Amsterdam

Amsterdam embraces the old and new, the bawdy and clean-cut

Old Amsterdam’s graceful cityscape recalls its 17th-century golden age as the heart of a global trading network and colonial empire, when wealthy merchants constructed gabled residences along neatly laid-out canals. Today, some of these placid old structures house brothels, smoke shops, and some extravagant nightlife. The city’s inhabitants are proud of their live-and-let-live attitude, which is based on pragmatism as much as a long history of tolerance; Amsterdammers have simply decided to control what they cannot effectively outlaw.

Don’t think, though, that most of them are late-model hippies. A new generation of entrepreneurs has revitalized old neighborhoods, while other locals are busy whizzing around on bicycles, jogging through Vondelpark, feasting on ethnic dishes, or simply watching the parade of street life from a sidewalk cafe. Along the waterfront, old harbor installations have been put to bold new uses, or swept away entirely in favor of large-scale modern cultural, business, and residential developments. Between dips into Amsterdam’s artistic and historical treasures, travelers should take time to absorb the freewheeling spirit of the Netherlands’ most vibrant city.

© 2009, Wiley Publishing, Inc.