Allard Pierson Museum

Amsterdam’s finest museum of the antiquities, and especially noted for it’s Egyptian displays (including a complete mummie), as well as a fine library, auditorium and research facilities. The museum has lived in several locations since it’s inception during the 1920’s. Originally on the Weesperzijde, then on Sarphtistraat, and is now in the former headquarters of the Nederlandsche Bank. This rather opulent building, located on the Rokin, is just past the Dam Square, on the left side of the canal when walking from Central Station. There are a number of trams that stop directly in front of the museum (4, 9, 16, 24 and 25).

Admission is quite reasonable, adults pay 4.30 euros for entrance. Children and seniors are less.

Closed Mondays and on Holidays, the museum is open generally from 10 am to 5 pm.

There is no parking in the area, except for a handicapped spot right in front of the door.

Randy Roy’s Red Light Walking Tour Amsterdam

This tour was highly recommended in BOOM magazine. Randy is a pretty cool guy! This tour focused on the humorous and contemporary stories of the red light district. He kept us entertained by showing us where Quentin Tarantino wrote Pulp Fiction. Eminem and Mike Tyson’s favorite coffeshop. We even saw the club with the darkroom floor that Jean Paul Gaultier passed out on (and woke up stuck to)!
We saw a lot of window prostitutes and learned about X-rated bookshops, live sex shows, magic mushrooms and smart shops. Warning: there was also some Amsterdam history on the tour.We had a lot of laughs and came away with a better understanding of not only the red light district but also the Dutch culture. Highly recommended!

Info:
The meeting point is in front of the Victoria Hotel across from Central Station at 8pm, and 10pm on Fridays & Saturdays.(Damrak and Prins Hendrik-kade). It lasts 90 minutes.

Resevations are recommended!

Art and Culture in the Jordaan

The Jordaan was build at the large expansion of Amsterdam in early 17th century, as a district for the working class and emigrants. The population increase during the next centuries was enormously, caused by the stream political refugees like protestant Fleming, Spanish and Portuguese Jews and French Huguenots who mainly settled in the Jordaan. It was a poor district with small houses and slums, every little room stuffed with families and lots of children. The entire area was one ghetto with open sewers, canals served for both transport and sewer, and no running water. Around 1900 there lived about 80 thousand people, nowadays about 20 thousand.

Rembrandt
The famous 17th century Dutch writer Joost van den Vondel and photographer Breitner lived in the Jordaan. Artists, like the painter Rembrandt van Rijn in his lesser successful period, also came living in the Jordaan because of the low rents. The house of Rembrandt was on the Rozengracht (Rose canal, still a real canal these days). His studio was on the Bloemgracht (Flower canal). The famous painter was buried in a poor mans grave in the Westerkerk (West church).

Monument Care
During the seventieth of the 20th century the city council had serious plans to mainly demolish big parts of the district and replace them for large ugly blocks of modern buildings. There where many protests against this idea. City protectors, such as Monument Care, where against the loss of the historical town and the people of the Jordaan feared for large rent increases. Thanks to this resistance the plan was modified, there came small-scale projects which would repair the neighborhood, without damaging its original character.
Strolling
A large renovation was started. By then the district was discovered by a new generation occupants: artists, students, and young entrepreneurs. The old inhabitants moved to other neighborhoods and cities like Almere. Partly by these new inhabitants the Jordaan has changed from a slum area to a district for artist, still living on low rent, and the rich who bought the very expensive renovated houses. Nowadays the Jordaan is compared to the rest of the town an oasis of peace with a labyrinth of narrow streets and little canals, nice for strolling around courtyards, art studios, and monumental buildings with stone tablets, old-fashioned ‘brown’ pubs, boutiques or galleries.

Markets
There are also some markets in this area. Saturdays you will find the Lindenmarkt (Lime market), a general market, on the Lindengracht (Lime canal) and a biological food market on the Noordermarkt (North market). Mondays you have a flea market at the Noordermarkt and a market on the Westerstraat (West street) with nice fabrics. On the Noordermarkt you can visit the Noorderkerk (North church), designed by Hendrick de Keyser in the 17th century.

