Amsterdam: not just tulips

Let's be honest: tourists have quite specific stereotypes about Holland - Van Gogh, tulips, legal drugs, and the Red Light District. But that's just the tip of the iceberg, and the main part of the country, as we know from guidebooks, is below sea level.

Amsterdam: not just tulips

Look behind the facades. Take an unpopular tourist route. Turn off a busy street. Try an unfamiliar dish in a café on a quiet street.

What else can you see, learn and do in Amsterdam?

Amsterdam is famous for its unusual museums. Here you can visit the Museum of Torture, the Museum of Sex, the Museum of Beer...

Amsterdam: not just tulips

In the "Museum of Cats" you can get acquainted with live tailed exhibits, as well as learn all the features of cats from paintings by Picasso and Rembrandt, sculptures and handicrafts of Dutch artisans.

The Amsterdam Botanic Garden is an undeservedly neglected luxury. Despite the fact that the city's botanical garden is one of the oldest in Europe, it is little known to ordinary tourists. But here are the unique greenhouses, each of which recreated the climate of a particular part of the world - the subtropics, the tropics and so on. And in each such greenhouse, plants characteristic of that climate grow, bloom and bear fruit - about 6,000 species in total.

To get around the city be sure to rent a bicycle, the main transport of the city. And, of course, book a tour of the canals.

Fans of exact science must visit the Nemo Science Center, where almost all exhibits are workers. They can be touched, twisted and examined, causing lightning, mini-earthquakes and other cataclysms on specially equipped platforms.

Amsterdam: not just tulips

Dutch cuisine includes herring, croquettes, and pannenkoeken pancakes. Pancakes are made with a wide variety of toppings, from meat to chocolate, which are put on top like a pizza.

In Holland, everything is done to make it convenient for residents to pay for purchases by card. The key word is "residents": local banks' cards are more readily accepted in stores, but difficulties may arise with foreign cards.

What should I read about Amsterdam to get a feel for the atmosphere?

M. M. Dodge's The Silver Skates is a novel about life in nineteenth-century Netherlands.

Donna Tartt's Chegolin is a novel about how love for an object of art can become an obsession.

John Green's Blame the Stars is a novel about terminally ill teenagers who find themselves in a city of dreams.

What to see?



On Amstel is a mini-series starring Quartet I.

Secrets of the Night Watch is a historical detective story about the work of the genius Rembrandt.

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