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Kattenkabinet
One Golden Bend house that's open to the public is this offbeat museum, devoted, of all things, to the feline presence in art. It was founded by a wealthy financier in memory of his red tomcat, John Pierpont Morgan III. The collection includes works largely from Dutch and French artists (Theopile-Alexandre Steinlen, 1859-1923, figures prominently) as well as a small Rembrandt (a Madonna and Child with cat and snake) and Picasso's Le Chat .
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Kröller-Müller Museum
Nestled within the Netherlands' largest park, this delightful museum was once owned by Anton and Helene Kröller-Müller, a wealthy German-Dutch couple. He wanted hunting grounds, she wanted a museum site - they got both.
The museum has works by Picasso, Gris, Renoir, Sisley and Manet, but it's the Van Gogh collection that makes it world-class. It's about 10km into the park. There's also an evocative sculpture garden behind the museum.
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Living Tomorrow Pavilion
A bathroom mirror that displays the latest news? Or a smart washing machine that keeps your red socks out of a white load? These are a couple of the innovations on display at Living Tomorrow, a shoe-shaped home and office of the future. A spate of companies (among others, Phillips, 3M and HP) show off their applications in a living and working environment. The curiously beautiful shape of the building comes from the idea of an object turned inside-out. Visits are by reservation only, and 1½ hour tours in English and Dutch take place Saturday.
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Madame Tussauds Amsterdam
A delight for kids, who will be filled with wonderment when they realise there is absolutely no difference between the wax David Beckham and the real thing. The place is kind of a bellwether of who's hot in Holland, be it Tiësto (a DJ), Ali B (a rapper) or Princess Maxima. And you can decide for yourself whether Prince Willem-Alexander looks fit to rule or not.
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Max Euwe Centrum
Max Euwe (1901-81) was the Netherlands' only world chess champion, in the 1930s, and here you'll find a permanent exhibition devoted to the history of the game. You can play against live or digital opponents. The pavement of the square out front is often crowded with players and onlookers, bent over the outsized chess board.
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Multatuli Museum
Better known by the pen name Multatuli - Latin for 'I have suffered greatly' - novelist Eduard Douwes Dekker was best known for Max Havelaar (1860) about corrupt colonialists in the Dutch East Indies. This small but fascinating museum-home chronicles his life and works, and shows furniture and artefacts from his period in Indonesia.
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Museum Amstelkring
Hidden in the depths of the Red Light District, this fascinating museum has a single exhibit - an entire church, as it turns out. Ons' Lieve Heer op Solder (Our Dear Lord in the Attic) was founded after 1578, when Calvinist rulers outlawed public worship of the other religion. You'll find the city's richest collection of Catholic art, and a fantastic labyrinth of tiled staircases, cubbyhole quarters and items pertaining to the Miracle of Amsterdam.
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Museum Het Rembrandthuis
Rembrandt van Rijn lived and worked in this beautifully restored house dating from 1606. He bought the house for a fortune in 1639, made possible by his wealthy wife, Saskia van Uylenburgh. (Later, chronic debt would force the master painter to move to cheaper digs in the Jordaan.) The years spent in this house were the high point of his career, when he was regarded as a star and ran the largest painting studio in Holland.
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Museum Van Loon
Our favourite house-museum in town, this opulent residence was built in 1672 for a rich arms dealer. In the late 1800s it was acquired by the Van Loons, one of the most prominent patrician families (thanks to the herring trade and the United East India Company, of which the original Mr Van Loon was a founder).
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Museum Willet-Holthuysen
This sumptuous residence, now part of the Amsterdams Historisch Museum, is named after the widow who bequeathed the property to the city in the late 19th century. Highlights include paintings by Jacob de Wit, the place de milieu (centrepiece) that was part of the family's 275-piece set of Meissen table service, and the intimate French-style garden with sundial - you can also peek at the garden through the iron fence at the Amstelstraat end.
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Nationaal Vakbondsmuseum
Architect HP Berlage considered this building his most successful work, and it's easy to see why. Built in 1900 for the General Netherlands Diamond Workers' Union (ANDB), it's a wonder from the diamond-shaped pinnacle to the magnificent hall with its brick arches, murals, ceramics and leadlight windows by famous artists of the day. The soaring, atrium-style staircase is graced with a chandelier three storeys tall.
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Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum
Since 1981, this historic admiralty building has housed one of world's most extensive collections of maritime memorabilia. Early shipping routes, naval combat, fishing and whaling are all explained in loving detail, and there are 500 models of boats and ships. Unfortunately, at the time of writing the museum was shut till mid-2009 for a major renovation.
