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10 amazing things you probably didn't know
about Amsterdam
1
The best budget hotels for a
European city break
 share     21 Oct 2016

2 Top 10: the best boutique

hotels in Amsterdam
20 Oct 2016

3 Rijksmuseum visitor guide:

how to master the reborn
museum
06 Oct 2016

4 The best b&bs in Amsterdam

28 Sep 2016

5
The best Amsterdam hostels
22 Sep 2016

Here's what you didn't know about the Dutch city CREDIT: ALAMY

By Gavin Haines, TRAVEL WRITER

29 OCTOBER 2016 • 6:00AM

F irst, here’s what you do know: that the Dutch capital has more canals than
Venice; that it’s liberal in matters of sex and drugs; that it rains a lot; that
everyone cycles; and that some residents live on boats. Good. Now here’s what
you didn’t know…

1. It has more culture per capita than anywhere else

Thanks to its diminutive size and myriad museums, Amsterdam is reckoned to
have more culture per capita than any onther city on Earth. Take that London.
But it’s not a case of quantity over quality: the Van Gogh Museum, Rijksmuseum
and Stedelijk Museum are stacked to the rafters with world-class works, while
the Anne Frank House, once home to the eponymous diarist and her ill-fated
family, provides an agonising insight into the plight of Jews during the Second
World War.

vangoghmuseum • 2 days ago Follow

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Amsterdam also boasts a clutch of smaller, more eccentric museums, which deal
with anything from drugs to deformities (yes, really). Highlights include the
Torture Museum, Sex Museum, Hemp Museum, Funeral Museum and Museum
Vrolik, where visitors will find an unnerving collection of human malformations
(many pickled in jars) as accrued by the 18th-century scientist, Gerardus Vrolik.  

Top 10 | Most visited museums in Amsterdam

1 Rijksmuseum - 2.35 million (visitors in 2015)

2 Van Gogh Museum - 1.9 million
3 Anne Frank House - 1.27 million
4 Stedelijk Museum - 720,000
5 NEMO Science Centre - 590,000
6 Hermitage - 444,000
7 Maritime Museum - 300,000
8 Rembrandt House - 249,000
9 Nieuwe Kerk - 230,000
10 Amsterdam Museum - 222,000
Source: amsterdamtips.com

2. You can tour the city with retired sex workers

Martine and Louise Fokken could well be the oldest women in the oldest
profession. The 74-year-old sex workers have notched up nearly a century in the
inglorious industry, pleasuring an estimated 355,000 men in the process (which,
incidentally, is greater than the population of Iceland).

Martine and Louise Fokkens are twin sex workers turned tour guides CREDIT: GETTY

However, as the authorities crack down on the city’s louche red light district
(and as age takes its toll on the ladies’ bodies) the twins have taken to tour
guiding in a bid to diversify their incomes. Suffice to say they have some stories
to tell, as I found out on a recent tour, which pulled the curtain back on the
infamous red light district and offered a unique insight into their extraordinary
lives.

3. Coffeeshop are not strictly legal

Amsterdam is renowned for its hazy coffeeshops – the cannabis cafes better
known for selling bud than brewing beans – but these feted establishments
operate in a decidedly grey area of the law, not least because the sale, production
and possession of cannabis is technically illegal in the Netherlands. Nevertheless,

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coffeeshops are allowed to trade marijuana; in fact, they’re granted permits to do

so.

Confused? Well, stick with us because while soft drugs are not actually legal in
Amsterdam, or the rest of the Netherlands for that matter, the small-scale sale
and consumption of them is tolerated. This suits the authorities for a couple of
reasons: one, because coffeeshops pay taxes; two, because they prevent shady
street dealers filling the inevitable vacuum that would exist if they didn’t.

Coffeeshops exist in a decidedly grey area of the law CREDIT: ALAMY

4. Locals will give tourists a “backie”

There’s a new way of getting around Amsterdam: by riding pillion with a local.
Dubbed the Yellow Backie scheme, I recently had the pleasure of testing this
novel ride-sharing initiative. Spoiler alert: there was an accident.

So how does it work? Well, when a tourist spots a cyclist with a yellow luggage
rack they must shout “backie”, which should prompt said cyclist to pull over and
offer a lift (assuming, of course, they’re heading in the same direction). It's a
terrific idea and a great way to meet locals. My venerable rider, Maaike, not only
delivered me to my destination, but found time for a quick tour of the Jordaan.
Okay, so we crashed into another cyclist, but we had fun and lived to tell the tale.
“Do you crash often?” I asked, hopping off her bike. “Sometimes,” she laughed.
“Mainly when I’m texting.”

