Amsterdam Urban Route: East
A non-tourist urban cycle route through eastern Amsterdam: the historic core, the river Amstel, 1920's suburbs, and the new gentrified docklands. About 2 hours. Revised January 2008.
take a map! The CITO map of Amsterdam is recommended - the full city map, not the small city-centre version.
start opposite Centraal Station at the St Nicolaas church, a late 19th century church with twin towers, on Prins Hendrik kade (number 77-74). This neo-Baroque church is an expression of the emancipation of Catholics: they were long forbidden to build churches in the Protestant Netherlands.
facing the station, turn right. Cycle past the metro entrance steps, and around to the right at Cafe De Zeepost, following the cycle sign for Almere.
cross the Geldersekade canal. Beside the bridge is the Schreierstoren, a surviving tower of the late mediaeval city wall. This canal was once the seaward edge of the mediaeval city, click on the map at the BMZ Schreierstoren page.
continue along the main road (Prins Hendrik kade), cross another canal, and immediately turn right, along Binnenkant. The hotel on the corner was originally built as shipping offices (Scheepvaarthuis, built 1913 and extended 1928).
200 m on, turn right over the bridge. This is one of the broadest canals in Amsterdam: the tower visible left is the Montelbaanstoren. The bridge itself is a reconstruction, on top of the metro tunnel. You can see that the line of older houses, in front of the bridge, is broken by 1980's infill. The metro was built by demolition of a 100 m strip through the old city (cut-and-cover method). There were violent protests, and it was 15 years before another underground line was proposed. This time, it will be in bored tunnel.
go straight on into the Lastage weg, between the 1980's housing. At the next canal (Recht Booms Sloot), the infill is again visible, between the older houses. 10 m to the right is a footbridge: cross it, and go on into the Brandewijn steeg.
at the end, turn left along Konings straat, and pass the metro entrance. At the next corner (Cafe van Beeren), turn right along the canal, called Krom Booms Sloot.
at the second bridge (corner of Dijk straat), cross the bridge, and continue along the other side of the canal (still Krom Booms Sloot).
turn the corner onto the Snoekjes gracht, turn right across the bridge, and immediately left along the other side of Snoekjes gracht. From the next corner, at the old locks, the Montelbaanstoren and the hull-shaped science education centre NEMO are visible.
go up the steps at the end of Sint Antonie Sluis ('Saint Anthony's lock'), and turn left along the Jodenbree straat. Pass Rembrandt's house at nr. 4. Opposite it is the new Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten (art college). The new blocks here are second-generation infill: they are on the site of a notoriously ugly 1960's office block.
at the traffic lights, turn to the right, passing the glass-brick wall of MacBike. The rest of MacBike is underground, in a failed underpass project. Built in the 1960's, when such projects were in fashion, it is out of place in the new urban strategies, and was closed. Some of the streets widened in the 1960's have been 're-filled' - the green glass Nederlandse Film en Televisie Academie is a re-infill project. (This is not because Amsterdam is anti-car: since the 1960's, for instance, the ring motorway was completed).
continue along the cycle path, and pass (right) the City Hall and Opera complex, known together as 'De Stopera'. Continue past the facade of the Opera, to the Amstel river quayside.
do not cross the bridge, but turn left along the river, following the cycle sign for Utrecht / Hilversum. The Amstel intersects the three main canals of Amsterdam: Heren gracht, Keizers gracht, and Prinsen gracht. On this side of the river, they all have the prefix 'Nieuwe'. The 3-canal ring was not built concentrically, but in segments, starting from the Brouwers gracht.
pass right the wooden lifting bridge Magere Brug, and the old lock complex in the Amstel river (built 1673). It is still used to regulate water levels, although usually the lock gates stand open for shipping.
go straight on: at the next bridge, you must divert around the Amstel Hotel on the riverside. Built in 1867, it is the most prestigious hotel in Amsterdam.
cross the tram line, and turn past the Amstel Hotel entrance (on Prof. Tulp plein). Go on aross a concrete cycle bridge, into a cycle underpass. The canal under the cycle bridge is the former city moat, the Singelgracht, not to be confused with the Singel.
continue along the riverbank road, now called the Weesperzijde. Here the city expanded after 1870, beyond the old city walls. (The defences were useless against new artillery). The houses are, in English terminology, 'late Victorian' - nr 25 has a date, 1887.
cross the rails of tram line 3, and then turn second left into Eerste Oosterpark straat. This is the start of the eastern inner suburbs, built between the 1880's and the 1930's, most of them low-income areas. Away from the Amstel the houses are less expensive, although this street in being gentrified.
cross the Wibaut straat. Together with the IJ-tunnel it forms the main north-south route, inside the motorway ring. The street is very wide by Amsterdam standards: in fact it was originally a railway line. The line to Utrecht and Germany originally started from a terminal station, approximately 500 m to the north of here. A connecting line to Centraal Station was built, bypassing the old station. The axis of the old rail line was used for a new road, and later for the metro, which runs under the street.
