Amsterdam's Canals: The City That Floats on Water

Amsterdam was built on a peat bog at the mouth of the Amstel River, and the city's engineers have been fighting the water for 700 years — draining the land, building canals to manage the water table, and driving wooden piles into the soft ground to support the buildings above. The result is a city of extraordinary engineering ingenuity and accidental beauty — the concentric rings of canals that were dug in the 17th century to accommodate the city's rapid expansion during the Dutch Golden Age have created a urban landscape that is unlike any other in the world, and that was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010.

The canal ring — the Grachtengordel — was built between 1613 and 1663 as Amsterdam grew into the most important trading city in the world. The four main canals — the Singel, Herengracht, Keizersgracht, and Prinsengracht — were dug in sequence outward from the medieval city centre, and the plots along their banks were sold to the merchants and traders who were making Amsterdam rich. The merchant houses that line the canals — narrow, tall, and topped with the distinctive stepped, bell, and neck gables that give Amsterdam its skyline — were built to maximise the limited frontage on the canal while providing the maximum storage space for the goods that were the source of their owners' wealth.

The Anne Frank House, on the Prinsengracht, is the most visited museum in the Netherlands and one of the most moving in the world — the hidden annexe where Anne Frank and her family hid from the Nazi occupation for two years before their arrest in 1944 has been preserved as it was, and the experience of moving through the cramped rooms where eight people lived in fear for 761 days is one that changes the visitor's relationship to the abstract history of the Holocaust. The diary that Anne Frank kept during her time in hiding has been translated into 70 languages and is one of the most widely read books in the world.

The Rijksmuseum, reopened in 2013 after a ten-year renovation, contains the finest collection of Dutch Golden Age painting in the world — Rembrandt's Night Watch, Vermeer's The Milkmaid, and hundreds of other masterpieces from the 17th century when Dutch painters were producing some of the greatest art in European history. The Van Gogh Museum, next door, contains the world's largest collection of Van Gogh's paintings and drawings — over 200 paintings and 500 drawings — and traces the development of his extraordinary style from the dark, earthy palette of his Dutch period to the blazing colour of his Provençal years.

Amsterdam has more bicycles than people — 881,000 bicycles for a population of 821,000 — and cycling is the primary mode of transport for most residents. The city's flat terrain and extensive network of dedicated cycle paths make it one of the most cycle-friendly cities in the world, and renting a bicycle is the best way to explore the neighbourhoods beyond the tourist centre. The Jordaan, a former working-class neighbourhood west of the canal ring that has been gentrified into one of the most desirable addresses in the city, is best explored on foot or by bicycle — its narrow streets and small canals are too intimate for cars.

The Albert Cuyp Market, in the De Pijp neighbourhood south of the canal ring, is the largest outdoor market in the Netherlands and one of the finest in Europe — a kilometre-long street market selling everything from fresh herring and stroopwafels to Indonesian spices and Surinamese roti. The market reflects the extraordinary diversity of Amsterdam's population — the city has residents from over 180 nationalities — and the food stalls offer a tour of the world's cuisines at street food prices. The Heineken Experience, in the former Heineken brewery on the Stadhouderskade, offers a popular introduction to the history of the city's most famous export.

The best time to visit Amsterdam is in spring (April-May), when the tulip fields of the surrounding countryside are in bloom and the city's parks and canal banks are at their most beautiful. The Keukenhof Gardens, 35 kilometres southwest of Amsterdam, display seven million tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths in a 32-hectare park that is open for eight weeks in spring and is one of the most spectacular horticultural displays in the world. The summer months are warm and busy, with long evenings that make the canal-side terraces particularly pleasant. The winter months, when the canals sometimes freeze and the city is decorated for Christmas, have their own quiet charm.