Lonely Planet Pocket Amsterdam

,

• Publisher: Lonely Planet
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN:
  9781788689977
• Print ISBN:
  9781787016132

Jordaan & the Western Canal Ring

If Amsterdam’s neighbourhoods held a ‘best personality’ contest, the Jordaan would surely win. Its intimacy is contagious, with jovial bar singalongs, candlelit bruin cafés (traditional Dutch pubs) and flower-box-adorned eateries spilling out onto narrow streets. The Western Canal Ring’s waterways flow next door. Grand old buildings and oddball speciality shops line the glinting waterways.

Negen Straatjes | DENNIS VAN DE WATER/SHUTTERSTOCK ©

The Short List

AAnne Frank Huis Contemplating the brave life and tragic death of Anne Frank where she and her family hid from the Nazis.

ANegen Straatjes Browsing the speciality shops along these ‘nine streets’ criss-crossed by canals.

AWesterkerk Scaling the bell tower and catching a carillon recital.

AReypenaer Cheese Tasting Learning to distinguish an aged Gouda from a young boerenkaas (farmer’s cheese).

ADe Twee Zwaantjes Spending the evening in the Jordaan’s bruin cafés.

Getting There & Around

L Trams 3, 5, 7, 17 and 19 skirt the neighbourhood’s western edge; trams 13 and 17 go through its centre.

g Buses 18, 21, 22 and 48 provide the quickest access from Centraal Station to the neighbourhood’s north and west, and the Western Islands.

u Don’t try to drive through the Jordaan’s narrow streets.

Top SightAnne Frank Huis

It is one of the 20th century’s most compelling stories: a young Jewish girl forced into hiding with her family and their friends to escape deportation by the Nazis. The house they used as a hideaway should be a highlight of any visit to Amsterdam; indeed, it attracts some 1¼ mi...

Table of contents

• Table of Contents
• Welcome to Amsterdam
• Top Sights
• Eating
• Four Perfect Days
• Need to Know
• Amsterdam Neighbourhoods
• Medieval Centre & Red Light District
• Jordaan & the Western Canal Ring
• Southern Canal Ring
• Vondelpark & the South
• De Pijp
• Oosterpark & East of the Amstel
• Nieuwmarkt, Plantage & the Eastern Islands
• Amsterdam Noord
• Amsterdam’s Splashiest Canals
• Westerpark & Western Islands
• Survival Guide
• Language
• Behind the Scenes
• Our Writers