continue along the Eerste Oosterpark straat, here a local shopping street. Turn first right into the Iepen weg, past 1980's urban-renewal housing.
pass the square Iepen plein, and then the continuation of Iepen weg. At the end, turn left into the Vrolik straat. This street has preserved more of its original character: the typical housing built in larger Netherlands cities, around 1900.
cross the Beuken weg and the Eiken weg. At the end of Vrolik straat is the Linnaeus straat, a historical main road out of Amsterdam to the east. It is now the route of tram line 9 to Diemen, the old high road went on to Muiden and Naarden. Across the road is the office of the borough council, Stadsdeel Oost/Watergraafsmeer, in a converted 19th-century hospital.
turn right along Linnaeus straat, and pass under the rail bridge. (This is the rail link, from the Utrecht line to Centraal Station). The Linnaeus straat is still a classic 'shopping street': its retail functions have not been displaced by suburban shopping centres.
after the HEMA store (left) cross a bridge over the ring canal of the Watergraafsmeer polder, a reclaimed lake. You go downhill into the polder: it is the lowest part of Amsterdam, about 5 m under mean sea level. The road (Midden weg) was originally one of the two axial roads of the polder.
at the next traffic lights, cross the road, toward the Chinese restaurant De Maan (nr. 61). Look at the house at nr 67: it has a black-letter inscription, Gooische Stoomtram 1881. This was once the station of the steam tram to the Gooi region, in 1881 this was the edge of the city. Together with the Amersfoort rail line, the steam tram facilitated early high-income suburbanisation, which still characterises the Gooi region (Hilversum-Naarden-Huizen).
stay on this side of the road, go past the Vomar supermarket. 100 m on, turn left into Linnaeus hof. The church ahead is an integral part of a 1920's housing development, planned and built as a unit, with the church in the middle.
stop in front of the church, deliberately the focus of the housing scheme. Above the door is the dedication: 'In Honorem S.S. Martyrum Gorcom. Consecrata A.D. 1929'. This is the clue to the ideology behind the housing project, an image of the lost society of the pre-war Netherlands. This is a Catholic housing project, built for Catholics, by Catholics, a deliberate Catholic enclave. The architect, Kropholler, was a convert to Catholicism. The social model is known as verzuiling - literally 'pillarisation'. Political science refers to it as a consociational society, a society of deliberately polarised and isolated communities. In the Netherlands, the 'pillars' of society were the Catholics, the official protestant Reformed Church, the orthodox protestants, the liberals, and the socialists. The dedication of the church is a deliberate anti-protestant gesture. The martyrs of Gorcum were 19 catholic priests and monks, executed by the protestant anti-Spanish rebels in 1572. The aggressive attitude is partly explained by the discrimination against Catholics, who were regarded as disloyal to the protestant Dutch nation. In the 1920's, a Catholic could not become a senior officer in the army or police. Catholics, in turn, were advised by the Church to employ only Catholics, and buy only at Catholic shops. But note that the consociational model was never 100% implemented, or even 50%. The rest of Amsterdam does not look like this.
from the church, go back to the main road (with the tram line). Cross the road towards the park, and turn right, along the cycle path. Be careful, this is the wrong way on a one-way path. At the wooden footbridge, cross into the park
cycle on past a former greenhouse converted to a restaurant. The park is typical of new urban parks in the Netherlands (it opened in 2001). This part was formerly a tree nursery with greenhouses, two chimneys are preserved. Visible ahead are the office towers at Amstel station.
after the second chimney, turn left along the cycle path.
at the next crossing of paths, again turn left, along a cycle path lined with trees. This avenue is part of the grounds of the 17th-century country house Frankendael, the core of the park.
pass the mansion Frankendael (1660, rebuilt 1773). It is under renovation (early 2008), but you can walk into the restored garden at the rear.
leave the park through the gate of Frankendael and turn right.
at the traffic lights turn left, into the Wethouder Franke weg. Continue past 1920's and 1930's housing, typical of the Watergraafsmeer.
at the end of the small park (on your left), follow the main road and the cycle path: turn left past a church. Continue along Archimedes weg.
at the next corner turn right, under a railway underpass. The underpass is long, because there is a former marshalling yard above (now train storage).
cycle uphill: the road is now leaving the low polder. Cross once again the ring canal, and continue along the Molukken straat. This area is the Indische Buurt, a low-income area since it was built in the 1920's. The housing was of poor quality, and urban renewal started in the 1970's, although by now it is driven by gentrification. (Since the 1990's, Amsterdam no longer builds for low-income households, and all new and renovated housing is deliberately priced beyond their reach).
