of wood as building material.
MEDIEVAL WOODEN HOUSES
Two wooden houses survived until today. The oldest dates back to 1420, and is at number 34 Begijnhof. The other one at number 1 Zeedijk, In ‘t Aepje.
Wooden House at Begijnhof
Begijnhof...
February 28th, 2010 | Marianne Crone | Read More | Comments: 0Filed under: culture, Restaurants & Bars, things to see in Amsterdam, top-feature
Golden Bend: Where Wealthy Amsterdammers Lived
Amsterdam’s most coveted canal houses are the mansions clustered around the Gouden Bocht – the Golden Bend. This curve of Herengracht between Spiegelstraat and Vijzelstraat is the stretch where in the 17th century wealthy merchants built their lavish homes.
Late 16th and early 17th century Amsterdam prospered and an ever increasing number of people settled in the city. To solve the housing shortage, Amsterdam embarked on the canal belt project. Herengracht, Keizersgracht and Prinsengracht were...
January 30th, 2010 | Marianne Crone | Read More | Comments: 3Filed under: culture, History & Information, museums, The Arts, things to see in Amsterdam, top-feature
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