Amsterdam Pedicab City Tour (2 hours)

Dam square is the main square and heart of the old centre of Amsterdam. It's the place where Amsterdam started to evolve and where we find the royal palace, the new church and the national monument.

One of the oldest dikes around the old centre, the Zeedijk, is where we find the oldest cafe of Amsterdam, with it's beautiful original interior and ancient vibe. Besides it's beauty, It has a dark secret that i will unveil.

The Amsterdam chinatown is the oldest chinese neighborhood of the European mainland. it houses a lot of chinese restaurants, supermarkets and has a chinese temple.

The Nieuwmarkt square is one of the most important squares of old Amsterdam. In the middle of it we find the old citygate, which formed the main entrance to the city when Amsterdam was a walled fortified city until the big city expansion of the 17th century. There is a lot of history around this square to talk about.

The Montelbaanstoren is an old watch tower for the ships that was part of the Amsterdam expanded defense line early 16th century. From here we also have a good lookout over de oude Waal where there are a lot of houseboats lined up with 17th century canal houses as background decor.

We will look at the original Rembrandt house from the outside where Rembrandt used to live during the successfull years of his life. Entering the museum is possible but not included in this tour.

Although a large portion of the old jewish neighborhood in the centre was broken down after the 2nd world war, there are still quit some interesting buildings, synagogues, houses and streets to visit that were an essential part of the old jewish quarter that survived and do exist today.

The Portuguese synagogue is the largest synagogue and also among the very first synagogue that jewish people were allowed to build in western Europe in the 2nd half of the 17th century (1675). We will have a look at the outside of the building and see the other synagogues opposite the building, that now form the jewish museum.

We will pass by the holocaust name monument, where 102.000 brick stones with names, remind us of all the dutch jewish victims of the 2nd world war.

We will pass by the hermitage museum that used to be a monumental large widow house care house built in the 17th century. Nowadays it's part of the russian hermitage museum.

The skinny bridge is one of the most iconic bridges of Amsterdam that beautiful lights up at night when hundreds of light bulbs accentuate it's skinny but stylefull design. From here we have a good overview over the canalised river the Amstel, which is the main and widest canal in Amsterdam. It's also a good place to take pictures

The canal district is the 17th century expansion area that surroundings the old centre of Amsterdam. On any city map it can be clearly seen as the half circles that go around the centre. Here we find the majority of the typical Amsterdam canal houses that were once the homes of successful merchants. Unlike modern times, all canal houses are slightly different, although we will see there are some typical similarities among them that unveil their building era.

Museum square is the biggest and probably the most impressive and nicest squares of Amsterdam. On one side resides the largest museum of the Netherlands, the Rijksmuseum, where the bigger Rembrandt paintings are on display, on the other side we will see the Concertgebouw, concert hall for classical music. Also located next to the square are the Van Gogh museum, the Stedelijk museum for contemporary art, the Moco museum (Banksky) and the Diamond museum. Enough to keep you busy for a few days if you have the time. In the tour we stop here to enjoy the views and i will tell you some more interesting details.

We will pass through the famous bicycle tunnel under the Rijksmuseum, where often classical music of street artist can be hear and will then go towards the museumplein to get a really good view of the back of the museum, that was completed in 1885 and designed by the catholic architect Pierre Cuypers.