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Cultural things to do in Amsterdam?


What is there to do in Amsterdam if you are not into drugs or trawling the sex shops?

I'd like to visit the Anne Frank Museum, but don't know what else there is to do.

I used to live in Amsterdam. Great city.
After you go to the Anne Frank museum, take a train to Haarlem and visit the clock shop of Corrie ten Boom, whose family hid Jews during WWII, and suffered for it.
Back in Amsterdam, across from the Centraal Train Station, look for a building with big blue letters, "God Roept U - Jesus Loves You". It's a coffee shop, Christian bookstore, and the most amazing men's room in the city. Seriously! The coffee shop is called "Dwaze Zaken".
Dutch cuisine is nothing special; they love Indonesian food and food from other cultures. Their own food is from the land and sea (try dropping a pickled herring in your mouth). You have to have their french fries (patat "oorlog") with mayo, ketchup, onions, or try it with spicy peanut sauce. Buy a croquet at a Febo vending machine, or a chocolate croissant in the train station.
Find out where you can go folk dancing. A lot of international folk dancing, heavy on Israeli and Yugoslavian influence.
Hang out at Leidseplein and eat a "tom poes". Visit the Polder museum outside Amsterdam to learn how they reclaim the land. They have a saying: "God made the world, but the Dutch made Holland."

Visit the Sloten Windmill. Take a canal tour. Van Gogh Museum. Various diamond factories. Rijksmuseum. Heineken Museum

You could also visit the Rembrandt museum.

Take a river cruise, always a few setting off near the central station and very regular, but you can book an evening cruise some of which can be all inclusive, so you can have a good few beers and a bit to eat while seeing the sights. Good value too...!

Apart from that, theres nothing much apart from museums, shopping's not bad, plenty of gift shops, clogs a plenty (and to suit all bugets). Eating out is great value, loads of steak houses which tend to compete with each other, probably won't spend more than 鈧?0 for a decent steak.

Just to point out, worth having an overnight stay 2 hours coach from Roterdam and of course 2 hours back. so you'd only get about 7 hours that is of course if thats the way you're doing it.

Enjoy...

The Anne frank museum is the right place to go, you got it right there, you can take little boat tours around the canals, they have great markets, try waterlooplein, that is always good, rent a bike is a must to see the town, bikes have road rights there just as much as cars do which is excellent, there are excursions to Belgium for the day that run in the morning, i say the best thing is get a map, bike around the town and just see what there is.
Also you can take tours around the Heineken brewery.
My biggest must is there is a main road going up to the brewery, get the number 16 or 24 tram from the train station to get on that road, when you get to the part of town with loads of shops about half way to the brewery get off the tram and walk around that area, there is a big fork to the left of you with a little felafel's take away place, turn left down there (this assuming you are facing the brewery) and there is the most amazing fruit shop i have ever been to in my life, they have loads of different fruits, fruit salads and desserts, then opposite the fruit in the same shop is a delicatessen, that has amazing food from all over the place, you have to find it!

Amsterdam is the city with the most museums per square kilometer (I am told,) so there should be something for your liking:
http://www.amsterdam.info/museums/
The list on this site is not complete, so if you collect something different and wonder if Amsterdam has a museum about it, google might find one.
This is a special one, a church hidden in a house:
http://www.museumamstelkring.nl/
There is a museum for every period in the art, there are several old houses furnished in the style that was popular a long time ago.

You can walk along the canals, the ones in the oldest part of town, now mostly red light district, and the ones in the ring around the old town.
Have a drink in a cafe, (the local version of the pub) that you find on many street corners all over town.

There are several markets and many shopping streets.
http://www.amsterdam.info/shopping/

You can find even more on this same site, including a map:
http://www.amsterdam.info/map/

For dinner, think about going to a Chinese Indonesian restaurant and go for a rice table.
For lunch, belegde broodjes (buns made into sandwiches) are traditional Dutch.
Pancakes will make a lunch for most, may make a dinner for small eaters.

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