Eastern Docklands: Java-eiland to the IJ
Four dug canals, nine letter-bridges, the Piraeus block, and a round building on the point. Walked and written by the editor. https://walkwalk.org/amsterdam/walks/java-eiland-and-knsm

1. Azartplein
The square where tram 7 turns around, and the seam between the two piers. Start here; you'll come back to the same spot, so there's no wrong direction — west onto Java first, then back along KNSM.

2. Java-eiland canals
Sjoerd Soeters cut this pier into five with four narrow canals, and the nine little bridges across them — by the artists Guy Rombouts and Monica Droste — each spell out a letter you can read if you know the alphabet they invented. Cross a few; the trick only works on foot.

3. Piraeus building
Kollhoff and Rapp's vast brick block, a *superblok* of 300-odd flats wrapped around a hidden courtyard, finished in 1994. Walk its full length and look for the kink in the plan where the old harbour line refused to be straight.

4. Barcelonaplein
The ceremonial entry to KNSM-laan — a great steel gate of a square, all docklands swagger. Stand under it and look down the boulevard; the whole pier was planned as one long room and this is the door.

5. KNSM-laan warehouses
The spine of the island, a wide straight run with the old shipping-company warehouses reworked into flats either side. Keep east; the boulevard is taking you to the water on purpose.

6. Emerald Empire and the eastern point
Jo Coenen's round building — flats in a drum, water villas ringed around it — sits on the very tip where the *IJ* meets the canal. Walk out to the point. The view is all working water; this is where the walk has been heading.

Eastern Docklands: Java-eiland to the IJ