cross the broad Insulinde weg, continue along the Molukken straat, straight on past the Java plein
at the end of Molukken straat, cross the Zeeburger dijk, into the Vee laan. Cross two parallel canals: the water inlet channel for the Amsterdam canal system, and then the Nieuwe Vaart, originally a 18th-century exit channel for shipping.
continue along the Vee laan: the older brick buildings were part of the 19th-century city abattoir. At the end, the road turns left, in front of the Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis, International Institute of Social History. The IISG building is a former warehouse, converted to archives and libraries. Their online collection of propaganda posters includes the classic With shock labour we will ensure prompt delivery of the giants of the Five Year Plan.
after this bend, turn right, into the van Eesteren laan, toward the grey tower block. This is the start of the eastern docklands of Amsterdam. The basins and quays run east-west: they were built when the North Sea Canal made the port accessible to larger steamships. But since the canal ran west to the sea, it also changed the direction of expansion of the port. As early as 1886, a purpose-built oil terminal, Petroleumhaven, was built west of the city. Despite the predictable shift westward, the eastern docks reached the height of their prosperity between the World Wars. They lost their function by 1980: warehouses were empty or underused, the precondition for the 'regeneration' of the eastern docklands.
cross the first dock basin (Entrepot haven, not to be confused with Entrepotdok). Go down the steps on the right immediately after the bridge, at the Montessori School.
cycle along the basin quay, Borneo kade. The warehouses opposite are 19th-century, on this side it is all recent construction, the Borneo / Sporenburg project.
at the end of the quay, the road turns left and left again, onto Stoker kade. From here, the mouth of the Amsterdam-Rhine canal is visible, at the green-white-red buoy. Behind it is the Zeeburg island, another artificial island, built with mud dredged from the North Sea Canal.
at the corner of the Bootsman straat, turn right across the cycle bridge. Cross the Scheepstimmerman straat, toward the undulating footbridge in the next dock basin (Spoorweg bassin). Across the water here, the buildings of Amsterdam-Noord are visible, the white houses are on the old northern sea dike of the IJ estuary.
turn left - the bridge is not designed for cyclists. Go on to the next bridge, a red cycle bridge, and cross it.
after the bridge, go straight on, to the next quayside. Turn left, toward the 20-storey tower.
just before this tower, turn right, toward the white bridge, along Verbindingsdam. Since 2004, this embankment and bridge carry the extended tram line 10.
you cross the largest of the dock basins, to the artificial Java-eiland. There are some older buildings, such as those at the end of the embankment, but most of the island is covered in new apartment blocks. This is pure yup land, the most visible docklands gentrification in Europe.
continue along the cycle path, past Azart plein, with the terminus loop of tram line 10. Continue to the last quayside (Suriname kade), and turn left. Across the water is the remaining industry of Amsterdam-Noord.
cycle along the Sumatra kade, past the new apartment blocks. Note the second block, the yellow ochre brick block 17-47. At first you think that all the blocks were individually designed. But you can see the yellow-brick block duplicated at 245-275, at 853-891, and again at 1253-1293. This trick is repeated throughout the Java-eiland development, few of the blocks are unique.
turn left around the last block, onto the new bridge (Jan Schaefer Brug, 2001) with a view of the IJ. It ends under a renovated 1930's warehouse, De Zwyger.
go straight on, under the rail line, crossing the new tram line to IJburg. (In fact you crossed it already - it runs in tunnel under the dock basin with the undulating bridge).
continue past the blocks of Kattenburg, an early urban-renewal project (1960's clear-and-rebuild). On the right is the long wall of the Amsterdam naval base. This part of Amsterdam, the eastern islands, was used for shipyards and naval facilities since the 17th century. The main base of the Dutch navy was moved to Den Helder in Napoleonic times.
pass the Maritime museum, Scheepvaartmuseum. After the museum, the road turns right, and you can see Centraal Station and the St Nicolaas church, where you started.
cross a canal bridge, and stop at the curved metal ARCAM building (architecture centre). Turn right, down the road beside the ARCAM, onto the lower quay.
cycle along the quayside, built around the entrance ramp of the IJ-tunnel. A museum collection of small ships is moored here. The science education centre NEMO is built over the tunnel entrance itself. (If the roof is open, you can lock your bike to the rack, and go up the stairs for the view).
continue along this quayside, to the rear of the NEMO building. Visible ahead are the Amsterdam cruise terminal PTA and the new music centre. The two concrete towers are for ventilation of the IJ-tunnel, the corresponding pair in Amsterdam-Noord is also visible.
go up the steps, and around the NEMO building to the steel-tube arch cycle bridge. Cross this bridge toward the Oosterdokseiland redevelopment project. (The site was formerly the postal complex of Centraal Station). The Stedelijk Museum is temporarily located here, while its own building is being renovated.
turn left along the road, past the new public library (2007), and go straight on to the front of Centraal Station, the end point of this route.
