Nieuwe Centrum - Oude Centrum in Amsterdam

Having spent three weeks back home after Budapest we set off again, this time to Amsterdam. It's very difficult for me to write about Amsterdam as I know it so well, it's like my hometown.  I have also posted on the city before, so there will be a very limited number of posts but I do want to revisit the Centre as this is where our hotel is and we tend to spend so much time there.

The heart of the city is divided into Het Oude Zijde (the old side) and Het Nieuwe Zijde (the new side) which is not new at all as it dates back to medieval times.

 

Sitting by this canal is the first thing we always do when we arrive, and this is our view. Most of these photographs were taken at dusk



 

 

 

 

The grand building on the left is the Grand Hotel, an Art Deco building

 



 

 

 

The water in the canal had turned golden as had some of the buildings. Across from us is the Green House, one of the more famous coffee shops of the city

 

 

 

When the weather is good everyone opens their windows and looks out. Alternatively, they take chairs out in the street and sit there enjoying the sunshine and warmth

 

This is the University district, very pleasant and quiet

 

 

 

 

Lots of canals, and bikes, of course

 

 

 

 

one of the quieter canals but oh so picturesque

 



 

 

The bridge at the beginning of Staalstraat, Staalmasters in the corner, a very popular café/restaurant where we've had many delicious meals

 

Staalstraat is full of delightful and diverse shops and eateries. The window above is a perfect example of Amsterdam style - so simple and yet so effective and stylish

 

 

 

 

 



a sweet shop and the skull is made, of course, with sweets

 



 

  

 

The bridge at the other end of Staalstraat - Van Gogh has painted one of the two bridges, but I can't remember which one

 

 

 

 

one more view of the bridge.

 

 

The light was so intense that evening

A modern complex, with a waterfall running down the middle

a closer look

Amsterdam style - flowers everywhere

 

and I love the shutters

 

 

 

 

this is a very typical Amsterdam image

 

 

 

a tiny building

 

On Damstraat now, a street full of interesting shops and fast food places

 



 

 

why not have the dummies advertising the sale?






Another sweet shop

and a closer look at that chocolate bath

 

Damstraat divides two sections of the Centre - the University district on one side, and the red light district on the other

 

 

 

 

 This must surely, be one of the narrowest buildings

 

 

 

 

Oude Kerk, the oldest church in Amsterdam, on the edge of the red light district

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

Niewmarkt. This has always been one of Amsterdam's most important markets, first for fish, later for the cloth traders from the adjacent Jewish quarter. During WWII however, after increasingly random arrests by the occupying Nazis in and around the once bustling market, the whole area was cordoned off with barbed wire and turned into a holding pen for the city's Jews awaiting deportation. The old exuberance never returned, and these days the market has all but vanished.

The main focus of the square is the turreted Waag which was originally part of the fortifications that encircled Amsterdam. It's had various uses since: a civic weighing house; home to the Surgeons' Guild; home to the Jewish Museum; and now it houses the Society for Old and New Media.

 

A Gaudiesque bench in the square.