Where to Stay in Amsterdam, Provincie Noord-Holland

What is Amsterdam known for?

Amsterdam is known as the capital of the Netherlands and its largest city, a place of canals in Noord-Holland. The water made the city. Its concentric canal ring, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, curves through the old centre crossed by more than 1,500 bridges, and rows of gabled merchant houses line the water, while museums, galleries, and the old red light district draw crowds.

Amsterdam is called the Venice of the North.

What are the main landmarks in Amsterdam?

Amsterdam gathers its landmarks along the historic canal ring and the streets of the old centre. The canals are the great sight. Their concentric rings, a UNESCO World Heritage Site crossed by more than 1,500 bridges, curve through the centre past rows of gabled merchant houses, while the museums, galleries, and the old red light district cluster among the water of Amsterdam.

What is the history of Amsterdam?

Amsterdam grew from a dam on the Amstel into the capital of the Netherlands. The dam named the town. Around the year 1300 a fishing settlement took root where a dam held back the Amstel, and the name Amsterdam grew from that dam on the river, the town spreading along the water in Noord-Holland.

Trade lifted it. As merchant shipping filled its harbours the small port rose into a great trading city, digging the concentric canals that still ring its old centre. The canals made the modern city.

Engineers laid out the belt of waterways in rings around the medieval core, lined with gabled merchant houses and crossed by hundreds of bridges, a plan so distinctive it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The water held the shape. Behind the canal ring the old town kept its narrow lanes, its churches, and the quarter that became the red light district, while newer districts spread outward across Noord-Holland.

So a dam on the Amstel became the canal city and capital of the Netherlands.

Where is Amsterdam?

Amsterdam sits on the Amstel in Noord-Holland, in the low-lying Netherlands. The land lies below the sea. Its old centre wraps the river in concentric canals crossed by more than 1,500 bridges, the flat reclaimed ground of Noord-Holland stretching out from the canal ring across the delta plain of the Netherlands.

What is the climate of Amsterdam?

Amsterdam has a mild temperate climate, softened by the low, wet land around it. The sea steadies the seasons. Cool wet winters and mild summers cross the canal city, the damp North Sea air settling over the water and the flat ground of Noord-Holland in the Netherlands.

How do you get to Amsterdam?

Amsterdam is reached by air, rail, and road from across the Netherlands. The trains run constantly. Intercity lines converge on the central station beside the water, tying the city through Noord-Holland and out across the country, while a major airport serves the region and the canals and more than 1,500 bridges thread the old centre.