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AmsterdamMost tourists, especially young people, will flock to Amsterdam, the Netherlands’ capital city, where the old blends in seamlessly with the new. An eclectic mixture of artists and musicians celebrate along narrow, cobblestone streets and live in squatter flats in crooked buildings while gleaming BMWs will give way to bicycles that navigate around the concentric canals that make up the small city.
In fact, there are many squares in the city that offer fun and enjoyment on any given night. Leidseplein holds most of the city's cultural life and nightlife while places like Rembrandtplein, Spui, and Museumplein round out the city culturally and intellectually. If the lure of the Red Light District and its seedy promises don’t appeal to you, then visit the Jordaan, a thriving working class neighborhood with warm, friendly pubs, excellent restaurants, art galleries, and offbeat shops. The rows of cute little houses are almost idyllic, with well-kept gardens and courtyards. Take a boat ride on the canals to get a duck’s view of the city and admire how delightfully crooked the buildings are. There are also a number of houseboats and barges that line the canals. In the winter, if the canals freeze over, you can ice skate. If you’re feeling culturally inclined, remember that the Dutch gave birth to an unusually large number of master artists including Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals and Steen. You can take in their breathtaking works in several of Amsterdam’s many museums, the premiere one being Rijksmuseum. There is also the Van Gogh Museum where you can see the works of the legendary Vincent Van Gogh – nearly 200 of them. For something a bit more solemn, but certainly something that every visitor the city should be sure to do, is to live a bit of history by visiting Anne Frank’s house. Each year, half a million tourists pay homage to the brave Jewish family who hid from the Nazis during their occupation of the Netherlands in the 1940’s. Should you ever tire of the city, you can take a day trip out to Hoge Veluwe, the country’s largest national park and site of the Kröller-Müller Museum, containing almost 300 works of Van Gogh, Picasso, and Mondriaan. Link to this page! Copy the source below and paste it into your page source. It's that easy!
 TripLogs: Amsterdam |
