It was a sobering but at times uplifting experience. Bianca Stigter and her husband Steve McQueen reveal how they made their four-hour film about the Nazi invasion that plunged their city into terror From the humble street corners to the grand hotels, from the bridges over the Amstel canal to the tram stops near the Rijksmuseum, wherever you go in Amsterdam there is a story from the city’s years of Nazi occupation. This spot is where the first “No Jews Allowed” sign was posted. Over there is where the RAF mistakenly dropped a bomb. And here’s where the attack on the civil registry office was p ..read more

As the biggest ever show of the artist’s work is unveiled in Amsterdam, we retrace the enigmatic painter’s footsteps in Delft and also The Hague Dodging the oncoming bikes, I climb a low mound a few feet above water level and look across at the city. It is a clear evening: the horizon holds a delicate tang of orange that ascends, becoming royal blue, then indigo. In front of me is a quay where a few boats are moored; beyond that, an expanse of water, and then the city itself, a smudge of bare trees, steep gables and church spires. It’s pleasant, but scarcely dramatic, and yet I think that this ..read more

Fred Sirieix’s guide to Paris, Girorgio Locatelli on Sicily, plus hidden gems in Copenhagen, Seville, Cornwall, Limassol, Amsterdam and Lisbon Broadcaster and maitre d ..read more

While researching her latest novel the author spent weeks walking the canals and streets, and unearthing the Old Town’s hidden history February and it’s not yet quite spring in Amsterdam. Soon, the buds in the rose garden in Vondelpark will start to blush pink and yellow; the leaves on the trees surrounding the lake will begin to shimmer with silver and green. Soon, at least in a normal year, people will gather again at the bandstand and the Blauwe Theehuis, the blue teahouse, in this elegant 19th-century park named after the poet Joost van den Vondel, and the diagonal paths that cross the mus ..read more

The European rail pass offers two friends a second bite at their youth, as they savour bars, views and food from Amsterdam to Copenhagen It’s 2am on a Monday in the Oosterbar nightclub in Amsterdam, and Dolly and I are looking at each other more than a little fuzzily as the DJ shows no sign of letting up. In our bleary gazes is the unspoken recognition that our train to Berlin leaves at 7am. Was this midlife-crisis decision to relive part of our misspent youth by going Interrailing such a good idea after all? At 50, aren’t we too old for all this? Luckily, long rail journeys lend themselves be ..read more

The holiday rental giant hopes to overturn an Amsterdam ruling that it is illegal to levy a service fee on both renters and those letting Airbnb has launched a legal bid in the Netherlands to get a judge to ask the Dutch high court whether the company can charge fees to both holiday renters and people letting out their homes. In March, Amsterdam resident Jacques Huppes won back €470 in service charges he had paid for renting property through the holiday rentals giant, after three local court judges found that Airbnb’s “double charging” – of both hosts and holidaymakers – broke Dutch law. Huppe ..read more

The tourists are trickling back but the streets and canals are still quiet enough to make cycling around the city an unexpected summer treat There are many things I’ve missed about travelling in recent months, but it took a chocolate shoe rolled, high heel to toe, in hundreds-and-thousands to remind me of the simple pleasures to be found inside a European chocolaterie. I’d spent the morning admiring Dutch greats at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum and was ambling along Haarlemmerdijk when the “shoes” caught my eye. Each kleine and grote “pump” (a misnomer if ever I saw one) in the window of Jordino was ..read more

While the pandemic has dealt travel a severe blow, some hope it can be an opportunity to introduce slower, fairer, more sustainable holidays No planes in the sky, empty hotels and deserted attractions: with the world at a standstill, tourism has been one of the industries worst-hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. International arrivals this year could be down by 80% compared with 2019, according to the World Tourism Organization, and more than 100 million jobs are under threat. But as destinations slowly start to emerge from lockdown and borders tentatively reopen, many in the sector are wondering i ..read more

Femke Halsema angers hoteliers by warning against an excessive return to ‘regional, national and international traffic’ It might have lost 90% of its hotel bookings but Amsterdam shouldn’t rush to welcome back international tourists, according to its mayor. Femke Halsema has sparked anger in the hotel industry by warning the city should be “extremely cautious” about restarting tourism, saying there is not enough space for its 800,000 inhabitants, plus the normal nine million overnight visitors, and for social distancing to be respected. “I hear you talking about international tourism, and I kn ..read more

You can still explore this unique city’s culture from your laptop, says Hans Rooseboom, curator of photography at the Rijksmuseum The Rijksmuseum has been digitising for years. Hundreds of thousands of images from our collection are now available on Rijksstudio to view, download, print, turn into puzzles … Our best-known artwork is Rembrandt’s The Night Watch: catch up with the current restoration project at Operation Night Watch, or take a virtual tour of the museum with our free app. ELEPHANT Ruysdaelkade . . . #elephant #amsterdam #streetart #streetartamsterdam #streetarteverywhere #streeta ..read more