Amsterdam's western harbour spent a century shipping timber and grain, and is now the most argued-over new address in the city — which makes it a good place to walk and take sides. Three and a half kilometres along reclaimed dock water, best in the evening, when the IJ goes the colour of pewter and the towers light up one window at a time.
Start at the Silodam, MVRDV's housing block that looks like a container ship someone forgot to unload — a stack of coloured boxes, every floor different. Beside it, the original grain silos still stand, converted to flats; walk the gap between them and you've walked a hundred years. North to the Pontsteiger, the horseshoe tower with the sky punched clean through it. You don't need to hunt for the viewpoint inside; standing under the arch as it frames the water does the work.
Then out onto the Houthavens islands — boardwalks, bridges, new brick — and round to REM Eiland, the 1964 pirate-television platform now standing on legs over the harbour as a restaurant. Land on the Danzigerkade, where the new west runs straight into the working docks, and catch the bus from there.
