Travelling Round Europe & BeyondBlog about travelling around Europe & the rest of the world

Amsterdam is the capital of, and largest city in the Netherlands. It is also the financial and cultural capital as well, making it a very popular place for tourists and with good reason. The town holds many attractions for visitors from the system of canals that spread across the whole city, to the many museums, churches and other buildings worth visiting.

In terms of museums, one or two particularly worth mentioning are the Van Gogh Museum specialising in works by Vincent van Gogh, The Anne Frank House where Anne lived in the back rooms during Nazi occupation and wrote her now famous diary. The building also acts as an exhibition space to highlight various forms of persecution and discrimination. Another museum well worth a visit is the Nemo museum. This is in fact a science museum, but has been built to look like a sinking ship.

Amsterdam is of course famous for it’s red light districts. There are two main areas, de Wallen and the Singelgebied, and many tourists like to see these areas for themselves.

Shopping in Amsterdam is a must for most tourists, and the two main shopping streets in Amsterdam’s city centre are the Kalverstraat and the Leidsestraat. The first houses many shops known around the world including several department stores, while the second is home to places that are a little more exclusive. As well as this, there are a number of shopping centres around the city where you will find a wide variety of stores, and several open air markets as well where you can soak up a little authentic culture and enjoy the sights and smells of local produce from cheese to artisanal baked goods.

Many events take place in Amsterdam through the year, from the Liberation Concert which takes place on the Amstel River on 5th of May to SAIL Amsterdam which takes place in August and gives the public the chance to enjoy the sight of some of the most impressive ships in the world, and even to board some of them and see them from a perspective they wouldn’t normally get. There is also the Friday night skate – a skating event which takes place all year round when it’s dry, and has a 20 kilometre long route. Anyone can join in for free under the conditions that you are skilled enough as a skater to brake well, and keep up. If it turns out you’re not, then you’ll be asked to quit and step out and not join in again till you are practiced enough to manage it.