Amsterdam Is a Special Dutch Treat

Americans and the Dutch have always had a special feeling for each other. The relationship began in the first years of our republic, when savvy Amsterdam bankers loaned us $12 million to start our federal government programs. That was even before we had established our credit rating.

In the 20th Century, enduring friendship resulted from the U.S. military effort that wrested the Netherlands from the Germans.

One of the pleasant ways to encounter our friends the Dutch is to stroll Amsterdam, an artwork in itself, an open-air museum of the 17th Century. More than 6,000 houses from the 17th Century have monument status and are preserved.

Include in your stroll a visit to the Rijksmuseum, repository for the Golden Age paintings of the Dutch, the master works of the 17th Century.

Start with a visit to the central tourism office (the VVV, phone 266-444) at its office next to the train station. They’ll supply you with a good walking-tour map. Begin with a walk down the main street, Damrak, to the dam, a large square that is the hub of the canals. Look around at the Government Palace, the church, the elegant post office, the peace monument to World War II and the diverse people who cross the area.

Over a cup of coffee or a glass of beer at a cafe, such as the Victoria Hotel at Damrak 1-5, you can see the full pageant of Dutch humanity walk by each hour.

The city rose to spectacular wealth, political power and cultural heights in the 17th Century. In 1600 the Dutch had 2,700 ships roaming the oceans. Amsterdam developed the dominant merchant fleet in an era when prosperity depended on ships that could explore and exploit the opening trade routes to the West and East Indies.

Built on a Dam

Profits from these ventures collected in a compact secular city built on a dam that had been placed on the Amstel River in the 13th Century. Historic models for the modern Dutch character are common-sense merchants and businessmen, not inaccessible royalty or ethereal clerics. The city’s monuments are private houses rather than imposing cathedrals.

As you leave the cafe to encounter the city, remember that central Amsterdam is unlike an American city of rectangular grids. This city is built on a design of several expanding horseshoe canals that fit one within the other. The pattern of the city becomes clear if you take the Round Boat tour through the canals.

The boat tour also gives you a sense of what boat transportation in the city was like before modern roadways were created by filling in some of the waterways.

Boats leave from the streets in front of the railway station and from Rokin Street every half-hour for the 1 1/2-hour trip. Guides dispense ample lore about the city. You’ll lose track of all the bridges, which number more than 1,000, but be sure that the guide points out the lovely Magere Brug, Slender Bridge, from 1670.

You’ll also see all manner of houseboats, dwellings for 10,000 people. The most recent approach to canal viewing has been small pedal boats, called canal bikes, which seat two or four and can be used for self-guided touring. They can be rented at the Leidseplein and along Leidsestraat at Prinsengracht, among other locations.

After the boat trip, make a pilgrimage to the Rijksmuseum, where the Golden Age of the 17th Century comes alive. If you walk from the dam to the Rijksmuseum, using your Falk Plan map, you’ll pass through intriguing side streets.

The Rijksmuseum is the place to see art that you’ve known for years through reproductions. You’ll be seized by a fresh sense of discovery and recognition when you view an oil whose image you have known only as a litho.

Don’t plan to see everything at the Rijksmuseum in one visit because it has more than 1 million art objects. Concentrate instead on a few images and avert your eyes as you pass through galleries on the way to your destination.

Consider Johannes Vermeer’s deeply felt and quiet works, such as “Young Girl Reading” and “A Maidservant Pouring Milk.” Add to them some of Rembrandt’s paintings such as “The Jewish Bride,” “Syndicate of the Drapers” and “Night Watch.”

Rembrandt may strike you as a surprisingly modern sensibility. He rose to fame because of his ability to transform the annual “photo” of the company executives into a striking study of their character. His fortunes foundered but his enduring fame was assured when he didn’t give all the executives equal prominence in a painting they were all paying for equally.

Ask a museum attendant to explain to you one or two of the immensely humorous paintings of Jan Steen, whose work catalogues the folkloric wit of the era.

After leaving the museum, take a walk to the Leidseplein, the premier place for further cafe idling and a perusal of the Dutch character. The famous old City Opera House on the Leidseplein is the scene of musical happenings nightly. A new Music Theater recently opened on the Waterlooplein.

Alive Day and Night

The Leidseplein is alive with people all day and night, especially in clear weather. One senses an air of delight and freedom at this place, complete with street musicians and itinerant performers.

Also on the Leidseplein, the Jugendstil Room in the American Hotel is an interesting stop. This mammoth room, built in 1892, is a national monument to fin de siecle grandeur. Today the room is a meeting place for the city’s writers, artists and talkers.

At the Jugendstil you can catch up on your reading with the provided newspapers and enjoy a meal or a mid-afternoon coffee. The American Hotel, an Art Deco masterpiece, is one of the appealing Amsterdam lodgings.

From the Leidseplein, make another excursion on foot to the canals. As you glance up at the sumptuous facades you may wonder what life was like inside the houses during that flourishing age. Several opportunities exist to satisfy your curiosity.

At the Willet-Holthuysen Museum, 605 Herengracht, you can see the interior and furnishings of a 17th-Century canal house complete with glass, ceramic and stoneware collections, plus period rooms from the 18th and 19th centuries. The Netherlands Theater Institute, formerly the Toneelmuseum, 168 Herengracht, exhibits another interior, with memorabilia collected from the performing arts.

Amsterdam prides itself on the presence of several hotels that can’t possibly be duplicated elsewhere because they are right in 17th-Century canal houses. These hotels are interesting attractions on a walk. The most distinguished is the Pulitzer, which consists of 16 canal houses along the Prinsengracht, or Prince’s Canal, Nos. 315-331.

Facades Preserved

The hotel is tastefully conceived and deftly executed, preserving the facades of the buildings but modernizing the compact interiors. Walk through the hotel to see an art gallery in the hallway and perhaps stop for a Heineken beer, Amsterdam’s finest, in the lively Pulitzer Bar.

The city is the center of the European antique market. Near the Rijksmuseum, stroll Spiegelstraat and Nieuwe Spiegelstraat, where there are more than 120 antique and art shops in a small area.

Amsterdam has also been a leading center for 400 years in the cutting, polishing and mounting of diamonds. The Van Moppes have a complete tour and viewing room at their factory, Albert Cuypstraat 2. Coster near the Rijksmuseum offers another good diamond tour and shop.

Amsterdam is also famous for its open-air markets. The most elaborate is the Waterlooplein. The Albert Cuyp Market is another lively outdoor scene with a variety of food and merchandise.

At the Albert Cuyp Market enjoy a Dutch delicacy, raw herring with chopped onion. Watch one of the natives eat a herring first. Grasp the raw fish by the tail, swing it aloft, and lower it into your mouth. The Dutch place such an importance on herring that the fisherman who catches the first herring of the spring season makes front-page news.

Amsterdam--monument to urban design, repository for classic paintings and vital modern metropolis--is easily accessible to the traveler equipped with curiosity and a comfortable pair of walking shoes.