5. You can stay in a printed house

Amsterdam might be best-known for its historic step-gabled dwellings, but the
Dutch capital is not one to rest on its architectural laurels. In fact, the local

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authorities recently backed a pioneering scheme to 3D print a full-sized house in

the heart of the city.

The project is the brainchild of DUS Architects, which recently printed a cabin in
Amsterdam Noord, the onetime industrial wasteland that’s fast becoming the
city’s hippest new suburb. Available for short-term lets, as of 2017, the
diminutive dwelling was printed with bio-plastic and can be completely recycled
(or, rather, reprinted). The catch? It’s so small they had to put the bath outside.
Maybe don’t cancel your hotel reservation just yet, then.

heijmansnl • 1 month ago Follow

6. It has a "utopian" suburb  

Ambitious architectural projects are nothing new in Amsterdam, but not all of
them have taken off. Cue Bijlmermeer, Amsterdam’s ill-fated south-eastern
suburb that was built in the Sixties to house the city’s burgeoning middle class.
They never came; the brutalist architecture of the high-rise neighbourhood
failed to inspire affluent urbanites, so instead it was used to house Surinamese
immigrants. Bijlmermeer, critics claimed, became a ghetto.

Then disaster struck: in 1992 an Israeli cargo plane crashed into two of the
suburb’s concrete tower blocks, killing 43 people and injuring scores more. This
could have been the final nail in the coffin for beleaguered Bijlmermeer, but no:
the neighbourhood is currently trying to reinvent itself as an affordable outpost
for artists, students and budget travellers. Watch this space. 

7. The houses are narrow for a reason

The Dutch capital is renowned for its slender properties and there are numerous
houses in the city vying for the title of “Amsterdam’s narrowest”. However, that
dubious right officially belongs to the dwelling at Singel 7, whose svelte façade is
just one metre wide, barely big enough for the front door.

There’s a good reason why Amsterdam’s houses are so narrow – and predictably
it boils down to money. You see, back in the 17th century locals were taxed on the
width of their properties, which, funnily enough, generated much interest in

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10 amazing things you probably didn't know about Amsterdam Page 5 of 14

narrow-fronted houses. Cleverly, many of these properties were designed to be

wider at the rear, thus only giving the appearance of being small. 

myrthill • 2 months ago Follow

8. The outcast dead all get a proper funeral

No matter how lonely you are, in Amsterdam you won’t leave this life without a
proper funeral. That’s thanks to the benevolence of two men – the funeral
director, Ger Frits, and the venerable Dutch poet, Frank Starik – who have made
it their mission to ensure the city’s loneliest inhabitants are given a proper send
off.

The funerals they organise obey the same formula: chapel, flowers, three pieces
of music, four pall-bearers, and a poem, written especially for the occasion. The
lines are then read out by their author, Starik. It’s a heart-warming tradition that
other places would do well to adopt.

9. There’s a houseboat dedicated exclusively to cats

Cats are renowned for their hatred of water, but the moggies of Amsterdam seem
quite content living on it. That’s thanks to the appropriately-named Cat Boat, a
floating feline sanctuary moored on Singel canal.

gracekirkby1 • 4 months ago Follow

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Founded by cat-lover, Henriette van Weelde, the sanctuary has, curiously,

become something of a tourist attraction in recent years, though that doesn’t
seem to get in the way of the charity’s primary objective: rehoming Amsterdam’s
abandoned moggies. 

10. It’s home to the world’s first stock exchange

Much to the chagrin of money-obsessed London, it’s Amsterdam that lays claim
to the world’s oldest stock exchange. Established by the Dutch East India
Company in 1602, this financial institution once occupied the impressive Beurs
van Berlage building, which still stands today.

So far so dull, you might think, but don’t be so hasty: nowadays this giant
structure has a more purposeful role in public life, home as it is to a theatre,
exhibition space (currently featuring works by Banksy) and an “escape
experience” called Sherlocked, whereby participants have to solve a mystery to
get out of a locked room. There are also a couple of cafes where visitors can quaff
coffee and cake in early-capitalist surroundings.

THE BEST HOTELS IN AMSTERDAM VIEW ALL

Breitner House
Amsterdam, Netherlands

9/ 10 Telegraph expert rating

Formerly the residence of a celebrated 19th-century Dutch artist, now lavishly

decorated in a sty...
Read expert review

From
£ 446 inc. tax

Rates provided by Booking.com

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