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NEMO
Perched atop the entrance to the IJ-Tunnel is the wedge-shaped museum of science and technology, the largest in the Netherlands. Italian architect Renzo Piano (whose works also include the Centre Pompidou in Paris) conceived of this design as the inverse of the tunnel below it.
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Netherlands Media Art Institute
From the hilarious to the ridiculous to the deep and the experimental, there's always something interesting in this gallery's changing exhibits. Don't expect to see works by the hit-makers or TV directors of tomorrow, though. The institute is specifically about video as art; there's an artist-in-residence program if you get inspired. The collection numbers some 1500 works, assembled since the institute was established in 1978.
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News Photo
This shop-museum displays enormous blowups of photos that accompany headlines, by photographers from around the world. In fact the museum operates like something of a newsroom itself. Themed exhibitions (terrorism, the Tour de France etc) change every few weeks, but as news is made the curators use giant printers to print out the latest, and - presto - it's up on the conveniently magnetic walls.
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Nieuwe Kerk
On the Dam, this 14th-century basilica is the historic stage of Dutch coronations; the stained glass over the main entrance recalls Queen Wilhelmina, who ascended the throne in 1898, aged 18. Exhibitions and organ concerts are held here, but no longer church functions.
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Persmuseum
The caretaker of Dutch journalism history, the Persmuseum (Press Museum) is loads more interesting to non-Dutch speakers than it may sound. Housed in sleek new premises, it has a large collection of historic newspapers (going all the way back to 1600), political and editorial cartoons, press photos as well as a great stock of old publicity posters, many of them quite amusing.
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Pianola Museum
This is a very special place, crammed with pianolas from the early 1900s. The museum has a stock of 50 pianolas, although only a dozen are on display at a given time, as well as nearly 20,000 music rolls. There's even a player pipe organ. Every month player-piano concerts are held, featuring anything from Mozart to Fats Waller, and rare classical or jazz tunes composed especially for the instrument. The curator gives demonstrations with great zest.
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Prostitution Information Centre
Spin, curiosity and respect - things this refreshing centre has none of, plenty of, and hopes to earn. Established by a former prostitute and staffed by sex workers, the centre caters to study groups from around the world including several police academies. It also organises evening walks, private tours by a former sex-worker (around €13 per person, reservation-only) and does a limited souvenir trade.
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Rijksmuseum
The Rijksmuseum (National Museum) is the premier art museum of the Netherlands, and no self-respecting visitor to Amsterdam can afford to miss it. Though most of the building is closed for renovations until early 2010, there is an excellent collection of around 200 masterpieces exhibited in a side section, the Philips wing. Still, over a million people visit every year, so come early to avoid the queues or buy your (printable) tickets online.
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Sexmuseum Amsterdam
Even if it seems rather tame in this environment, the Sexmuseum gets loads of visitors and if you're in the right mood it's good for a giggle. You'll find replicas of pornographic Pompeian plates, erotic 14th-century Viennese bronzes, some of the world's earliest nude photographs and a music box that plays 'Edelweiss' and purports to show a couple in flagrante delicto .
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Stadsarchief
In 2007 the Amsterdam city archives moved into the historic ABN-Amro building, a monumental structure from 1923 that was for years the bank's head office. Anyone interested in the history of their Dutch ancestors or the city itself can peruse the documents free of charge, and occasionally there are some interesting exhibitions.
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Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam
Don't blink or you might walk right past this unobtrusive outpost, a 'project space' of the leading Stedelijk Museum; it's in a one-time clothing workshop on a very quiet block. Exhibits here - from painting and sculpture to new media and installation pieces - mix contemporary artists who have some connection to the city with some 'international context'.
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Stedelijk Museum Cs
The modern classics here are among the world's most admired, amassed with great skill by postwar curator Willem Sandberg. The permanent collection includes all the blue chips of 19th and 20th century painting - Monet, Van Gogh and Picasso among them - as well as sculptures by Rodin, abstracts by Mondriaan and Kandinsky, and much, much more.
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Tassenmuseum Hendrikje
The next time you refer to 'that old bag', think again: at Amsterdam's 'Museum of Bags and Purses' we're talking half a millennium's worth of arm candy, the largest collection of handbags in the Western world. You'll find everything from a crumpled 16th-century pouch to dainty Art Deco, design classics by Chanel, Gucci and Versace as well as Madonna's tasteful ivy-strewn 'Evita' bag from the film premiere.