Noorderkerk
Many people think that the Westerkerk (West church) on the Westermarkt is the main church of the Jordaan. It’s true that you can hear its carillon and see the beautiful Westertoren (West tower) everywhere in the neighborhood and that the Jordaanfestival is located on his square, but the church is actually located just outside the Jordaan. So the main church of the Jordaan is the Noorderkerk. The Noorderkerk was built in the northern part in 1620-1623 by Hendrick de Keyser and his son Pieter. The church is still in use as a Protestant church, and like the Westerkerk open to everyone, especially during concerts.

Art studios
Hundreds of artist discovered the Jordaan in the 70th because of the low rent of houses in these little streets. The lucky ones are renting a studio in one of these beautiful inner courtyards of the neighborhood. Every two years the artist organize a so called ‘open studio event’. During these days visitors can have a look in the ‘kitchens’ of the artist. There is also a permanent ornamental route called ‘Jewels in the Jordaan’. Past charming alleyways and picturesque canals it leads to gold- and silversmiths.

Courtyards
The Jordaan has a high concentration of hofjes (inner courtyards), beautiful yards with little houses, many of them with restored houses and peaceful gardens. These courtyards were build by rich people for older women; a kind of charity and protection. Beginning of the 70th most of these courtyards was in a very bad shape, like the rest of the neighborhood. After there restoration they were discovered by artist, students and still some older people with special privileges because of a church membership. Some of the courtyards are closed to the public, and only opened on special days called ‘open monuments days’. But if you do come across one of the entrances, and it is unlocked, most residents won’t mind if you sneak a quiet peek. During the summer some of these yards are opened on Sundays during free concerts called ‘hofjesconcerts’.

Stone tablets
Many houses in the Jordaan have a stone tablet, a stone sign that shows the profession or family sign of the inhabitants. For instance a butcher showed a pig and a tailor a pair of scissors, carved in a stone above the entry. During a walk it’s a pleasure to observe those beautiful, when renovated colorful, antique signs. The first stone tablets are made in the 16th century, when citizens were ordered to use these tablets instead of big wooden gables that obstructed the traffic in these narrow streets.
Museums
Most of the museums in the Jordaan are small. You have the Pianola museum with old mechanical pianos, a literature museum of Theo Thijssen, a houseboat museum, and a fluorescent museum called Electric Lady Land. Just on the boarder of the Jordaan you can find the Anne Frank House on the Prinsengracht (Prince canal).

Jewish Historical Museum

The Jewish Historical Museum was established 70 years ago, and from 1932 till 1987 it was housed in the medieval Weigh House, in the Nieuwmarkt. In 1987, the museum moved to the restored complex of synagogues at Jonas Daniël Meijerplein, just off the Waterlooplein.

Originally opemed as a single room, part of the Amsterdam Historical Museum, it has grown over the years despite the efforts of the Nazis.

When Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940, the Jewish Historical Museum closed its doors and tried to save the collection. Objects on loan were returned to their owners and the museum collection was transferred to the Stedelijk Museum. In 1943 the Germans claimed the museum’s objects as Jewish property, and was taken by the Nazis to Germany, and most was lost or destroyed.
 
Reopened in 1955, only a fifth of the original collection remained. New objects were added from public and private collections.
 
The museum hosts art displays and other cultural events geared towards Amsterdam’s Jewish population and visitors.

Stadsarchief Amsterdam

Stadsarchief Amsterdam is on the Amsteldijk upriver from the Carre theater, on the other side of the Amstel River.

This is where the official archives of the City of Amsterdam reside, and there are exhibits open to the public, with interpretations in Dutch, of course.

Info:
Stadsarchief Amsterdam is on the Amsteldijk at number 67, 1074 HZ Amsterdam.

Antiquariaat Kok

Amazing bookstore, filled with ancient treasures on the Oude Hoogstraat in Amsterdam. Here you will find books and prints dealing with almost every subject relevant to Amsterdam and it’s history.

