IJburg is a set of islands Amsterdam poured into the IJmeer because it ran out of land, and walking it is the closest you'll come to watching a city decide to exist. Four kilometres across made ground, best in the afternoon, when the light off the water is the only thing here older than the buildings.
Take tram 26 out and get off to cross the Enneüs Heermabrug on foot — two steel arches the city calls 'the bra', and you'll see why. On Haveneiland, the main island, walk the grid toward the water; every plot was let to a different architect, so the street changes house by house. Down to the Bert Haanstrakade and its marina cafés, then over to Steigereiland and the Waterbuurt, Marlies Rohmer's houses floating on concrete hulls in a calmed pool. Walk the jetties like a street; people live on them.
End in the Diemerpark, and be honest about what it is: a capped landfill, sealed and remediated, opened as a park in 2004 and since gone gloriously wild. Ninety hectares of rough green over a buried past. Tram 26 takes you home from the IJburglaan.
