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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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St Nicolaaskerk
In plain view from Centraal Station, the magnificent cupola and neo-Renaissance towers belong to the city's main Catholic church, the first built after Catholic worship became legal again in the 19th century. The interior is notable for its high altar, theatrical crown of Emperor Maximilian I and depictions of the Stations of the Cross, on which tireless painter Jan Dunselman laboured for 40 years.
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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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Stadsschouwburg
This theatre, with its balcony arcade, dates from 1894. People criticised the building - as they've criticised every city theatre before or since - and the funds for the exterior decorations never materialised. The architect, Jan Springer, couldn't handle this and retired.
The theatre is used for large-scale plays, operettas and festivals such as Julidans, Amsterdam's renowned july festival of dance.
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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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Stopera
This hulking white pile between Waterlooplein and the Amstel houses both the stadhuis (city hall) and the opera, hence the name 'Stopera' (1986). The building's design was highly controversial, and protest delayed construction for two decades. When it was finally completed, one critic deriding the Stopera as having 'all the charm of an Ikea chair'. Our view: yea on the music theatre, nay on city hall.
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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.
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Theater Instituut Nederland
Theatre buffs will be in their element at the Theater Museum. Exhibits cover the history of Dutch theatre via dioramas (including the first theatre built in Amsterdam, in 1638); displays of costumes from lush to stark; heady sepia-toned early photographs of 19th-century actors; and video clips of famous modern-day productions.
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Trippenhuis
Making their fortune in arms dealing, the Trip brothers commissioned a young Dutch architect, Justus Vingboons, to build the Trippenhuis in 1660. It's a greystone mansion with eight Corinthian columns across two houses - one for each brother - and in a nod to their profession, the chimneys are shaped like mortars. It's closed to the public.
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Tropenmuseum
Completed in 1926 to house the Royal Institute of the Tropics, and still a leading research institute, this fascinating museum houses a large collection of colonial artefacts, presented with insight, imagination and a fair amount of multimedia.
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Tunfun
This cool indoor playground is located in a former traffic underpass, an unused eyesore for over a decade. These days kids can build, climb, roll, draw, jump on trampolines and play on a soccer pitch. There's even a children's disco - this is Amsterdam - and a café serving poffertjes (little pancakes). Kids must be accompanied by an adult. It gets rather busy when the weather's bad.
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University Library
Today's library is a concrete hulk, not nearly the beautiful building you'd expect from such an historic site, but its background is fascinating. Citizens' militias used to meet here: the 'hand-bow' (handboog) militia in No 421, and the 'foot-bow' (voetboog) militia in No 425, which also served as headquarters for the West India Company.
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Van Brienenhofje
This charming courtyard was named in the late 18th century for Jan van Brienen, who bought the Star Brewery located here, one of 13 breweries in town at the time. (The place is still called De Star hofje by many.) It was turned into an almshouse for older residents, and although not dirt poor they had a clear division of labour: the women cleaned house for the single men, who in turn toted water buckets from the outside pump (topped by a curious lantern). There's a manicured garden.
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Van Gogh Museum
Next to the Stedelijk Museum building is the Van Gogh Museum, one of Amsterdam's must-sees. Opened in 1973 to house the collection of Vincent's younger brother Theo, it consists of about 200 paintings and 500 drawings by Vincent and his friends and contemporaries (Gauguin, Monet, Toulouse-Lautrec and Bernard), as well as many of the artist's personal effects.
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Verzetsmuseum
The Verzetsmuseum (Resistance museum) shows, in no uncertain terms, how much courage it takes to actively resist an adversary so ruthless that you can't trust neighbours, friends or even family. The exhibits give an excellent insight into the difficulties faced by those who fought the occupation from within - as well as the minority who went along with the Nazis.
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Vondelkerk
Architect Pierre Cuypers' favourite church (1870-80), it suffered from a lack of funds during construction and a fire in 1904, and was marked for demolition in 1978. It's a charming steepled church, featuring a fascinating series of shapes with an octagon at its base. People in the offices inside are happy to let you in for a peek.
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Waag
The very grand, multi-turreted Waag (Weigh House) dates from 1488, when it was part of the city fortifications. It looked more like a castle in those days, fronted by a moatlike canal and built into the old city walls. From the 17th century onward it was the main weigh house.
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Werfmuseum 'T Kromhout
On the outer side of the dyke is an 18th-century wharf that still repairs boats in its western hall. The eastern hall is a museum devoted to shipbuilding and even more to the indestructible marine engines that were designed and built here. Anyone with an interest in marine engineering will love the place; others will probably want to move on. Signage is almost entirely in Dutch only.
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Westergasfabriek
A stone's throw northwest of the Jordaan, this late-19th-century Dutch Renaissance complex was the city gasworks until it was all but abandoned in the 1960s, its soil contaminated. The fabriek has re-emerged, thankfully, as a new cultural and recreational park, with lush lawns, and a long pool suitable for wading, sports facilities and even child care. The aesthetic of surrounding Westerpark goes from urban plan to reedy wilderness, with marshes and shallow waterfalls.
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Westerkerk
The main gathering place for Amsterdam's Dutch Reformed community, the church was built for rich Protestants to a 1620 design by Hendrick de Keyser. The nave is the largest in the Netherlands and covered by a wooden barrel vault.
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Zuiderkerk
Near the Pintohuis, a passageway through the modern Pentagon housing estate leads to the Zuiderkerk, the 'Southern Church' built by Hendrick de Keyser . His tower, 1m off plumb, dates from 1614. This was the first custom-built Protestant church in Amsterdam - still Catholic design but no choir. The final church service was held here in 1929 and at the end of WWII it served as a morgue.