Info:
Located between the Kloveniersburgwal and the Oudezijdes Achterburgwal on the Oude Hoogstraat. The Damstraat begins at the Dam, opposite the Royal Palace and continues through some of Amsterdam’s most colorful neighborhood to the east.

Koninklijk Paleis

Open daily during the summer for tourists, the Royal Palace is not the home of any royalty, it’s a museum and venue for important state events held by the Dutch royals. Recently renovated and spruced up for the wedding of Willem-Alexander and Maxima this place is worth a visit if you haven’t been inside before.

Of note are rooms replete with their period furnishings, carvings, bas-reliefs of bizarre historical notes and artworks left behind when the royals abandoned the place.

Amsterdam Historical Museum

A visit to Amsterdam should include a visit to this unique museum located near the Dam Square. How can you possibly understand Amsterdam as it is now without a look at it’s fascinating history?

The Amsterdam Historical Museum moved into this building in 1975. It was formerly the municipal orphanage (founded in 1520), and a brief history of the building’s previous existence is told in and around the governors room. An interactive program about the orphanage also contains several old photos.

Exhibits of special Amsterdam historical significance are displayed here at the museum.

Info:
Open daily.

The two museum entrances can be accessed from Kalverstraat 92, Sint Luciënsteeg 27 and Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 357. The museum is a twelve-minute walk from Amsterdam’s Central Station, via Damrak, Dam Square and Kalverstraat. Trams 4, 5, 9, 11, 14, 16, 24 and 25 also go to the museum, stopping at Spui.

Apotheek Jacob Hooy

In the Nieuwe Markt area is an ancient apothecary and drugstore named Jacob Hooy at Kloveniersburgwal #10. Operating on this spot since 1743, the shop offers medicinal herbs and various natural remedies. The staff is on hand to help you with explanations of the herbs and their uses, and will help you find what you need.

Check out the barrels and drawers all labeled in Latin with their contents. Now imagine the wonderful aroma of all those dried herbs and flowers – you can sneeze, wheeze or shout with glee – but you will definitely notice it. In fact the interior of this shop is nothing but wall-to-wall drawers, barrels, and jars of herbs, salves, and other personal care items.

Jacob Hooy is also noted for their licorice, in all sorts of shapes and sizes. They say the selection of the sweet sticky black stuff here is Amsterdam’s best, except maybe for the sticky black stuff in the coffeeshops, but that’s another kind of “candy.”

Jacob Hooy offered all sorts of items in the past that we don’t consider medicine today – note the jars with names like OPIUM and TABAK.

This area of Amsterdam was always a market, especially for herbs and spices relating to medicine. Across the courtyard in the fanciful castle named the Waag, Dutch physicians operated a theater for the public dissection of human corpses. This rather grim practice no longer takes place over there, it’s now an internet café and restaurant! Before that the area was known as St. Anthony’s Gate, until the 1600’s when the city tore down it’s perimeter walls.

John Adams Institute

The John Adams Institute provides an independent podium for American culture in the Netherlands. For three decades now, we have brought the best and the brightest of American thinking from the fields of literature, politics, history, technology and the arts. Love it or hate it, the United States plays an important role in the world: what happens in the US is of continuing relevance for the rest of the world, and we provide a window onto that.

The John Adams Institute was founded in 1987 by the cooperation of the West India Foundation of Holland and New York’s Dutch American West India Company Foundation to promote lively debates and lectures in historic venues within old Amsterdam.

This non-profit organization is dedicated to preserving the historic links between Amsterdam and New York City in particular, and the U.S. as a whole.

Located in the West India Huis, which was once the headquarters of the Dutch West India Company, the John Adams Institute holds a series of approximately eleven lectures or talks every year. These lectures have proven to be popular, and have sold out in advance many times. The speakers tend to be world-famous guests such as writers, artists and scientists with profound viewpoints.

The institute was named for John Adams, former president of the United States, who is also a former resident of Amsterdam. Adams was the first ambassador to the Dutch Republic from the U.S., and enjoyed a life of culture here in Old Amsterdam collecting and reading books, hobnobbing with European royalty and furthering U.S. interests here in the Netherlands.

Info:
Located in the West-Indisch Huis at Herenmarkt #97.