Netherlands Amsterdam

The origin of the name Amsterdam comes from two words: Amstel and Dam, meaning a dam over the Amstel river, which is completely true.

If you are a tourist interested in architecture, please find out that the oldest building in Netherlands Amsterdam is het Houten Huys, which was built in 1425 and it is completely made out of wood. It was built in the Renaissance style, likewise another famous building, Westerskerk, designed by Hendrick de Keyer. There are also a few buildings in the baroque style, like the Royal Palace on Dam Square.

The dominant color of Amsterdam's buildings in brown, namely a dark shade of brown which makes you think back in time, at the Middle Age. It gives you a poetry state of mind and a great feeling of well-being. Tourists can hover on the streets and channels for hours and still not have enough of the beauty of Amsterdam. The only issue here is that the city is extremely windy, so you can expect locals to have solid garage door insulation and storm shutters at windows and doors.

Amsterdam is dominated by bicycles, so it can be called one of the greenest cities in Europe. The greatest thing is that there are lots of special places such as bicycle racks where to leave your bike while shopping or having a coffee, or visiting some touristic objective, plus a lot of bicycle paths, thus making transportation by this kind of vehicles safer.

The public transport includes tram lines and buses, plus the water ferries and water taxis.

Of course, for tourists from abroad, there is the Schipol International Airport and the Amsterdam Centraal, Netherlands Amsterdam's international train station.

Lucky for Amsterdam visitors, all museums are grouped in the Museumplein (Museum Square). The square is another popular place for tourists and locals, as many concerts and festivals are kept here. Amongst the most famous Amsterdam museums there are: the Rijksmuseum, which hosts classical Dutch art works, Van Gogh musum, hosting the paintings of the famous Dutch artist, the Stedelijk museum, which includes modern art exhibits.

There are a few museums outside the Museum Square, such as the Anne Frank house, Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam Historisch Museum and others.

You can reach all these museum by foot, from the center of Amsterdam, so you won't need to make use of any public transport vehicles or bicycles.