Amsterdam Priority Spots: Beyond the Ring Canal Postcard

Take the free ferry from Amsterdam Central to NDSM. It takes 15 minutes and the ferry itself is one of the more pleasant transit rides in the city. NDSM was a shipyard until the 1980s. It is now a large brownfield converted into artist studios, restaurants, a hostel in a converted crane, and a monthly IJ Hallen flea market which is the largest in Europe.

Walk along the water. Have lunch at Pllek, a beach club in a set of shipping containers. Then walk to the FKA Museum around the corner. This is contemporary Amsterdam. The old city has nothing like it.

Also on the north side, ten minutes on the ferry from Central to Buiksloterweg, the EYE is a striking angular building that houses the Dutch national film archive. Beyond the collection there are two cinemas showing 35mm prints and repertory programs that most cities cannot match.

The cafe on the ground floor looks back across the IJ to the old city. This is the correct end of afternoon spot in Amsterdam in bad weather.

De Pijp is the 19th century working class quarter south of the ring canal. It has become one of the most desirable neighborhoods in the city but it remains busy and mixed rather than polished. The Albert Cuyp Market runs Monday through Saturday along a single long street. It sells everything from stroopwafels made in front of you to Surinamese roti and Dutch cheese.

The Heineken Experience is at the edge of De Pijp. Skip it unless you are traveling with someone who really wants to. Instead, walk through the market and have late lunch at Bar Fisk, a small Israeli place on Ceintuurbaan. This is neighborhood Amsterdam.

Micropia, at the edge of Artis Zoo, is a museum of microbes, the only one in the world. It sounds gimmicky and turns out to be excellent. Two hours of biology at the scale you do not usually see, with interactive displays that treat the visitor as an adult.

Combine it with a walk through Artis, which is one of the oldest and prettiest zoos in Europe, or with the Hortus Botanicus around the corner. The Hortus is a small but historically important botanical garden with a butterfly greenhouse and a cafe in a converted orangery. Slower pace than Micropia, still worth 90 minutes.

East of Central Station, past the maritime museum, a series of former docks was redeveloped in the 1990s and 2000s into some of the most interesting modern housing in Europe. Java Island, Sporenburg, and Borneo Island are dense, walkable, and full of unusual architecture that most visitors never see.

Take tram 26 to Rietlandpark and walk east. Have coffee at Kanis en Meiland on the water. This is a two hour walk that will show you why Amsterdam is a design capital in a way that a canal cruise cannot.

The main entrance to Vondelpark at Leidseplein is standing room only on a summer afternoon. The park is 47 hectares and has two other entrances, at Amstelveenseweg to the west and at the Van Baerlestraat to the south, both of which are much quieter. The southern half of the park is where locals actually run and cycle. The rose garden, halfway along, is one of the more beautiful public gardens in the city and it is signed on no map app.

The Groot Melkhuis cafe halfway through is family friendly, has outdoor tables, and is quiet on weekdays.

The Nine Streets, De Negen Straatjes, are the small streets that cross the ring canals between Prinsengracht and Singel. In the afternoon and evening this is the peak tourist Amsterdam. Between 09:00 and 11:00 on a weekday it is the shopping street the neighborhood actually uses, with strong independent design and vintage stores. Prices are Amsterdam premium but not tourist premium.

This is the correct start of a rainy day, followed by a museum in the afternoon.

The Rijksmuseum is one of the great museums of Europe and it is impossible to see in one visit. The correct strategy is to see it twice, one hour each, on separate days. The first hour: second floor, Gallery of Honor, Vermeer, Rembrandt, done. The second hour: 17th century Dutch landscapes and the model boats in the ship gallery.

The rooftop cafe and the small library are worth adding once you have done the first hour. Book online for the earliest slot, 09:00.