HIDDEN COURTYARDBegijnhof
A walled medieval courtyard in the middle of the old centre, home to single women for more than 600 years. Step through the gate on the Begijnensteeg and the city noise drops away.
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Odd finds in Amsterdam
Strange art, hidden courtyards and odd details in Amsterdam that most people walk past. Like the ones you want to find and walk them as your own free tour.
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HIDDEN COURTYARD
TASTEBrouwerij 't IJ
Amsterdam's best-known craft brewery pours its beer in an old bathhouse at the foot of De Gooyer, the tall wooden windmill on the Funenkade.
FILM SPOTThe Fault in Our Stars bench
The bench on the Leidsegracht where Hazel and Augustus sit in The Fault in Our Stars (2014). Fans of the film still come from all over the world for a photo.
★ 4.6 Google 0
HIDDEN COURTYARDSint-Andrieshofje
Behind a plain door on the Egelantiersgracht, a passage lined with blue Delft tiles leads into one of Amsterdam's oldest almshouse courtyards. Only the Begijnhof is older.
ODD FINDPicasso in the Vondelpark
A real Picasso, 'Figure découpée' (the fish), standing on a lawn in the Vondelpark since 1965. Joggers pass it without looking.
★ 4.5 Google 0
ODD FINDMuiderpoort
The 1770 city gate through which Napoleon rode into Amsterdam in 1811.
★ 4.4 Google 0
ODD FINDVondelbunker
A Cold War nuclear shelter under a Vondelpark bridge, now an underground cultural venue.
★ 4.6 Google 0
ODD FINDAnne Frank statue (Merwedeplein)
Anne Frank with her bag, in front of the flat where she lived before going into hiding: few visitors find it.
ODD FINDWest-Indisch Huis courtyard
Where the West India Company decided to found New Amsterdam (New York); Peter Stuyvesant stands in the courtyard.
★ 4.4 Google 0
ODD FINDCafé Papeneiland
A 1642 brown café with the legend of a secret tunnel to a hidden church across the canal.
★ 4.3 TripAdvisor 0
ODD FINDZevenlandenhuizen
Seven houses in a row, each built in the style of a different country (1894), on the Roemer Visscherstraat.
★ 4.3 Google 0
ODD FINDSint Olofskapel
A 15th-century chapel swallowed by a hotel, with a skull-and-bones gable stone over the old door.
★ 4.4 Google 0
ODD FINDPintohuis
A 17th-century merchant's mansion with painted ceilings, now a free reading room and café.
★ 4.6 Google 0
ODD FINDDe Drie Hendricken
Three 1642 houses on the Bloemgracht with gable stones of a townsman, a farmer and a sailor.
★ 4.6 Google 0
ODD FINDOost-Indisch Huis courtyard
The headquarters of the Dutch East India Company, now university; walk into the courtyard where the world's first multinational was run.
★ 4.4 Google 0
ODD FINDJacob Hooy & Co
An apothecary shop unchanged since 1743: wooden drawers of herbs, liquorice jars and a 'gaper' head over the door.
★ 4.7 TripAdvisor 0
HIDDEN COURTYARDKarthuizerhof
A large 17th-century almshouse courtyard in the Jordaan, built for widows on the grounds of a vanished monastery. Most people in the street outside never notice the gate.
ODD FINDChet Baker plaque
On the hotel where the jazz trumpeter fell from a window in 1988. 'He will live on in his music.'
ODD FINDHuis aan de Drie Grachten
A 1610 house with a canal on three sides, one of the most photographed corners nobody can name.
ODD FINDHuil van de Wolff
A sound monument under the overhang of the Muziekgebouw for horn player Jan Wolff: every 22nd of the month at 8 pm it plays wolf howls, ship horns and lapping water, shaped by the weather.
ODD FINDUnderwater bike parking
Thousands of bikes parked in a garage under the water in front of Centraal Station, with an aquarium-like view of the IJ.
ODD FINDSkull gate of the Zuiderkerkhof
The old graveyard gate on the Sint Antoniesbreestraat, crowned with skulls.
ODD FINDCuyperspassage tile tableau
The tunnel under Centraal Station lined with tens of thousands of Delft-blue tiles showing a sea full of ships.
ODD FINDBeurspassage mosaics
A shopping passage turned into a cathedral of mosaics, glass and chandeliers about the city's water: 'Amsterdamse Oersoep'.
ODD FINDWolkenkrabber (Twaalfhoog)
Amsterdam's first 'skyscraper', twelve floors in 1932, looking down on a Berlage statue.
ODD FINDWooden house Zeedijk 1 (In 't Aepjen)
One of only two wooden houses left in the centre, where sailors are said to have paid their bills with monkeys.
ODD FINDGable stone wall (Sint Luciënsteeg)
A whole wall of rescued gable stones, the picture house numbers Amsterdam used before street numbers.
ODD FINDBelow the Surface (Rokin metro)
Display cases in Rokin metro station with finds dug up for the line: keys, coins, toys and a 17th-century trumpet.
ODD FINDMirakelkolom
A column on the Rokin for the Miracle of Amsterdam (1345), when a host thrown in the fire would not burn.
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